I was cleaning the old rustproofing off of my grill yesterday and noticed the tar drips ran uphill on the lower edge of the grill. I'm pretty sure TuffCote didn't flip vehicles over to undercoat them back in the 70's but I'm suprised that this might have been done at the factory.

Also if you were one of the guys at the plant that did this job, they have a product called masking tape that does wonders when it comes to keeping the gooey stuff off of places it does not belong.

 

The FoMoCo Dealers installed all the undercoating, but only if the customer paid extra for it.

Undercoating was also available from Ford in a 16 oz spray can (D8AZ-19515-B), and there were shops besides dealers that did undercoating.

People for years have used undercoating to cover up the sins. One long time scenario: When unscrupulous ppl use metal real estate (or similar) signs to patch holes in rusty floor pans, then undercoat it, then...

Drive the vehicles over dusty roads to make the undercoating appear to be old and to get rid of the smell.

 

^ you sound like you may have done this?
Lol J/K numbers..

 

Absolutly not. I've been in the old car hobby since 1956, have owned over 300 old rolling piles of misery, so I know what to look out for.

The last time I ran into this scenario was several years ago when there was an ad in the LA Times for a '66 Mustang ragtop. I don't recall the price, but it was less than the going rate.

The car was in Marina del Rey, and I took cash and a friend along to drive one a the vehicles home in case I bought it.

The second I walked up to the car I could smell the pungent odor of fresh undercoating, so, I just knew what to expect. I lifted the torn carpet and what did I see? A Coldwell Banker real estate sign!

I put my hand on the underside of the floor pan, and it came back coated with fresh undercoating.

I wiped my hand off, got in my truck and drove away without saying a word to the crooked owner.

This same scenario occured a coupla years beforehand, but in this case, the car was a 1954 Packard, and was on a used car lot in Glendale.

There were three real estate signs on this pile of miseries, one on either side of the hump...one bent over the hump...all where the floor pan woulda been had it not rusted out.

The undercoating looked older than Grandma Moses, but was quite pliable, so it hadn't been on there very long.

btw: Since the OP is in Indiana, I could add a coupla comments inre to 1950/60's Studebakers, the only cars I'm aware of that could rust out in Death Valley.

These piles did not have inner fender splash shields, had interior air vents that poked thru the front fenders. All sorts of crap could be trapped in behind those air vents, and since it had no place to go, the fenders and in many cases, the cowl panels rusted out in a coupla years.

 

Wow... You sound like you have some serious stories you could tell.. You sound like the kind of person I could spend hours talking with.

 

Maybe the applier was just extremely sloppy and the drips were huge to begin with.

Thanks for the info NumberDummy!

 

I'll reply a little side note for Bill (ND) on here since he may still be watching this... Were the inner fenders on these things all coated (undercoating - not the galvanized stuff) all coated, or was this the same answer as above where it was a dealer option/add on type thing? Every pair of inner fenders I've come across in my 6-7 trucks and then buddies, etc. have ALL had the undercoating type stuff on them. Most of them have it top and bottom - which seems semi odd. I would think it was a dealer option type thing and I've just happened to come across ones that had been coated but who knows. Oh wait - Bill probably does

 

It all depends on who did the undercoating and where it was sprayed.

 

Ok - let me re-phase slightly then. Did ALL inner fenders on these trucks get some sort of undercoating (again - aside from the galvanizing type finish) from the factory?

What I am getting at kind of is I have never seen a pair of just bare, galvanized (or whatever the coating is that looks like it) on these inner fenders on a used truck I've bought and I was wondering if any left the factory that way?

 

My inner fenders on my 78 wasn't coated... They had the galvanized stuff on'em

 

The inner fender aprons are galvanized, but who could say all were undercoated?

My 1979 Lariat Stupor Cab had no undercoating. Since I live in LA LA Land, where it hasn't snowed since 1949, so no salt on the roads, I didn't have it undercoated when I bought the pile brand new.

Another problem associated with undercoating is (especially in the Rust Belt): The stuff becomes hard as a rock, chips off.

All sorts of crap can become trapped in between the chipped off undercoating and the now 'naked as a jay bird' sheet metal, so guess what can occur.

If you wanna save your sheet metal, Rhino Line it. This stuff can be purchased in autoparts stores in a one gallon can, so it can also be brushed on, and more than just black is available.

 

I drove this series in their day, living in FL at the time. No undercoating of any kind on any that I can remember. My current hobby truck, F250 CS, an OH truck has the galvanized fender aprons and the rest of the truck undercoated and inner coated. Inner coated, holes drilled and the interior of doors, jams, cowl, sprayed and plugged with rubber plugs.

 

The part highlighted in red pretty much answers my question.

And funny you mention the "chipping off" as that is what I have been doing a bunch as I am "clearancing" my inner fenders for the shock hoops on the crew.





The stuff had been chipping off majorly as I was messing with the things so I just continued to scrape it off. It doesn't seem to adhere to the galvanizing well.

I have thought about using a bedliner product (whatever I end up going with on the cab = Lizard Skin, Al's Liner or similar) on the things but am not sure about that stuff sticking well either...

 

The Rhino Liner (or whatever name you call it) is installed within the beds of all the newer trucks, and can be ordered factory installed in place of an optional bedliner or painted sheet metal.

I special ordered my 1979 Lariat, because the dealer I worked for at that time (Crenshaw Motors) had none in stock, and the fleet manager couldn't find any in LA LA Land that had the options I wanted that could be dealer-traded for.

I took the Ford Salesman's Data Book home to read thru it...to make sure I ordered everything I wanted, and to discover what else I mighta wanted.

I don't recall one word about undercoating being a factory installed option.

btw: 2011 F150 Lariat Stupor Crew, MSRP: 39,900.00 buckeroo's. Has no bedliner or Rhino Lining of any kind, just painted sheet metal.

I told the salesman it was ridiculous to pay 44 grand for this pile (the tax/license bumped the price up), and then have to pay extra for even a bedliner.

Two of the previous NotaFord pickups I bought new came with Rhino Lining factory installed as part of the package. But, AFAIK, there is no package for these F150's that includes either.

 

I think the rhino lining (like Line-X and others better actually) is awesome for bedliners etc. New trucks on the other hand are not so awesome to me. Therefore I'll just add the "bedliner" material to my trucks. Current plan is to spray the inside and underside of the cab including firewall and then the bed on both trucks. My fiberglass fenders on all trucks will also be getting a light coating on the underside to help fight spider cracking from rocks thrown up by the tires.