When I purchased my car, it had very thick undercoating on the entire underside. My mechanic commented that the seller may have been hiding something. Even though it has a history of being a 28K, original car that spent most of it's life in California, I decided to start to scrap it off. It's coming off surprisingly easy, just messy. No heat gun, just a nice spatula. Underneath I found what appears to a brown paint/primer, and black paint over, then the thicker undercoating which probably is a newer addition. No rust to speak of thank goodness, maybe just some light surface rust here and there. It's obviously pretty to see a fully painted underneath to match the topside, but what do most folks on here have on their cars? Can anyone suggest an undercoating that is protective, but isn't thick enough to be the flooring at my local children's playground?

 

I would have thought that with the stay at home order, more people would be on the forum, and someone would have at least commented on this. Anyone still out there, or is this really the apocalypse?

 

No, somebody is here in England !
I looked at your post this morning and started to look up what you might replace the coating with. Have a look at Dinitrol products as they have been around for decades with auto anti-rust products. It is not necessary to remove all the existing coating, but you need to look round for places where it seems to be coming away from the steel panel. This normally indicates a break in the coating with rust behind it.

 

Thanks Fraser, and good to hear someone is still alive.

 

As to what's under my E-type, the outer areas have a coating of truck bed liner and the center is coated in oil from the engine leaks. Your pics seem to have a thicker tarry substance sprayed on. The truck bed liner spray on mine is only about 1 - 2 mm thick.

 

We're still alive, just trying to keep all the proverbial lids on the pots from home!

I've used 3M Rubberized Undercoating and it looks original and works quite well if you do it right. Like most of these things 80% of the success is in the prep work - everything needs to be clean and rust free and the previous undercoat needs to be removed. Mask everything well and spray on light coats until you get the desired thickness and texture.

 

When I was growing up one of the common things dealers did to get more money was sell this goopy undercoating. I've run into a lot of cars over the years from that period where the stuff looked like it was ladled on. It makes the car far harder to work on and creates a mess in the workshop.

 

For my second...and this time complete restoration, I scraped off all the original undercoating. I opted to paint the underside rather than undercoat. Most undercoatings, especially the early rubberized variety, tend to eventually crack or split, doing little more than effectively trapping moisture. With no plans to drive the car in horribly inclement weather, I'll stick with the well waxed, shiny underside and skip any further coatings. I did, however, spray the underside of the front and rear wings with 3m chip guard coating which accepts painting, providing a glossy though pebbled, finish. An obvious protection against rock chips. As others mentioned, thorough prep is the answer if you plan to use some form of undercoating. A waxoil-type spray applied to the inner boxed sections of the chassis is a necessity as the E's are attempting to rust from the inside out! Try to use a product that has a perpetual "creeping" quality.

 

I have had my E-type 38 years and travelled 125,000 miles in her. She had stone-chip paint put on in 1987 at the first rebuild, but nothing else.. At 115,000, in 2013, I decided to have her rebuilt as a precautionary measure, We found pinholes in the hood which would later have led to rust, we found rust under the screen where the doors shut, we found holes in the end of the sills at the back, but surprisingly little else. The underneath was in fine condition, and this car has not been treated with kid gloves. It has done track days, serious rallies, hill climbs, and always driven with vigour, seeing three figure speeds on many occasions. She has driven roads bounded by 6' of snow, and also in temperatures well over 100F for 350 miles, There is not one pass in the Alps she has not seen. But to return to the subject. My car was rebuilt five years ago, and the underside sprayed with UPOL Raptor paint. This paint is used for the beds of pickups, and will not scratch or deteriorate. So my advice to you would be to take the underside back to bare metal, and get it resprayed with this in body colour. Then you have no further worries.Ever.

 

My 62 is an orig owner Southern CA car. It had undercoating on bottom painted car color, OEW. It was dried out and cracked so I heat gunned it and removed with a plastic spatula. Underside of car was a reddish brown primer in very nice shape. I re-undercoated it and painted car color with my restoration. Now, 20 years later, I kinda wish I’d left it off but I masked off all nuts and bolts,fastening areas brackets...and did it before assy so no brake lines or anything are coated like the old dealer “option” used to do. And I live in a rural area on a rock road so it has its benefits.