What Paint for Underneath?

A

andyleonard

Member
I have a '38 Phaeton that is an unrestored driver. I was under the car today and would like to seal or paint the floor and undercarriage parts. I am familiar with Por15, Rustoleum,, etc. but what would the right thing to do to maintain the originality and seal the metal at the same time? I'm not going to disassemble the car, sandblast everything and reassemble it. I'm looking for something to spray/brush on. There is surface rust only. The car has never been touched or undercoated and the metal is 100%. Was it painted originally?

Thanks.
 
I have done several cars that way and used Rustoleum. Semi gloss black on the frame and a color that comes close to the body color. You can remove the little nozzle button in the spray cap and insert one of those little red "straws" that come with WD-40 in the nozzle hole. This allows you to control the width of the spray and gets the paint way back into tight areas. Cut up peices of cardboard to put over the frame to keep the black from getting on the floor. If you don't care about color you can just do the whole bottom black. G.M.
 
Hey G.M. that is great idea about using a red straw from WD oil can. I'm going to give it a try , Thanks for the tip.








alan
 
I've used Rustoleum many times over the years. I brush it on and it is slow drying and levels very well. One of the nice things about it is you can touch up easily years later with little or no separation line noticable. I drive my 34pu a lot and the undercarriage get messy. Spray it off, dry, and touch up is easy. Rustoleum is still oil based but many are turning to a water base. The oil base penetrates well also.
 
So...the underneath sheetmetal was originally painted the same color as the exterior...and the running gear was originally black?
 
andyleonard said:
I have a '38 Phaeton that is an unrestored driver. I was under the car today and would like to seal or paint the floor and undercarriage parts. I am familiar with Por15, Rustoleum,, etc. but what would the right thing to do to maintain the originality and seal the metal at the same time? I'm not going to disassemble the car, sandblast everything and reassemble it. I'm looking for something to spray/brush on. There is surface rust only. The car has never been touched or undercoated and the metal is 100%. Was it painted originally?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Even though you will not be sand blasting it, DO spray or brush on OSPH to neutralize the rust. You can then paint over the top of it.
 
If memory serves, Ospho leaves a black finish. Is that all I need to do right now? I'm still trying to find out if the underneath wants a body color or not.
 
I have a '37 todor I am restoring and when I took down the gas tank the
original pant was on the under side of the body and it looked like the color of red oxide.
Is there a book out on the '39 to get the correct information... any one know?
 
I once posted on the old Barn asking about color of the underbody and the answer I got was "red oxide primer."
 
the original finish of the underside of the floor can be red primer or the original body color paint.
 
So, it would seem that the right thing to do is paint with red oxide primer and either quit there or put some color under there when I get the color out. Right?

Should I put the rust neutralizer under the primer or just put the primer on the rust?
 
If you use red oxide primer you will have to cover it with paint because primer like that will not seal the metal by itself .
But, there is other sealed type primers by people like "RM" and "PPG" and others that will seal, and looks like the color of red oxide and will look like what came on your car from the factory with out covering it with a top coat.
If you are going to paint a top coat over the primer than use what you like as the material I spoke of above is a bit costly.
And I would use the rust neutralizer or something like that first.
 
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