Steven6095

What is the story with undercoating a vehicle for protection and sound deadening?

Ford offers some sort of service??

Any ideas from any one who has had it done or why should it not be done to these cars?

05 Cayuse

I had it done by my Ford dealer cause I plan on keeping this car a long time and wanted the extra proctection. What a waste of money. They hit and missed spraying here and there with no consistency or plan. They did it fast and dirty just to get the money with the least amount of prep and work. I didn't take it back because I didn't want the same a$$ near my car again. Save the dough, do it yourself. Go down to any good auto parts store and buy a few rattle cans of Undercoating. Jack up the car, pull the wheels and have at it. That's what I'm doing. It does quite down road noise, especially gravel flying off tires. Hope this helps.

NoOriginalNamesLeft

Get a rhino lining, or any other brand of spray in truck bed liners if you're serious about the undercoating. Most of the stuff from the dealer will just end up causing you to get rust and damage to your underbody. Those spray in liners deaden sound, are indestructible, and last forever. Double bladed sword though, once it's on there, it's there to stay. I personaly love the stuff, but not everyone agrees.

SpikeGT

my car already had this undercoating when i bought it from the dealer. It was part of protection package through a local company. they missed some spots[:@] but I finished everything off right on my own.

fairlane292

I would not do any undercoating of any kind; If you are out where roads can have salt on them or you are just so worried about rust then remove the rubber wheelwells and spray with a good quality zinc primer. It's much finer than undercoating, has rust inhibitive qualities unlike undercoating, and won't trap water, dirt, salt, etc. These cars are all preprimed in factory rust inhibitive zinc primer unlike the old days and will not rust through for 10-20 years (never if you don't get out in the rain much at all). I think you will "give rust" a chance with undercoating. Ziebart used to live off of undercoating and they don't do any today. What does that tell ya?

Don't undercoat just because of sound. There's Dynamat, radio volume and exhaust for that. (lol)

4v429

couldnt login for some reason as ford4v429, so added another name till I find out why...


I'm NOT a big fan of undercoating...all too often after a few years it gets loose and holds water underneath. I spent several days stripping undercoating from my 65 galaxie when body was off the frame, and would not ever care to see undercoating again- the messiest job Ive ever gotten into...

BUT- on a unibody car, there are so many pinchwelds(whatever you want to call it- pinched seam with spotwelds thru) and always between the spotwelds there are gaps...the gaps always eventually collect dirt and hold moisture. Spraying undercoating can seal drains/vents needed to let water/condensation breathe if not careful.
I took off my fenders/rocker covers, and used a syringe w/tubing to squirt POR15 inside my framerails, rockers, etc...and let it seep thru the gaps between the welds, and run out the drains- my thinking was to seal the little nooks and crannies with something that would encourage water to run out the drains, and take the dirt with it. Made one heck of a mess, but I think I did get all the gaps filled up. I closed off the two frame holes with forward facing openings behind front wheels('dirt scoops' where boxed sections overlap), but left any 'downhill' or bottom laps/drains wide open. On the upper 'box' right behind headlight(where top of fender bolts on) theres a big opening- but I was worried with all the air from the grill area blowing in, that salt/water/dirt would actually be blown in there(its about 1/2" wide x 1" high) so I made a little plastic 'diverter' and just glued it in front of the opening with seamsealer- holes are wide open for ventilation, but any water blown in now has a little ramp to deflect it past the opening. once fenders are on, no one will ever know its there. Instead of undercoating, I used roll-on bedliner-- the stuff is made for abrasion/impact resistance, and unlike undercoating, dries to a glossy easier to clean texture. Also, I found from leaving a can out opened, the stuff will dry fast even 1/4" thick- it does shrink up as it dries, but stays a lillte flexible and dont appear to shrinkcrack like other stuff might. All the upper flanges(where spotted to floorpan) I went around top edges with 3M 'fast-n-firm' seam sealer(figured gaps are tiny enough to let dirt accumulate, but not really circulate any air) - this type sealer will shrinkcrack, so not over 1/16 thick at a time- bottom drains all left open but the few holes that are in 'raised' areas, I went ahead and covered if plenty of other air inlets around- figured the raised holes wont drain, but surely would let even more water spray inside. I think I'm gonna make some more diverters for the bigger holes too, but havent gotten back under it yet.
After spending a whole week of evenings underneath, and partially disassembling the car, I would predict the very first rust on the 05/06 mustangs will appear in only 2 areas:
1) the flap in front of the rear tires to me looks like 'planned obsolessence'(sp?) to me- the hole in the top lets water/dirt sprayed off the tires access to the inside of the rocker panel. Worse yet, due to the angle of the undercoating sprayed at the factory, mine had ZERO coverage of the welded areas behind the flap- cannot get your head close enough to inner wheelhouse to see, but with a camera or mirror, its naked back there- in an area that sees a lot of debris thrown at it. the bottom lips of this flap was not coated on my car either. I could slide a piece of MIG wire down into the rocker area from several inches of opening on this one flap.
2) the front fender/bumper flange and backside of headlight bucket- when I pulled the fenderwells out(by the way- this is so easy everyone should do it come springtime to flush it out- a few screws and 1/4 turn fasteners and they come out in 2 pcs very easily) there was an awful lot of dirt buildup in there...300 miles on the car, driven one time in the rain. the flat lip, the reinforcing plate, the pinchweld behind headlamp mount- all are little vees to trap dirt. the fenderwells do not attach to fender lip, so any dirt sprayed off underneath gets blown onto inside of fender and drains to the bumper flange area.

just from past experience, first rust on other new cars Ive bought ALWAYS started at door bottom crimp- water gets in, cant get out, no way to fix...I took my doors apart to por15 inside bottom, but Ford used a sealer, and from what I saw on my car, it was already 100% looking(parts visible anyways)...I still took bedliner over the bottom couple inches anyway. the underside of the door is another story- bottom front corner of passenger door actually had hole at very corner unsealed...I taped off and brushed bedliner to overlap this seam to keep moisture out of the area- hated to as it can be seen with door opened, but wish Id have done it to my mark VII, windstar, f150, and camaro...all got rust at that crimped seam. Sadly, mustang quarters are crimped exactly same way- I really put a lot of bedliner uner that outer lip- one stone chip, a little place for moisture to enter, and it starts. I still intend on pulling rear interior out later and rinsing/sealing inside of same quarter crimp with a little por15- will wait for longer days as its messy to use and definitely dont want it dripping all over the car

I put a bunch of pics in another thread called 'you might want to look under your car' and another thread by same name over at themustangsource.com forums/issues section with even more pics.

tsaints1115

I have used Linseed Oil for years with good luck on both my street and show cars. I learned of this when I bought some body parts for a dealer who stored his large inventory outside. He would spray the parts down and once they were dry its waterproof,saltproof ,etc.