Underside color?

Hi!

        The Mopar cars of that time sometimes(Depended which car and which factory!)Had some primer overspray on the lower under panels sometimes even on suspension components. Now, there's this too! Are you building showroom new, on  the road for a while or a Museum, Car Show Trailer Queen!. I at one time got dinged for the lack of primer overspray and all I did was a showroom new Challenger!

      So That's on you. There were some components that had a somewhat metallic Gold or Brass kinda look to them.Now where I lived, if you bought a new Mopar, It came from the dealer with a thin tarry overcoat all over underneath to help stave off deterioration from Road Salt!  T.B.

Tanker-Builder

Hi!

        The Mopar cars of that time sometimes(Depended which car and which factory!)Had some primer overspray on the lower under panels sometimes even on suspension components. Now, there's this too! Are you building showroom new, ont eh road for a while or a Museum, Car Show Trailer Queen!. I at one time got dinged for the lack of primer overspray and all I did was a showroom new Challenger!

      So That's on you. There were some components that had a somewhat metallic Gold or Brass kinda look to them.Now where I lived, if you bought a new Mopar, It came from the dealer with a thin tarry overcoat all over underneath to help stave off deterioration from Road Salt!  T.B.

 

To be honest, I do my builds to please myself, but I still like to have some degree of accuracy. To me it appears many of the owners of classic/restored cars do what they feel is good for them and may not always be "factory fresh". I kind of lean to the showroom side of things, though someday I would love to do an aged vehicle like a pick-up. There is a certain charm to an old rusty chevy truck that's still on the road or perhaps one sitting in the feild near a farm house.

I know one time I got dinged on a tank I built because the camo pattern was off. I had very little experience doing tanks and was discouraged by the response I received.

When I build a car that I plan to show, I usually build a custom so that I can paint the colors I want, no wear and tear, no overspray. When it's for me, I tend to overspray a little body color on to the frame and a smidgeon of wear and tear.

Stay safe.

Jim 

Around here many/most cars had undercoat back then, an up charge sprayed on at the dealership. FWIW, they rotted anyway, sometimes worse ! But I owned a 67 Mustang GT fastback and the underside was red oxide primer, with hints of body color overspray. I consider that quite accurate for Fords, as most old Ford trucks I worked on were the same. But the primer was harder than your average hand spray gun Red Oxide nitro lacquer. Maybe a baked enamel, that I'm unsure of.

Chrysler products, I believe had grey primer.

It was common for Chevy/GM to have undercoat sprayed at least in the wheel wells used as sound deadening.

I live in NE, first in the hills, then coastal NE. I remember a lot of surface rust under cars back then. 2 YO cars on the underside looked 10 years old. Buy 10 years, you had to look at the underside pretty hard to find one that didn't belong in the junk yard for recycle. If not even at the outside, around Chrome strips, headlights etc. Sad but true. The hils are bad enough with heavey road salt and later calcium chloride. But coatal communities never get a break, even in the summer fog is sea salt permiated, sea air if the wind is right, and still road salt in the winter.

Hi Fox!

 Well, see that's me. I will build pristine with shiny frame and suspension parts because that is the way I like it. "Trailer Queen"s, Oh well if that's what it is that's what it is, I'll just make sure that is in my show description, This is a "Trailer Queen!"  You know what? I don't remember a lot of undercoat on any of the stock autos at the yearly intro shows either! And we are talking all the brands!

I often use semi-gloss black for underside.