Undercarriage refinishing

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George R

George R

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Getting on with my 69 Dart resto, I'm at the point where I need to prep the undercarriage. Only problem is, I have no idea what the finish of the bottom of the floor etc was when the car left the factory. I scraped off about 1/8" of greasy crud, and it appears to have been blacked out, then sparingly painted in body color. The center of the car has very little if any, gold, and is mostly black.

What did the factory do when building the cars originally? Were the undercarriages blacked out prior to body paint, or was the body and undercarriage painted body color, then blacked out?
ANY help at all will be greatly appreciated!

George
69 Dart Swinger 340
 
mostly black with overspray along the edges. then after things were put on, they undercoated it, if specified.
 
redfastback said:
mostly black with overspray along the edges. then after things were put on, they undercoated it, if specified.
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Thanks Redfast.
I'll touch up the blackout, then I'll "dust" the edges with body color when I paint the body.

This is a California car so there was no undercoating applied.

Using truck bedliner or similar is a good idea, but I'm doing this car as a correct resto, so I want to duplicate the factory appearance.
 
Was you car and undercoating optioned car or not? That is on the build sheet and maybe the fender tag. Then you need to define the lines where the undercoating ended. All car have some undercoating.

Here is a Challenger T/A restored and owned by Troy the Westoaks Mopar Performance guy. Did everything but paint in his garage.

The car was low milage and original paint. Only the motor was messed with. So he had a great reference to duplicate and not make too many guesses.

This is a non undercoating car. Just because you bought a car in california, doesn't mean it didn't get undercoating. I think all A/C cars got undercoating. And it was part of the noise reduction package that included the underhood mat.

The car got various primers then paint. Last primer was grey. There was no black paint sprayed underneath the cars unless it was just under the rockers for certain cars.

a9_16_07TroyTA22.JPG


a9_16_07TroyTA15.JPG


a9_16_07TroyTA49.JPG
 
Steve--

It is a no undercoat car, except for the rear wheel wells. Its about 1/4" thick in there and it's going to stay there.

Under the car there is NO evidence anywhere, at all, of any color other than some light gold body color paint, that gets more black as you move towards the center of the car. There is no gray under there anywhere.

I am wondering if the front wheelwells are the same on Dart as you pic shows. Mine had blackout UNDER the upper control arm bushing when I removed it. I scraped the black off to find gold paint under that. I doubt, although its possible, that anyone removed the upper bumper to paint black under it. My entire wheelwell area was black as far as I can tell. The upper control arm was black, but the rest of the suspension had nothing on it at all.

Its also a no A/C car.

Thanks a LOT for those pix, and for your input!

George
 
George R said:
Thanks Redfast.
I'll touch up the blackout, then I'll "dust" the edges with body color when I paint the body.

This is a California car so there was no undercoating applied.

Using truck bedliner or similar is a good idea, but I'm doing this car as a correct resto, so I want to duplicate the factory appearance.
Click to expand...
Hey George -
I had a '69 340 Swinger that I bought used in very late 1969. It was also a California car originally purchased in Whittier, CA. Although it was a 'no-undercoat' car, it was undercoated in the rear wheelwells only. I specifically remember that because as I went though it to lighten it as much as possible for some street action (back then), I didn't touch the original wheelwell undercoating because it put a little extra weight right over the rear tires.
(yeah, I was really 'anal' about it back then)
 
Thanks OC. That quantifies the rear wheelwell undercoating!
What did the little 340 do in the 1/4 if you can remember?

My brother had a red/black auto in 73 or so. I remember it as a kid, and thought it was the coolest thing on wheels with a black HEMI hood!

Thanks for the reply.

George
 
I still think someone sprayed black underneath your car. Why would the factory bother painting it a different color under there? Is the black undre the car on top or underneath the gold??

A far out possibility would be the factory started to paint that car black by mistake, then completed it in gold as the fender tag and build sheet said to. You'd see traces of black probably under the gold in other areas too though.

My 68Barracuda has much more exterior color overspray on it than that T/A. But you can see the grey primer more near the trans tunnel when you chip away the undercoating. My 68 Barracuda 340-S is an undercoating car.

That T/A pictured above is a non undercoating car. All cars got some undercoating in the front wheel houses like the above pictures. Some of reason is just to not show the exterior color in the wheel wells when you look at it from the side. Just like the black out painted behind the front grilles.

There is a OE restored 69 Dart Swinger out there. I heard it was just at SEMA. That would be a great car for you to reference stuff for your restoration. I don't have a link to the pictures of that car. You should be able to find pictures of it on the net.
 
autoxcuda said:
I still think someone sprayed black underneath your car. Why would the factory bother painting it a different color under there? Is the black undre the car on top or underneath the gold??
Click to expand...
It seems as though the black is applied first, then the gold on top of that. Like I said earlier, there is more gold at the edges of the undercarriage, and way less as you move toward the center of the car.

You've pieked my interest now, and I will explore the area further and report back what I find.

I would love to find an unrestored 69 Dart somewhere so I can take notes, but this car was not really messed with too much other than the exterior paint, and the engine compartment paint. There are still blue inspection marks on the pinion flange of the diffy.

Thank you so much for your input.

Well, its 6AM Saturday morning and I couldn't wait any longer so I slid the creeper under the car with some cleaner and a towel. I went to the center of the car and the top of the driveshaft tunnel and cleaned off an area about 5x5. Its is without a doubt, semi gloss black under the crud. It looks just like the black color used on the heater fan motor; same shade of black.

George
 
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