Undercoats and Paints

[John Friese]

I'd like some input regarding protective coatings for the metal panels
on Amphicars. I'm a new Amphicar owner. I recently purchased two 67
Amphi's, a white one and a red one. The red one was a very late car
and has a thick (1/4 inch) coating of some undercoat like substance on
the lower floor areas. The white one is an earlier one with a lumpy
coating in those areas that never appears more than 3/32 inch thick.
Both cars have areas where the these coatings have flaked off with
much more flaking on the white car with the thinner coating. I'm not
too concerned about the inner floor areas because of the protective
coating of oil that manages to find it's way down there, but I am
interested in the general topic of "just what can be made to stick to
surfaces to protect them"? I've heard of something called an etching
primer, though I don't really know what that is or how usable it might
be for small patch jobs. I've heard a lot of negative views regarding
traditional undercoating materials (i.e. they don't work). My local
auto parts store sells something called undercoating in a spay can
that doesn't even claim to resist water. I thought that was weird.
They also sell another spray can of some type of rubber undercoating
that DOES claim to resist water and is also paintable. An auto body
guy talked to me about some sort of two part (i.e. epoxy?) undercoat
for metal. Generally nobody I've talked to really seems to think
great thoughts about any of these products though. I'd like to recoat
the wheel wells and lower back end of the car, perhaps clean up and
recoat the loose paint in the bilge and also patch in the areas of
chipped top paint. I'd appreciate input from you guys on just how to
deal with these areas.

Thanks,
John Friese

 

[amphicar770@yahoo.com]

--- In amphicar-lovers@y..., "John Friese" <jfriese@m...> wrote:
> I'd like some input regarding protective coatings for the metal
> panels

John,

If you search the archives you should fnd some earlier discussions on
this topic.

The general consensus seems to be that a standard regime of primer
and paint is the best treatment for the outer hull. This is for two
reasons:

1) Unlike many other products, it will not trap water underneath as
it gets old and dried out. (This is the problem with rubberized
undercoating).

2) If there is any rust you will see it quickly, while it is still
surface rust, and can easily make a repair.

For the inner hull many folks have applied Gluvit. Gluvit is
essentially a Marine Epoxy Resin. This is normally done after a
fresh restoration as the surface needs to be especially clean.
Please note that many epoxy resins put out highly toxic fumes and
should only be used in very well ventilated areas and/or with a
respirator.

Cheers,

Mike Israel
65 Amphi (white)