[rick60]

A coworker inherited a '46 Pontiac. It is a low mileage, original condition car. He stated that the underside of the car was sprayed with white lead many years ago. This was a form of rust protection. I've heard of white lead, but don't really know what it is. Can someone tell me what white lead is? What it's use was/is? How it can be safely removed from the car without damaging the car? Thanks.

[49 plymouth]

Hi I have use white lead in the marine ind, it is still some times used on classic boats, but very hard to get hold of, White lead is a past rather like the putty you would use for fixing glass in a window frame, all old paint was made up using lead, so it is most lightly that you have a rich lead based white paint rather like red lead primer, this was offten use to protect metal, and as a base coat. To remove it (if you must) you should use paint remover, if you sand it the lead dust is hard to control or if you use a heat gun you will release the lead which can be very harmfull to you, If you remove it with paint remover you can collect it up into a old paint tin and most city dumps have days when you can take old paint ect. You will need to wash the paint remover off 100% and get the car primed asap

[rick60]

Thanks very much for the information. I'll pass it along to the owner.