What to paint under the fender?

[Jeff T.]

If I get the chance sometime over labor day I want to shoot some paint on the underside of my new all steel left front fender.

Since it may be years before I paint the whole car (I would like to drive it between bouts of bodywork)and I am uncertain of what color I want...I am thinking of painting the underside black or some other color so I can at least tell where I have sprayed undercoat. I may paint the air deflector face black too, I haven't decided yet.

Should I go to the trouble of getting some paint mixed because the Lark is currently blue (but may be Orange or something else in 3 years) or say the heck with it and pick up some rustolum at the hardware store.

What have others done on sheetmetal that no one will see (outside of potential judges someday) on their Larks between major repaints?

Jeff T.

"I'm getting nowhere as fast as I can"
The Replacements.

[StudeRich]

Simi-gloss black of course, that's what the factory should have painted them anyway, but instead they usually undercoated them, well...Black actually! [:0]

StudeRich
Studebakers Northwest
Ferndale, WA

[gordr]

An NOS fender? Stand it up on its rear edge, and use tape to seal any holes in the inner flange. Pour POR-15, or the rust paint of your choice, into the space between the flange and the outer skin. Fill the void completely, if you can. Give it a few days to set up. (I'd favour using something that sets to a slightly rubbery consistency, so it will stand a chance of flexing with the panel, instead of cracking, should the panel flex while on the car, and it will, a little.)

Once that jam has set, run a bead of caulking along the open edge of the seam to further seal it. Tape can be removed.

Finally, spray the whole inner surface of the fender with gravel-guard, tinted black. Looks like undercoat, but more resilient. Helps seal against road salt, and protects the outer paint from starring when the inside of the panel gets hit by a pebble off the wheel.

I did one set of fenders by filling the seam area with marine epoxy resin, and using the same resin to coat the inner surface.

If you have the ENTIRE space behind that flange full of paint, resin, tar, whatever, then there is no room for water, mud, or road salt to get in and do its dirty work.

Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands

[skyway]

I beleive that Gord has hit it right on the button. The NOS 64 Cruiser front fenders that I treated that-a-way are still rust free at 26 years and 100,000 miles in the St. Louis salt. Wish I could say that about the rest of the car.

[Mark57]

quote:Originally posted by gordr

An NOS fender? Stand it up on its rear edge, and use tape to seal any holes in the inner flange. Pour POR-15, or the rust paint of your choice, into the space between the flange and the outer skin. Fill the void completely, if you can. Give it a few days to set up. (I'd favour using something that sets to a slightly rubbery consistency, so it will stand a chance of flexing with the panel, instead of cracking, should the panel flex while on the car, and it will, a little.)

Once that jam has set, run a bead of caulking along the open edge of the seam to further seal it. Tape can be removed.

Finally, spray the whole inner surface of the fender with gravel-guard, tinted black. Looks like undercoat, but more resilient. Helps seal against road salt, and protects the outer paint from starring when the inside of the panel gets hit by a pebble off the wheel.

I did one set of fenders by filling the seam area with marine epoxy resin, and using the same resin to coat the inner surface.

If you have the ENTIRE space behind that flange full of paint, resin, tar, whatever, then there is no room for water, mud, or road salt to get in and do its dirty work.

Gord Richmond, within Weasel range of the Alberta Badlands

Gord,
Can you affirm that the "gravel guard" product will stop the 'pings' in the paint on the outside of the fender... I have several on the fenders of my truck and was considering a number of options on how to treat the fender undersides (including having the spray on boxliner applied - as used in modern pickups)to provide enough density to stop rocks that get thrown up and hitting the inside of the fenders from causing the damage to the outside surface paint. Thanks.

<h5>Mark
'57 Transtar
3E-6/7-122 </h5>

[N8N]

I would think a spray on or roll on bedliner would be the ticket for preventing dings from behind. An asphalt undercoating would add more protection (from dings, but probably not rust) but would be harder to keep clean.

nate

--
55 Commander Starlight

http://members.cox.net/njnagel

[bondobilly]

I used POR-15 around the vent door assembly and where the fender folds back on itself. Once dried I used silicone ( paintable) to further seal the areas, then used an epoxy primer top coated with black enamel. You could use any color you want. Using bed liner materia, as mentioned earlier, would be an excellent choice after everything dries as it would cut down on road noise.

BG

[chocolate turkey]

I second this treatment! I did the "fill-the-seam" with Rust paint thing and it worked like a charm. I used the worst color of yellow you would ever see cause it was on sale for 1/2 price! Later, covered it with flat black. The Chocolate Turkey fenders were rust-free for 26 years of use.

Brian K. Curtis