Underside of car: body color or black?
 

I plan to drive my Camaro when fiinished so I know the obvious choice would be black for sanitary reasons. I would prefer to paint it body color for detail and contrast. I know rock chips would so more as well. I thought I read here somewhere about a 3M clearcoat treatment to help prevent damage. Does anyone else remember it being mentioned in a thread? What are your opinions on this issue if you had the choice. Thanks.

Mike

I really don't see the point in matching the top paint with the underside. I plan to do a undercoating like Line-X or something. If that is deemed too expensive, I would just go with black. With maybe a chipguard in it.

There is no point other than I am anal about detail and body color since it will be red would show much more detail rather than hide the work. I plan to line-x the inside floor for sound deadning.

Mike

Its your call. You are right, the body color will emphasize the work underneith a bit more, but it makes for more cleaning too. If you look there are a mix on the site I am sure you have been checking pics, some cars do some dont.

The chevelle Scott and Jody drove on tour had body color underside, and they drove it alot.

Do what you want, it is your car, and itll look good either way.

Tim

Roarvette, tough and colorful
 

On the Roarvette, I am going to use a product called Hippo Liner. It is available from Glue Products, and probably other places as well. 1-800-771-1863. It is a truck bed liner material. The part # BCYH is around $75.00 and I will need two packages to do the entire bottom of the Roarvette. The best part, is that it can be mixed with 6 oz. of polyurethane paint to get a color match. I plan on doing a dark grey, to contrast the silver powdercoat on the chassis, and the dark silver that I am planning to use on the body.
The firewall and inner wheel wells will be the same dark grey, but will be smooth and painted. The bottom will be same color but truck bed liner. This seems like a great way to have your cake and eat it too. It goes on with brush roller or undercoating gun.
I'll be spraying mine in the next month or so.

Roarvette

Body color :thumbsup: it can always be touched up down the road.

I am not looking for someone to make up my mind, just other people opinions. I will porbably be argueing with myself right up to putting paint in the gun. :willy:

Mike

It just looks soooo good
 

Another body color vote. :D

Is your wheelwells blue or black? That is probably the reason I am undecided is the wheel wells. I don't want to touch them up!

Mike

Do you intend to do any wheelies with it? :D

IMHO, it all depends on the car and the color. There has to be some contrast, like body-color floors, with black framerails/suspension goodies.

Also, any bright or light colors look horrid if they are visible through the grille, in the wheelwells, or hang below the rocker panels... just my opinion though. :willy:

That's Don's car, Mike. Jody would know the answer to that one.

I'd do the tubs and inner fenders in semi-flat black or just undercoat them.

Car will be red, as if that is a rare color :rolleyes: . My car rolled out the door Bolero Red.

Core support is going black, wheelwells is my issue, nothing is below the rockers, not the subframe or the floorpans. :unibrow:

I have about decided to paint it low gloss black like edp coatings. It will make life very simple.

Mike

i vote for black underbody.

The best way to do it is to assemble the whole bottom of the car to make sure you have covered all the holes you need to drill and mods needed.

Then take it all apart.

Next...

Spray the rear frame rails in POR 15 frame black. Mask them off. Spray the entire belly in bed liner material. Mask off the wheel wells. Spray the belly in body color. Pull the masking off the wheel wells and clear the entire bottom including the fraim rails. That will make an ultra fresh and clean bottom that is EASY to clean up.

However, my vote is to do the whole bottom in bed liner with the rear frame rails smooth black.

I painted mine gloss black underneath and denfinatly regret not painting it the body color. But at the time wasn't 100 pecent shure if I was painting the car orange or black. Going body color whould definatly show way more detail..

Hi, I agree that if you're after detail then a contrasting underbody will look like you'ver really made an effort. I've always tended to think that if you cover the underbody with bed liner & then paint it, it looks like you wanted a different colour but couldn't be too bothered about putting in enough effort to do it properly. Yes, a smooth painted underbody is higher maintenence, but the overall effect far outweighs the effort needed to look after it.Best method would be to cover the baremetal in something like PPG Washprime,( assume you have this in the US) which is an acid based etchprimer,over-primed with a 2K primer, flat the primer where you want top surface type finish ie front clip, rear chassis legs etc & then coat with a good few coats of 2K colour. Under the wheel wells spray 2 coats of Stoneguard/Stonechip or whatever you call it in the US & once fully dry flat down to a smooth finish with 320 Wet & Dry & then colour that with 2K. I'm going to paint my '69 black but I'm going to paint the underside with dark metallic grey/charcoal colour & clearcoat it. It'll run all the suspension, axles & any othe parts I want to show as details in gloss black & assemble it all with polished stainless nuts 'n bolts. It'll be dark enough to be a contrast & will show that an effort has been made, plus it wont be too light in colour to show from the side profile, plus a darker colour is easier maintenance & will touch up ok. A dark grey underbody would suit a red car in my opinion, Hope that helps........Nigel :_paranoid

WOW. I think I will have to do mine like that. about 2' in the air on my creeper. Should be fun.

