Underbody poll

[Rdchallenger]

Curious as to what everyone has done or would have done different or preferred when it came to doing the underside of the car.

Paint body color

Black undercoating for protection

Tented undercoating like Raptor for protection but also giving the same look as painted.

[anlauto]

You left out the most common one these day which is "The grey dip" colour with factory style body colour over spray coming in from the sides.

IN MY OPINION.....I like this look, and although it's incorrect, I prefer to leave off all signs of "undercoating". Reason being...If it's a show car driver as I like to call them, by that I mean it's clean enough to show off at any cruise night or National show, but yet very much a driver and has never seen a trailer...then with no undercoating it's MUCH easier to keep clean...a simple damp cloth and wipe down the wheel wells, underside, etc....

With black undercoat in the wheel wells, one trip in the rain and it's ruined, almost impossible to get that fresh black look back. Starts looking dull and dirty pretty quick.

Yes you open yourself up to stone chips...but hey...they're in the wheel wells  Once a year, go in there and touch them up...

[Rdchallenger]

You left out the most common one these day which is "The grey dip" colour with factory style body colour over spray coming in from the sides.

IN MY OPINION.....I like this look, and although it's incorrect, I prefer to leave off all signs of "undercoating". Reason being...If it's a show car driver as I like to call them, by that I mean it's clean enough to show off at any cruise night or National show, but yet very much a driver and has never seen a trailer...then with no undercoating it's MUCH easier to keep clean...a simple damp cloth and wipe down the wheel wells, underside, etc....

With black undercoat in the wheel wells, one trip in the rain and it's ruined, almost impossible to get that fresh black look back. Starts looking dull and dirty pretty quick.

Yes you open yourself up to stone chips...but hey...they're in the wheel wells  Once a year, go in there and touch them up...

I knew I was forgetting a choice when I hit post 

[torredcuda]

You left out the most common one these day which is "The grey dip" colour with factory style body colour over spray coming in from the sides.

IN MY OPINION.....I like this look, and although it's incorrect, I prefer to leave off all signs of "undercoating". Reason being...If it's a show car driver as I like to call them, by that I mean it's clean enough to show off at any cruise night or National show, but yet very much a driver and has never seen a trailer...then with no undercoating it's MUCH easier to keep clean...a simple damp cloth and wipe down the wheel wells, underside, etc....

With black undercoat in the wheel wells, one trip in the rain and it's ruined, almost impossible to get that fresh black look back. Starts looking dull and dirty pretty quick.

Yes you open yourself up to stone chips...but hey...they're in the wheel wells  Once a year, go in there and touch them up...

Not sure it`s the most common one, most cars I see being "restored" are painted full body color underneath or undercoated. I painted my Barracudas underside body color but when I re-do it this year I`m going to undercoat/ Lizardskin the whole thing as the paint gets chipped up and oily/dirty and doesn`t look that nice now. My road runner ont he other hand is going more stock resto and will be more correctly done with gray primer and overspray.

[70 Challenger Lover]

I know the body color look on the underside is common in show cars but to me it looks overdone since the factory never made it look that nice. So many cars came originally with heavy undercoat so that look is an acceptable factory look today. Personally, I think the underside, and wheel wells especially, should be blacked out with undercoat so that the exterior color stands out more. I like the protection undercoat offers too. Of the rust I've repaired, it's generally in an area that wasn't heavily undercoated.

[HEMICUDA]

First, the "body shutz" in the wheel well is not undercoating, it's sound deadener (much harder material that can be cleaned) and a totally different material.  Its purpose is when you're driving and pick up a stone in the tread of your tire and throw it up in the well, it doesn't "ding".  I never restore a car without body shutz in the wells, not only for the functionality, I'm not a big fan of seeing body color behind the wheels.  You have two ways of applying body shutz, have the parts on the car when it is applied to get the "overspray" look or mask off and only cover the well itself. 

[Cuda_mark]

You left out the most common one these day which is "The grey dip" colour with factory style body colour over spray coming in from the sides.

IN MY OPINION.....I like this look, and although it's incorrect, I prefer to leave off all signs of "undercoating". Reason being...If it's a show car driver as I like to call them, by that I mean it's clean enough to show off at any cruise night or National show, but yet very much a driver and has never seen a trailer...then with no undercoating it's MUCH easier to keep clean...a simple damp cloth and wipe down the wheel wells, underside, etc....

With black undercoat in the wheel wells, one trip in the rain and it's ruined, almost impossible to get that fresh black look back. Starts looking dull and dirty pretty quick.

Yes you open yourself up to stone chips...but hey...they're in the wheel wells  Once a year, go in there and touch them up...

This is how I'm doing mine.

[Rich G.]

That's a tough question depending on what you're looking for. I painted the bottom of my Cuda and it's been caught in lite rain, heavy rain and it's been around 6 years and about 3K miles on it. Very easy to keep clean and nothing really hits it to mess it up. I did have a leak in the clutch m/c that ate a little trail of paint that kills me and one day I'll touch that up. Undercoating is great for protection as anyone who scraped off that stuff knows that the metal under it is usually perfect. If I were to undercoat a car I would take a picture of the painted or primed floor to show that you're not hiding any rust or rot that some people like to hide. Lizard Skin on the inside of the floor sounds like I good idea.

[anlauto]

It's all a matter of personal choice, we know how and why the factory did what they did. I've had a lot of customer's, and a lot seem to be on the fence about whether or not there's body colour showing in the wheels wells. 

If a customer wants undercoat or, "sound deadener" if you prefer, RestoRick sell a decent quality representation of what the factory used. 

Lately I can't remember the last car that I shot the wheel wells with it for sure the majority of my customer's want body colour showing, and like I mentioned it's a lot easier to keep clean for the cars that get driven. 
As for the wheel wells....added the undercoat later is very easy to do as well.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Mine is lizard skin thermal coated from half of the firewall all the way back. I should have top coated the lizard skin [lesson learned] but I'm not too big of a fan of body color down there. At least for a car I own.


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[BIGSHCLUNK]

Body schutz on NIKKI.... along with a million other mods......

[750-h2]

In my opinion if you are doing an OE type restoration the only way to do the undercarriage is with the gray primer followed by body colour overspray. For me cars with body colour inner fender wells look unfinished.   

[Rdchallenger]

I forgot to mention.. personally I'm debating going with black Raptor lining or the tintable kind to match the body color of the car.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I forgot to mention.. personally I'm debating going with black Raptor lining or the tintable kind to match the body color of the car.

I raptor lined my interior panels [tinted yellow] and wheel wells and am happy with the product. I really wanted to do the inside of the front fenders to keep rocks from starring the paint from impacting the inside of the panel and would do it again.

Make sure you get the tint done properly, I believe raptor requires you do not include "binders" and perhaps something else in the color. Also, take a paint chip and get the shop to tint the liner to your liking, my yellow is not quite a good match due to the fairly dark grey starting point. It works for me, but I'd push the match a little more had I known better.

I would highly recommend the lizard skin thermal coating under the raptorliner. I feel strongly that it makes a huge difference in the thermal insulation on my car. I lizard skin'd it from halfway up the firewall all the way back and the underside of the roof. Good stuff.

[Cuda_mark]

In my opinion if you are doing an OE type restoration the only way to do the undercarriage is with the gray primer followed by body colour overspray. For me cars with body colour inner fender wells look unfinished.   

Here is a pic of how mine looks.