Hey Guys,

Saw the post on the 70 TA about the primer undercarriage color and not being painted body color. Is this true in regards to 68 B-Bodys, particularly, my 68 Road Runner? My whole underside is going to be new: one piece floor, rear rails, and one piece trunk floor, and I'm undecided how I should finish it. My car is an an original 383 4spd car, and I will transplanting it with a hemi, keeping the 4 spd, and adding a Dana 60 rear. I'd like it to look as stock as possible, but I like the idea of the underside being clean and being the same color as the topside. Plus, I'll be practicing my spraying on the bottom to see if I like my results before starting on the top. So, what's really correct color wise? Thanks

Cheers

my 69-1/2 a12 roadrunner is original paint and my undercarriage is basically all primer as well.
but my other cars are primered with mostly body color,with more body color on the outside than inside,meaning no body color near the transmission hump area.

After the dip process and electro static primer only over sprays from the top primers and body color. The unit was on a paint "truck/dolly" about nine inches off the ground when the top primers and body colors were applied so very little overspray hit the bottom.

Also, the radiator support blackout was a thirty second job, shot straight at the support.

OK, gotcha . Anyone have a good picture of a 68 RR radiator blackout area? Thanks

Cheers

I can find some if no one posts first. The A12 guys have a lot of pics.

If you decide to do primer, please do not paint the bottom of the front frame rails body color.

a12

another

Got some decent pics of a 68 and a 69 Coronet core black out, got a 68 Satellite and a 68 Road Runner, I could get some pics of tomorrow but both are assembled, so I don't know what we can see.

Radiator Blackout area as requested.
i dont know if this will help? its my car after I took the front end off.


starting to take it apart







by the way, the car is coming along great, I saw your cardomain page!! great work you've done.

beepbeep, so are you saying to treat the front of the car like the floors and rear are done; primed with some light overspray? The second car cdp posted shows the primer pans and some light overspray that would be supportive of what was said about the car being painted on a dolly. Is that front overpainted then? His front rails are painted all around as well as the floor and everything forward of the torsion bar mount. That shouldn't be?

On the subject of the radiator blackout, thanks Pavell. Yeah, been working hard on it and I should be finished welding in August/Septemberish. So it's basically from the top part of the support down is what it looks like. Anyone have a clearer picture?

Thanks for the replies!

Cheers

Core Black Out
The basic theory of the core support black out was so that when you looked throught the grill you did not see a body colored back ground. I was performed very haphazardly and your car is the only one that can really tell you how it looked, if it is "unreadable" then use reference photos as shown and I will e-mail you what I have to add to the mix. It was sprayed after the body was assembled but before the grill was installed. Some say it was sprayed throught the grill opening and som say from the bottom at an upward angle. I believe both to be true from the cars I have "read". Anyway, different days, different shifts, different workers, different plants, etc. all add to the fact that there isn't one way something was suppose to be, just things we have commonly seen.

Panited frame rails, I do believe the car pictured is over restore, but only slightly and I do that myself, it just looks good. BUT again you could have had a conscientous painter the day that car went through who made an effort to cover the frame rails and lower part of cowl, again I have seen it very close on original paint cars and I have seen it were the guy looked like he was trying to save Chrysler money through the use of paint on the bottom of the engine compartment.

"Read" your car if at all possible, it will tell you the truth and then document that proof for those who tell you its wrong!

Undercarriage as well as the bottom surfaces of the engine compartment should have fairly light overspray over a fairly light grey satin sheen color - about "battleship grey" to "dove grey" in shade. L.A.-built cars used black instead of grey, according to some sources. Color was merely overspray from spraying the lower sides & rear of the car, and from spraying down into the engine compartment. The rad-support blackout appears to have been sprayed upwards, as though the sprayer was aiming from just below the car.

Some examples. Note the arrowed areas in the pictures.

.

..

...

You will never find any two cars where the blackout looks the same. As stated above the intent was to not show body color through the grill. Certain dark colors usually did not receive this treatment.