Brash are we Yody? :_paranoid No harm no foul. Rhino has color matches for many factory colors on the market. I have just about decided to paint the bottom of the car body color and do the wheel wells with matching Rhino for durability as Jody is doing. Painting the bottom is part of me being anal about the details top to bottom. It will never see a trailer , yes the stainless hardware will be polished, 3 link is staying, won't have a MMII front end, and leather carpet would be easier to clean, but no thanks. I hope people gasp when they see me thrash my car around the track. I think I will compete with Parsons in the SHOW-N-GO class. I can always paint it black later. I am good at tearing stuff apart.

Mike

ps: the black on your car does look good but I will never use inferior paints like Eastwood and miracle fixes like POR15. (Scott, where's the touche icon i need?)

Noted, Mike.

I vote black or black liner.. Had a car with the bottom painted body color and its a pain in the butt if you drive it. To me and its only my opinion is a car painted body color is a show car not a driver.

Of course it's a driver! :yes: If the owner wants it to be. IMO, Just 'cos a cars got a painted underbody doesn't mean to say you can't use it as if it had a linered underbody.It's not as if these are everyday drivers we're talking about. When the topside of a car gets dirty you wash it, same with the underside, just get out the pressure washer. I guess the idea is that if the underside is covered with black liner then you don't bother washing or looking after the underside of the car so often, but,...surely it's the same if the underside is painted, you wash it when you want to. What looks best, a dirty black linered finish or a dirty smooth painted finish....yep, a painted finish.What do you think when you see a painted finish....yep, detail & it gains peer respect. A black linered finish will always be just that when cleaned, but, a painted finish will always look better, even with a bit of road rash, stone chips etc. Just check the undersides of most Hot Rods, the chassis & undersides are hardly ever coated with 'liner & they're almost all painted & they use them on the roads (Ok I know you're gonna say they're trailered, but the majority aren't. No-one paints their new chassis with 'liner.) Besides,if you really can't live with the painted finish, you can always go & spray it with bed liner later, but if you spray it with 'liner you can't just spray on a smooth topcoat if you wanted to.

Of course this could run & run as it's only our individual opinions & it's up to you to do whats right for you. I think that if most people looked under a car & saw a dirty black 'liner finish, most people wouldn't give it a second glance, but if it were dirty or suffers from road rash, but painted, the car would gain respect from our peers as being a car that is used for what it was designed for.....being driven :thumbsup:

Evilzee, that's a good point. I think you are saying that to the wrong crowd though. From where I stand, I could care less if people looked at the bottom of my car to see how clean it is. I'm thinkng on the lines of not having to redo it again. If there were a paint that could do this, I'd more than likely go that route.

right its not a question of dirt but rocks, road kill. A 2x4 that fell out of a truck. muffler that fell of grandmas station wagon.. The list is endless.


steve

True but repairing semi gloss paint or rino liner would be alot easier than a car painted show quality on the bottom. But hey that was just my opinion. He asked us for it, I gave it. If he wants to paint it body color more power to him. I hope he loves it. To each his own.


steve

At 5" off the ground or less, pavement will be a hazard! LOL!

Mike

WELL,I THINK A TRUCK LINER WILL BE BEST.IF YOU WORRY ABOUT CONTRAST YOU CAN ADD COLOR TO THIS PRODUCT TO MATCH PAINT ON CAR CLOSE BUT NOT EXACT.IT IS VERY DURABLE AND ACTS AS A SOUND DEADNER.IT ALSO SEALS THE AIR,MOISTER,SALT ETC.WHICH MEANS NO RUST.I'M GOING TO DO MY 69 CAMARO IN LINE-X.FROM BOTTOM FIREWALL WERE IT BENDS TO THE REAR TAIL PAN.THE FRAME,FRONT SUSPENSION,REAR END AND 4 LINK IS POWDER COATED.FRAME TIES AND REAR FRAME RAIL ARE IN POR15.

:thumbsup:

I didn't read all of the posts.....but my .02

my car is silver adn I am going with a machinery grey on my belly. wheel wells will be black though (bed liner) I went with the grey since having everything black underneith sucks to work on (daily driver) so having a little contrast and lighter color will make it brighter under there for any parking lot repairs. I am skipping the truck liner underneith incase I ever need to weld on it since it will be a pain to remove it laying on my back. I am gonna bedline the inside floors though for some sound deadening