Undercarriage work

Need some help all. Restoring my 65 RIV and just stripped the outside body and working on the inside and about to move to the undercarriage. I am taking the outside to bare metal and will apply a 2 part Epoxy Primer. Also trying to remove as much rust from the inside of the panels and planned on spraying in Epoxy primer as well. I have alot of cleanup on the undercarriage. It appears someone sprayed the wheel tubs and other areas with what looks like and rubberized undercoating. This stuff is pretty brittle and can just pop it loose from the tubs. In the one photo you can see it has rusted out at the very top of the wheel tub. Once i get this cleaned off and fix the rust areas and replace the floor pans what would you suggest to put on the bottom of the undercarriage? I was really thinking of just doing several coats of the Epoxy Primer and a Flat Black Base coat. I notice alot of folks recommend this rubber coating but I am not impressed if its going to be like this stuff. Really worried what I will be uncovering.

The rubberized undercoating works well if you have prepped the surface. I have seen a few people go so far as to have bedliner material sprayed on by a bullet dealer or something similar. One guy had his whole 89 bronco painted in bedliner. I don't think i would ever go that far, but it still looks good after 10 years and he sure doesn't worry about people dinging his doors at the home depot parking lot. A few people i've seen use the chassis black coating from eastwood with good results. I have yet to do mine, but i think i am going to go with the chassis black or something similar.

What do you think of spraying it in Epoxy Primer and then have it sprayed with the bed liner stuff. I had a pickup once I had the bed sprayed and that stuff was hard as all get out. The only problem i am wondering those is flexibility since it is the undercarriage.

The flexibility and base coat of epoxy primer would be questions to ask the person spraying on the bedliner material.

There's really nothing wrong with the rubberized undercoating.

You want to uncover EVERYTHING before going ahead with whichever coating you choose. Any hidden rust will just keep expanding. Then you'll have big chunks of whatever falling off again - with new paint attached. I don't think epoxy primer is a rust inhibitor or converter. There are good products out there from Eastwood and others.

Ed

The Epoxy is a sealer suitable for bare metal. Thats why I was thinking of using it. I am not to sure about using the so called rust converters or inhibitor. Primer and Paint has been doing this for years and even it fails depending on a breach in the paint. These products all have to go on rust and you have to wire brush or sand the flaky rust off. If going to this trouble might as well sand to bare metal, prime, paint. I am curious how these cars will look in a few more years after these products have been used. The rubber undercoating has flaws from other forums that if a rock or something breaches it will be a place for rust to form and habitat under the rubber. I do like the idea of Devildog93 of the bedliner material. If i am correct this coating would be much harder. Maybe someone can advise on this and enlighten me.

I just spent quite a few hours with a needle scaler working the old undercoating off the inner fenders and bottom of my car. The places where I found rust were places that were not coated by the undercoating. I doubt if the force of a rock would breach this stuff seeing as what I had to go through with the pneumatic scaler. When I finally did get the undercoating off, the metal underneath still had good paint on it (the scaler can't get a grip on paint so it leaves it be.) Some self etching primer and a couple of coats of Rustoleum Satin and they look just like new. No more than I drive the car, I'll just leave it painted. As time goes by, I can keep an eye on things and look for 'breaches.' If I find any, a quick scruffing with a red scotchbrite pad and another shot of paint.

I agree that the factory undercoating was a PITA to remove. I only removed what was loose. The wheel wells did not release much of the factory undercoating so I left it alone after a few minutes of trying.

I wire wheeled the entire undercarriage, wiped it clean with paint prep, sprayed Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator & top coated that with U-Pol's Raptor Bed-Liner. To the touch, it seems to be a super tough coating. But I can not commit on the durability while driving due to the car still being built by yours truly.

The bedliner material is far superior to rubber undercoating both in appearance and durability, but unlike rubber undercoating, it must be

applied over a pristine clean surface or you will have adhesion problems later. You can't spray it over old rubberized undercoating or it will peel on you a few months later. Another thing I like about the bedliner material is that is truly black, while rubberized undercoating is actually dark

brown.

Thank you all. I am planning to clean the undercarriage and put an epoxy primer on. For the underside looking at some good Marine Epoxy for Steel Hulls. Also I found this really cool looking sound dampening material to spray. Only issue is it is off white and I have asked the question if it can be in black or topcoated black. Check the link out it has a video.

Silent Running SR1000 is a sound and vibration dampening paint specifically designed for marine applications. This unique marine coating absorbs noise and vibration, and converts it into low-grade heat which is dissipated throughout the surface its applied on. Apply SR1000 to replace conventional sound dampening materials, like heavy mats and wraps.SR1000 is a double coat, permanent coating with advanced adhesion promoters that work well on metal, fiberglass and wood. It may be rolled, brushed or sprayed on. Paint dries to a hard surface but withstands cracking and chipping from expanding and flexing of the applied surface.

This is also the first sound dampening paint in the marine industry to meet stringent U.S. Coast Guard requirements.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=11904&familyName=Silent+Running+SR1000+Marine+Coating

I have just finished doing the undercarriage of my '71, by far the dirtiest part of the entire restoration! As for using marine materials, a co-worker of mine wouldn't suggest it. He says there are different chemicals in that spray which inhibit algae growth, and who knows what else...plus marine materials are always over priced.

Here is the product I used for my undercoat. Just be sure to clean the surface with kerosene or some other light distillate, and wipe it off before it dries.

Here is what it looks like after being applied:

Nice. I actually just talked to this company and they have an automotive version. http://www.sr-car.com

I actually called the company up and purchased a 2 gallon kit with spray gun. Will report back in a few weeks when i see how this stuff does.

From your link, it looks like this coating will do the job. The fact that it is a water base material - should make clean up a very easy task !

For my '68 resto, I used the black rubberized rocker guard material with a 'shutz' gun, in a confined area and managed to get a lot of over spray on my brand new painted car.

Fortunately, it was fairly easy to remove while it was fresh, but it was an extra procedure I had not anticipated, and my 'new paint' finish was not harmed.

Fast forward 28 years, and it still looks as good as the day it was applied, and it has withstood the test of time quite well !!