Opinions on undercoating the entire floor

[68OntBee]

I am building a 68 super bee. I'm replacing the trunk and passenger side floor pans. The rest is in good condition but needs to be cleaned up. Instead of painting the underneath, what's everyone's thoughts on undercoating everything?

 

[Kern Dog]

I love the look of a cars underbody painted the same color as the car.
The guys at Graveyard Cars seem to do what you’re suggesting and while I understand the appeal, I don’t like it as much. It is hard to keep looking nice if you drive the car during rain or snow. That will wash off a painted surface but stick to the textured undercoating.

 

[MoparLeo]

Undercoating is not a paint replacement. It is to help protect the painted surface and deaden road noise.
If you are asking about undercoating instead of stripping the bottom and painting like when the car was built,
that is up to you.
Like prepping for paint on the topside. The better the prep, the better the finished product.
How many times are you going to clean and prep the bottom side ? Only once hopefully.
If you are looking for ultimate protection from rust etc.. Bedliner products like Lizardskin are the way to go. But once you apply it, it is hell to remove.

 

[RR Fan Dan]

My car is under restoration. We stripped the undercoating and are not going to replace it. The body shop did not recommend undercoating as it is a moisture trap. Dynomat on the inside. All weld seams and pinch welds sealed and then epoxy primer and paint.

 

[Darrah]

I'm a fan of tinted undercoating on cars that'll get used and you're not trying to do an absolute restoration on. I used tintable undercoating on the truck I'm restoring for my son, and it turned out great (tinted with the same basecoat I'm shooting on the body). I did inner fenders, floor pan, even the lower rockers. Kind of the best of both worlds.

 

[Cranky]

If it adds weight to the car, I'm against it but I am in favor of sealing up ALL openings in the frame etc.

 

[Runcharger]

My opinion: You want to seal the metal from moisture and protect it from rock bruises removing a coating. You do not want to seal moisture and corrosion between a coating and the metal.
You want to thoroughly clean and prep all the metal underneath the car, then seal everything with epoxy primer well bonded to the metal. From there I would seal over the epoxy primer with a long lasting paint (you can make this look like factory primer if that floats your boat), then if you want to bedliner over that have at it. For a driver The bedliner makes sense.

 

[b-body-bob]

I'm a fan of tinted undercoating on cars that'll get used and you're not trying to do an absolute restoration on. I used tintable undercoating on the truck I'm restoring for my son, and it turned out great (tinted with the same basecoat I'm shooting on the body). I did inner fenders, floor pan, even the lower rockers. Kind of the best of both worlds.

My car has tinted undercoating and it's so thick I can't install the emergency brake cable - gotta get all that off there or there's no room for the clip.

 

[dadsbee]

So damn easy to wipe clean....

 

[68OntBee]

What type of paint did you use and what about prep work?

 

[dadsbee]

What type of paint did you use and what about prep work?

Same House of Kolors that is on the top side! Full prep like anything else...

 

[RT68440]

I just painted my Charger a couple of months ago and decided to paint the bottom side body color. I like the uniform look as well as ease of cleaning. I did gravel guard the front and rear wheel wells, but instead of undercoating I used Gravitex and then top coated it with semi gloss black paint. I mimicked the factory pattern in the front but made it a little neater. That way the wheel wells can be wiped out easy as well