In a message dated 6/23/08 11:08:41 AM, healeys-request@autox.team.net
writes:
> My opinion and solution - which I am about to do on my car, which has been
> painted recently in a primrose yellow, is to just wire brush the undersides
> that are visible - wheel wells, underside panels, etc and brush paint them
> all
> with a thickish black underseal material that dries with a matt black rough
> finish - the kind you see on the underbody of new porsche 911 etc. This
> provides metal protection from stones/water/tar, looks visually better than
> chipped/dirty/discolored body color paint, and just looks more 'completed'.
> It looks like the underside of a car should look if it is driven and is not
> a
> trailer queen.
>
While your decision on what to do with your car is entirely your own, as an
appraiser, driver of a concours-restored BN7, and concours guy for many years,
I'd like to point out the downsides of undercoating any classic car.
First, as I'm sure others will point out, unless you have the facilities that
are used to undercoat the new 911s, it's almost inevitable that you're not
going to get a complete moisture-proof coverage of the car. The result will
eventually be trapped moisture and dirt leading to rust developing under the
undercoating, and spreading invisibly to eventually cause serious structural
safety
issues.
Second, the existence of undercoating on a car that is put up for sale (if
you don't, your heirs will) is to create questions and uncertainties on the
part
of the buyer ("Wonder what the seller was covering up? Did he get all the old
rust out before he painted on the undercoating? Has any rust developed since
he did the work (see above)?"). So the minute you paint on the undercoating,
you'll cut several thousand dollars out of the value of your car.
Third, sure it's difficult to keep up the appearance of the underside, and
keep down the rust; it's just part of the price we pay if we want to drive
these
cars. Remember, they were only ever built to last about five years or so
before being junked. There was neither budget nor concern for long-term
stability
(if there had been, they wouldn't have built in the moisture and dirt traps in
the front and rear of the rear wheelwells). The best answer is to carefully
clean the underside of the car once a year, and where you see rust or flaking
paint, wirebrush it and repaint it. Since you're not concerned about the car's
showability, no one is going to notice if the underside is eventually a
patchwork of differing shades of paint. It doesn't take much time to spray an
even
coat of body-color paint on the fender wells (the only parts that show) once
every few years.
IMHO, rust-coating is actually going to create more problems that it solves.
But, YMMV.
Cheers
Gary Anderson
**************
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