Dart underbody paint

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afazio01

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I'm restoring a 69 dart. can anyone tell me what the underbody looked like from the factory? Was it actually the color of the car? or just black and undercoated. If it was the factory color, how much of it and what parts were?
If any of you guys have survivor cars with pictures of the underframe, it would really help.

Thanks,
Anthony
 
Can't say for sure about a dart but I would imagine it would be the same as my barracuda. Of course you had paint that was body colored in the engine bay and slightly into the tranny tunnel. This paint could also be on the frame rails in this area. The inside of the wheel wells was also painted body color. The actual bottom of the car was not painted. This was true from rocker to rocker and from trunk extension to trunk extension. There was some evidence to suggest that the metal had a zinc coating at one time. In other words, the car got painted where the paint guys could hit it, but there was no effort to actually paint the underside of the car. I also had undercoating inside the wheelwells and up on the frame rails inside the wheelwells. My car was not undercoated on the whole underside. My personal plan is part way done. I used a needle scaler to descale the underside and take off all the undercoating. The undercoating was that old black stuff that had hardened up. I have also seen(on my 69 Bee) some snot colored stuff that is still gooey. I will then media blast the underside(on a roto), expoxy primer the underside and hit it with single stage paint that will be body-colored. It looks nice, provides some rust protection, and if you mess up the underside, so what. I will also do this inside the engine bay. I have often heard that if you only have 2-3 runs in the engine bay, you did a better job than the factory. Hope this helps.
 
I have seen a lot of car with it the same color, I can not see my color because it is all under coated. I don't think they would have wasted their time painting the bottom a different color. Paint it the same color as the car, but make sure you base it with por15 or something similar.
 
The body was dipped in a vat of rustproofer/primer to about 6 inches from the bottom of the windows. Look at an old Mopar that the trim panels are missing and you will probably see a line like a highwater mark from Katrina.
During painting, any paint that was between the rocker panels was just overspray.
They shot undercoating in the wheelwells. If the car was coded for undercoating, they shot the bottom of the car (or most of it).
After a couple of years the undercoating dried out (like an old asphalt road in the desert) and left all sorts of nooks and crannies to retain moisture. It was more of a sound deadener that anything else.

As they say, drive your brand new Chrysler home, park it in the driveway and watch it rust!
A-Body owners will attest to that---tops of front fenders!
 
I am also restoring a 69 Dart.Mine is org,blue.She is blue everywere and I mean everywere.I am now removing dirt and grease.Then I plan on painting the under side, floors, the same as the ext of the car.cant aford the paint shop to do this for me so I will spray it my self with spray bombs.Good luck Bro.don Belleville Ont Canada.
 
Same here. I've got an unrestored 68 Dart and it's yellow everywhere.
 
Dipped in primer with body color over spray.

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