[mmarx]

I decided to clean the bottom of the car, car came from Iowa and has been in Fl at least since '85. It was undercoated by the dealer which is sparse at best, and had alot of clay/dirt.
I took a fine Scotch Brite pad and soapy water and the grime came right off and exposed the painted pans. Absolutely NO rust...and it's painted body color.

My question is, I see all of the 'restored' cars and the floors are painted black, what is correct? Black or, body color?

FWIW, car is a Pontiac built car...

Mike

[Jerry H.]

Is it a completely covered with full coats of body color or just a light like overspray? All the Pontiac-built cars I've seen had varying amounts of body color overspray in various areas, especially around the edges, etc; and then spray at with about a 30% gloss black just for rust preventative. Now if this car was factory undercoated, they may have left off this black top coat.

But I've never seen one with complete full coverage (just like the outside of the car was painted) in body color.

This is why black is considered correct.

[RicksGTO]

My Pontiac built '69 had some of the original color oversprayed on the front of the floorboards but the rest was the semi gloss black. Mine was undercoated heavily (Pennsylvania car) and I am assuming that was done when it was new but hard to tell after all the years.

[cuz68]

Mine is the same way Rick. Who knows pontiac did some strange things?

[mmarx]

Originally Posted by Jerry H.

Is it a completely covered with full coats of body color or just a light like overspray? All the Pontiac-built cars I've seen had varying amounts of body color overspray in various areas, especially around the edges, etc; and then spray at with about a 30% gloss black just for rust preventative. Now if this car was factory undercoated, they may have left off this black top coat.

But I've never seen one with complete full coverage (just like the outside of the car was painted) in body color.

This is why black is considered correct.

At first I thought it was overspray until I went further along...It definitely isn't overspay and it looks like the whole floor pan is body color. I'll try and get pics. tonight. The floors are like the day the car was built...

Undercoating wasn't on the Pontiac window sticker but is definitely on the car. I just assumed it was dealer installed.

Mike

[gtohurstjudge]

Different plants and different painters did different things. Some
cars were solid body color underneath, some were semi-gloss black underneath. I would venture an opinion that the majority of cars were black
underneath with body color overspray along the edges. I've parted out
original paint cars thirty years ago that had the top of the cowl painted
body color instead of black(the area immediately in front of the windshield.)
This was a common practice on dark colored cars like liberty blue. Also, some
tail panels were blacked out instead of body color. The best thing to do is
put your car back the way it came.....that is correct for your car. If you
paint your undercarriage solid body color, be prepared for the so called
"experts" at shows to inform you of your mistake. Often times these "experts"
were still in diapers when your car was built.

[BUQUICK]

Here are scans of the floor pan of my nearly rust free Mayfair Maize '69 GTO after I washed the dirt and oil off with mild soap and water. It was built at the Atlanta plant in Jan 1969. Lots of visible overspray around the edges and there was even a fine mist of it all the way into the tunnel. I will put it back exactly this way...

Also in the photos I had already scrapped the undercoating out of the rear wheel wells, that why you see yellow paint there also.

[north]

BUQUICK's car is typical of what i have seen as a level of overspray from most plants, i have an untouched mayfair maize car (light color makes it more evident) built in baltimore that has so much overspray on the rearmost floor brace (can be seen clearly when fueling) that it still shines like the exterior panels.

the exception is Freemont cars, every one i have ever had or inspected seem to have much much less overspray, maybe they had a paint shop foreman who was a tightwad with the paint.

[6804gto]

Originally Posted by north

BUQUICK's car is typical of what i have seen as a level of overspray from most plants, i have an untouched mayfair maize car (light color makes it more evident) built in baltimore that has so much overspray on the rearmost floor brace (can be seen clearly when fueling) that it still shines like the exterior panels.

the exception is Freemont cars, every one i have ever had or inspected seem to have much much less overspray, maybe they had a paint shop foreman who was a tightwad with the paint.

Here is a shot of my Fremont built 69 Judge floor. It has very little or no body color overspray at all. Just lifted the body off the frame last night and took some pictures so I could try to duplicate the black finish. Does anyone know what degree of gloss was used on the floors. This car came from Arizona and was never undercoated so I would like to paint the floors again. Brent