underbody and chassis painting questions

[dapbmw]

i am doing a color change on the '73 i am restoring now, i will strip all the paint on top should i strip the paint in the underbody too and paint it body color or should i use por-15, marine undercoating paint or rustoleum?

[Jaycen_PNW2002]

I believe the underbody was shot with grey/white undercoating.

Really nice restorations paint the underbody to match. Do what you want.

Removing the factory undercoating is a horrible job. If the floors are sound I would just go over the top with fresh Wurth undercoating.

-Jaycen

[chad]

I had my 64 MGB on its top, striped it down, and POR 15 and used a good rubberized undercoating and for my 510 I cleaned the surface really well and re-under coated it. I am in the process of doing the same with my 2002. If it’s going to be a driver I would do something similar. Good luck.

[Mike Self]

body color, so if you're going for true authenticity,that's what they should be.

If the original schutz is intact (make sure there's no rust underneath, it can hide very effectively), just clean it thoroughly, then scuff it up with coarse steel wool or a Scotchbrite pad and squirt new paint over it. So long as the schutz isn't breached, it's a very effective undercoating.

mike

[kris]

Dave I wire brushed the underbody to remove the Moil and loose undercoating, and then used POR15 and Wurth High Build undercoating to complete the underbody...mind you my car is black so the original color was not an issue. My understanding is that the wells should be body color and the underbody was undercoated grey.

[bmw_jeff]

My '67 is all orignal under there, and it is painted the body color. I would go with the body color for yours if possible, unless its purely a driver and will never be a full resto/show car (even for a next owner).

[dlhoovler]

Same deal--body color underneath on my early '71. One of my projects when I get back to the States is to scrape off some loose undercoating, POR-15 what's exposed, then re-undercoat things. I really hope I don't find too much rot under the flaking undercoat.

-Dave

[bmw_jeff]

Wow Dave, you have an 02 in China? I'm surprised there is any surviving 02's there. I was in China for 3 weeks last year (all over) and I did not see any older cars (70's or earlier) of any make. How did you get that there. did you bring it in?

[dlhoovler]

Wow Dave, you have an 02 in China? I'm surprised there is any surviving 02's there. I was in China for 3 weeks last year (all over) and I did not see any older cars (70's or earlier) of any make. How did you get that there. did you bring it in?

Nope; no '02 here. The car is in my mom's garage in Pennsylvania. The work on the car is being saved up for when I return to the States.

I haven't seen any older cars here either. Especially in our smaller city, I haven't seen anything more than about 5 or 10 years old (though it's hard to tell on some of the domestic tin-can hatchbacks--they tend to deteriorate pretty fast, especially if given mediocre maintenance). Of course, if you think about it, auto imports from West Germany weren't a big priority here in the late '60s and early '70s...

-Dave