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Protective mud


1935Packard

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My 1935 Packard is a mostly original car, and one area that has never been touched is the underbody and chassis.   My grandfather bought the car in 1942 and never touched the underbody;  I've had the car for the last 11 years and never touched it, either.   Most of it has a light surface rust, together with some areas where you can still see the original tan paint and other areas where you can see the 1978 silver paint that was just spray painted on with no cleaning at all.   But there are some areas with old patches of mud on the frame that have been dried on for decades.  I know this because several areas of the dried mud have the 1978 silver paint painted on top of them, so they must have been old by 1978 -- old enough that the prior painter just lazily spray-painted over them. 

 

Anyway, yesterday I tried cleaning up one area of mud that was painted over with the 1978 paint.  A power-washer didn't help, but after getting it wet and letting it soak for a while I was able to peel the dirt off with the flat edge of a large screwdriver.   The neat thing was that when I removed the dried mud, the chassis underneath was in very nice condition: Zero rust, and the original black chassis paint.  Here's the spot, partly cleaned up:

 

 361446849_ScreenShot2018-11-09at1_43_21PM.thumb.png.a8bbe028ca912bf38ad22086756606cb.png

 

And here's some of the vintage mud I removed, almost an inch thick in places and with some silver 1978 paint still visible : 

 

1055973559_ScreenShot2018-11-09at1_45_15PM.png.996edfa9b371dfb972532029d8fddfb2.png

 

Now that's some protective mud!  Too bad it wasn't covering the whole chassis, though.

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5 minutes ago, Xander Wildeisen said:

Your car will go faster now that you have shed that extra weight. Save the mud, you can sell it to someone wanting that original/unrestored look.

 

That's right on both counts.  These days, "barn-find" mud, dirt, dust, droppings (of any kind) and universal crud are in high demand for that "original, untouched, just-found" look.  There's gold in that thar mud!

 

Cheers,

Grog

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That ain't mud, it's redneck undercoating. "Back in the day" many new car owners would go to the muddiest, stickiest road they could find to intentionally get a layer of protective mud on their car. They would repeat it every fall before the roads were salted. 

 

Don

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1 hour ago, keiser31 said:

Do 1935 Packards have mechanical brakes?

 

Yes, the senior cars do -- vacuum-assisted mechanical brakes.  Packard didn't switch to hydraulic brakes on the senior cars until 1937, I believe.

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I specifically remember a BMW 328 (the 1930s version, not the late model) pulled out of a barn by RM auctions at the height of "barn find" mania. They had cleared a small spot on the windshield so the guy behind the wheel could see where he was going. But in what I thought was the ultimate in stupidity regarding "authentic deterioration" they saved the dirt they removed from the windshield in a little baggie so it could be reapplied by the new owner, who surely wanted to pretend that it was he who found the car and dragged it out of its tomb.

 

I'd be careful about removing too much simply because you just don't know what you're going to find. Most likely it's solid and in good order, but if it's not, now you've got a decision to make: take it all off and fix what you find or live with it even though you now know there are issues. Are you able to do either of those things? It's how many a frame-off restoration gets started...

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 I think that vintage mud probably contains a lot of dripping oil and grease deposited over the years that kept the frame rust free.

 I have been reconditioning trucks for sale for over 50 years and 

have noticed that in the first twenty years, the oily mud was much thicker as nobody ever cleaned the underside of them.

 In recent years however, the DOT does not like a oily frame and I never see the mud anymore, or the oil.

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On 11/10/2018 at 7:44 AM, Matt Harwood said:

 

I'd be careful about removing too much simply because you just don't know what you're going to find. Most likely it's solid and in good order, but if it's not, now you've got a decision to make: take it all off and fix what you find or live with it even though you now know there are issues. Are you able to do either of those things? It's how many a frame-off restoration gets started...

 

That was the biggest mud area, so not much more to remove.   As for issues, if they're safety-related or reliability-related I take care of them; if they're just cosmetic, I leave them alone.  I've had the car for 11 years and put around 9K miles on the car without trying to clean up down there, so I doubt I would want to have anything done to it.  And while from time to time I ponder getting the car repainted, I was fortunately cured of any interest in restoring the car after I talked to some folks at reputable shops and was quoted some likely restoration costs.   :)

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What I thought was mud on the bottom of my  un-restored 35 Ford pickup, was not mud!  A farm

truck from Wisconsin was apparently a Dairy Farm truck.  When I drive in the rain or hose it off

underneath the aroma of the dairy farm can still be enjoyed.

793250771_CoverShot.thumb.jpg.7a3cf1d519d6bd69e92065570ee39734.jpg

Edited by Paul Dobbin
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When I started restoring my 32' Olds and removed the body, the chassis, mainly the cross members, and the front of the rear differential all around the input shaft area was covered with oily greasy dirt to the tune of 11 pounds total. The insides of the engine pans had 4 pounds themselves. Under the greasy oily dirt was perfect glossy black paint and those areas had zero pitting or rust. Literally those areas were in brand new condition. 

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The mud might be there for a reason, but it might not be mud. Mud is water and dirt.

 In 1992 I bought a 1962 Pontiac Catalina from it's original owner who bought the car from Mike Salta Pontiac in Long Beach Ca. The original owner was from the Philippines. The original owner told me he put the dirt there on purpose to preserve the car and help keep it from rusting. " SAY WHAT????" The original owner said that in the PI rust was a big problem with cars and he learned from his dad that after buying a new car you buy a few gallons of motor oil and spray the whole underside of the car. With the whole underside of the car dripping wet with oil you drive the car in the nearest field aggressively and let the dirt stick to the oil. When it dries it's just like undercoating. Well when I pressure washed the undersides it cleaned up just about like a car with undercoating on it. I had to clean it by hand.

 

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