my 49 S&S and friends

Herb John said:

I don't know if I should ask this personal question in your thread or start a new one. But it kindda goes with the topic so, here it goes.
I have a 48 National that I'm presently messing with, I noticed the bottom of your car is in very nice clean and pretty much rust free. The bottom of my car has a lot of the surface rust along with some rust thru on the section that was stretched. The question is after I clean the 2" of grease that coats the whole bottom of the car, should I sand the rusty places and paint the bottom , or just clean it and not put anything on it like yours? One reason for asking is I'm new at this type of car and would like to preserve it and not cause any type of "stupid" damage, but I want to do what is the best for its sake. The same goes for the paint on the body, its all original but its missing a lot of it.
What would your opinion be, or others can comment if you don't mind. Thank you sir.

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Its a very good question, but sorry, I cant answer it, as I have not done anything to the under carriage on this, it has always been like this. Your best bet would be to ask Rocky Fluegge, or Ed Renstron this question, Im sure they would be the guys to help out most.

the tar your referring to is most likely factory undercoating. they would spread it liberally on the underside of the car. the only problem is they spread it over bare medal. so as it dried out and cracked water would get trapped between it and the bare steel. the freeze and thaw in the colder climates would compound the trouble. you do need to do something with it after you remove the undercoating.

the least you can do is liberality coat it with a paint like rustoliem. it has a fish oil base it will stick good and last. then there are all the chemical products for attacking the rust SEM has a converter the Bill H miracle paint is a encapsulater . one will need to over coat the SEM product but it's a option on the miracle paint. Eastwood sells both products under there own name also and there is the por 15 line of products. last choice for me is the sandblast and undercoat. each has it's dollar amount and good and bad points. I'm doing the miracle paint now as I like the results. at 100 bucks a gl it not cheap but for a one shot product you can paint over I feel it best deal around.

if you have any holes rusted threw get them patched first. simple overlay welded all round is all that is needed.

but with the miracle paint your can with a simple wash off and a paint brush go from this to this and have it last. just be sure and put on your rubbers or you'll be wearing it off you .

The car has a bad leak, and by the looks of it , it has had it for a long time. The whole bottom of the car has thick oil like transmission 90w, and it has spent a lot of time on country roads. I would say it has at least 1/2 thick sludge coating from the front saddle plate to where the gas tank was. I don't know why the previous owner never attempted to fix the leak, but I think it has helped to protect it. I have spent probably over 20hours just scraping all the goo from every inch of the bottom. I have a trash can that has close to the bottom 1/3 of the oil and dirt combo.
The way they did the stretch, the square frame part about 3' the bottom is rusted thru. The good part is the floors are all in nice shape. The bottom of the doors have had some work done, and its all needs redone. They have lost the shape and don't line up correctly. This is why I'm contemplating to repaint the whole car. I know they are OG once, and I would like to avoid the paint job, but I think the best for the long haul is do it. I will see about matching the paint first, then see about the whole thing. I guess I need to figure out what kind of paint to do the bottom with, man that's a lot of work. Thanks for the advice.
John, did you have to weld in a couple of inches just above the frame? Is that sprayed on paint or did you use a foam roller?

the finished product is mostly a view of the inner fender above the frame. we replace about half of it up about 3 inches and in about 3. I will say they are only original once but some times you get tired of looking at the original dent. serviceable original is good worn out and damaged is in need of repair and refinish. not vary many 50 year old cars out there that haven't been in a dog fight or two. most you think are original are old repaints. you only know when you sand threw it. there isn't one original Lacquer car out there that doesn't have some weather damage or that hasn't been repaired. in some place. you keep it small spot it in and bingo good as new.

A real beauty!