As I stated above the car was sitting very low to the ground and it was shot head on quickly. Black primer or organosol was used for the blackout treatment.

Some examples.

,

,,

The dip process.

'

A typical Chrysler spray booth.

Fantastic guys. Thanks mopar for the emailed pics. And Thanks beepbeep for the rest of the pics and reference material. My car was repainted so I can't see the original blackout area so I'll have to go by examples. My color is LL1 so I'll need it.

Cheers

Left side radiator paint, unmolested 69RR.

Right side radiator paint, unmolested 69RR.

That red '69 RR looks like it was sprayed pretty much downward, looking at the flanged openings; the cars I've gone by appeared to be shot upward, with black on the bottom yoke and the underside of the flange, but none on the top of the flange. Maybe more variation than I was aware of?
My dark blue '63 had no blackout, but my '64 did. Can't recall my old dark blue '68, but my dark green '69 had blackout, as did my red '68, and the lighter-color (white, lighter greens, & turquoise '68s - '70s I've owned.

Quote:

---

but none on the top of the flange. Maybe more variation than I was aware of?

---

All you need to do is look at the picture posted above of the Coronet on the production line, black all over the left side of the upper flange.

Also look at the left fender, polishing compound runs on the inner fender.

Dave..
I'm painting my '68 Hemi Charger R/T with the dark dip primer paint supplied to me from Dave over at Performance Car Graphics.. Then applying the color with the overspray factory OEM method.... If you haven't painted your car undercarriage yet, then mine would probably be a good example..

Troy, nope, not in paint yet. I should be wrapping up the welding in the next few months. My plan is August for everything that needs to be welded to be done. So probably September or October I'll be doing the spraying. Thanks for the tips and yeah, we'll have to get together at some point!!!

Cheers

Let me add a little more confusion about how the grill blackout was painted:

In the first two pictues of my un-molested 69 RR I posted, you could clearly see the paint on "right" side was thicker and cover a much larger area than the paint on the "left" side.

If you look at this pictue, of the "left" side directly behind the opening for the headlight and the turn signel light wiring. It appears that it was painted through the openings.

So with these variations on just one car it is understandable that there would be variations between cars and plants.

Tav

Dave,

This is how we did my 68 Road Runner. The idea was pretty much follow the factory "flavor" of overspray and primer look on the underside. Probably leaning more to over-restored but not wanting the body color 100%

You can also check out the rest of the pictures from the Clark Classic Restoration website.

http://www.clarkclassic.com/mygallery/index.asp?CatID=31&offset=0

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner

Picture #2

I agree with the other posts about the blackout probably being somewhat different from car to car but basically the same. It all depends how you personally want it to look. I took plenty of pictures as I was taking my car apart and it was pretty evident that whoever painted my blackout shot it differently from the left side to the right side...maybe the dude was a southpaw... In the end I choose to tape it off cleanly and shoot it all black. I'm sure it took me longer to paint than the dude on the assembly line but I did not miss big areas either.

Good luck on your decision.

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner

The point that is overlooked here is that the over spray was not the focal point with the employees at the factory. The factory engineered drawings spelled out how far the over spray could cover but the objective was to remove the reflective paint characteristics behind the grill. If you spray the black to try and emulate the over spray, chances are that the primary purpose of painting the cowl area will not appear as it should. Simply cover the desired area and let the chips fall where they may. The over spray pattern will probably be very similar to the way it was when originally applied. Also remember that there could be up to six different colors showing on the underside of a vehicle. Depending on the color of the car you could have a light gray phosphate coating, followed by the tank dip primer, followed by red oxide primer, followed by light gray primer, followed by the body color and then the pinch weld blackout.

Thanks gang!

Jim, your pics and the link will help me out immensely as I get to that stage. Thanks so much for the photos. I'll probably do a blackout similar to yours and defenitely leave the primer underneath. Thanks for all the tips.

Cheers

Moparabe, Here ya go, hope it helps also look a the thread for the AAR undercarriage.