KF Body/Undercoating Question

[shadetree77]

Recently started working on my '53 Manhattan again. Cleaned and painted the front section of the frame and also stripped out the interior and trunk areas to do some patchwork. What I found was that the underside of the body was fully painted with certain areas having an undercoating like substance on them. Not all areas, but some. On the interior and trunk areas I found the same situation. It looks like the floor was undercoated and then paint sprayed on top of it. Now I'm pretty sure this car has had a repaint long ago so that might explain the paint on top of the undercoating. But did KF put undercoating on the interior and trunk area of the bodies? This was a very unwelcome find because I wanted to POR-15 the floor and trunk. But to do that I now have to scrape off a ton of gummy undercoating.

[kenneth]

Hi my 53 deluxe have some undercoating sprayed over with paint in different areas such as rear wheel wells inside the trunk and trunk floor and trunk lid underside, it is very hard to scrape it off, it will help using a hot airgun.The car have never been reppainted.

[joefrazer]

KF did spray an asphalt based sound deadener in the areas described. They also sprayed it in the inner doors to reduce drumming, a noise that occurs when a car is at speed. It can be difficult to remove...a hair dryer or hot air gun will help.

And yes, it went on before paint.

[IowaTom]

I used a propane torch and putty knife to get it off.  A little heat makes it gooey enough to easily scrape and I'm sure the air gun is just as effective - probably safer too!

[G.B. (All Vinyl Dragon)]

I leave Original alone for Factory Undercoating...

[shadetree77]

Thanks guys. That's what I wanted to know. Several areas of the floor are rusted and need to be patched. I'll need to coat them after the repairs are done. What I can't decide is if I want to just spot paint with the POR15 or scrape off the coating from the entire floor and paint the entire thing with POR15.

[dpledger]

The gunk is hard to scrape but is a sucker for acetone-xylene type solvents. Softens it rapidly and makes scraping easy.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Bodies were bonderized before painting.  Also, starting in 1948, the factory encouraged dealers to sell customers undercoating of the vehicle at time of delivery.  There is a service bulletin on this from 1948 and in the case of Henry J's there was a memo issued prior to 1951 model year announcement date strongly suggesting dealers undercoat Henry J's before delivery (selling the customer the service).  New cars delivered at the factory could be ordered by dealers & distributors with undercoating done in the courtesy garage area.  It's listed in various confidential bulletins over the years.  The factory info on new car deliveries at Willow Cottage is on the KFOCI HANDBOOK cd.

[checker]

I would need to touch-up the underneeth on my 51K as well.

I was wondering what to use, is POR 15 really good ?

Some of you guys experienced their products ?

Thanks for your feedback.

[Terry T]

try BODY SCHUTZ

[IowaTom]

I've used a gallon can of Henry's roof tar.  Cheap at HDepot!

[boatingbill]

I used rustolem metal conversion paint. It comes in a flat black spray can at hardware stores and converts rust to a hard coating. I
scraped and cleaned  everything I could and then sprayed the entire underside. The spray allows you to get into areas you cannot
reach like the inside of the doors and the inside front of the large 51-53 Kaiser hood. It can also be painted over if needed.

[shadetree77]

Checker,

I use a product called Chassis Saver Antique Satin Black. It is the same thing chemically as POR15 and works exactly the same but it's cheaper. Here's the website: http://www.magnetpaints.com/underbody.asp. I buy mine from their ebay store. Just search chassis saver on ebay. A lot of times they'll run deals on ebay where you buy a gallon and get a quart free. That's a $40 value! I put this coating on my Buick chassis almost 3 years ago and it still looks amazing. The only thing you have to be careful of with this type of coating is that any areas that get regular sunshine on them will have to be top coated because UV rays cause this stuff to turn a dull grayish color. Just follow the instructions TO THE LETTER and it will work for you.

[shadetree77]

By the way, thanks for all of the suggestions to remove this stuff guys. I tried a propane torch but that was getting the metal really hot so I bought a heat gun which is working much better. Much easier to control the heat with the gun. I'm already a little over 1/4 of the way done with the floor. Making progress. I'll still have to go back and sand everything though. I'll probably use my electric hand sander for that. Then it'll be time to cut my new floor pan replacements to the right size and weld them in. Probably have to wait until spring to coat everything with paint. Need to decide if I'm going to put something on top of that for a sound deadener. Could go back with a tar like substance or could wait until I get carpets/mats and put that new fangled sound deadener in there. Stuff that comes in sheets and is reflective silver on one side and adhesively backed on the other. Anyway, feels good to be working on it again.