Let's see if we can somewhat quickly offer something while we wait to see when the car was built. That will maybe help focus to a production period so we can offer some additional focus on the color and tint of the undercarriage primer sealer that was used
As you hopefully aware of by now the Library has in it currently, six articles that focus on basics related to body coatings and undercarriage painting.
Steps are as follows for a 67 Metuchen built car? the unibody of the car was prepped with the doors, trunk lid, front fender rear attaching brackets at A pillars, rear bumper guard brackets and the rear valance in place (valance hung from the taillight panel only by all the mounting screws). Other painted individual parts were painted on another line near by from the same pint source as the car.
1? The exterior of the unibody was coated with a read oxide primer followed by a light gray primer primer to fill the minor flaws like pen holes. Before and after these step certain gaps, seams and areas were sealed with sealant ans in other areas a coat of sound deadener was applied to surfaces. Since we are focusing on the undercarriage we will not go into those details in this article at this time.
2- The undercarriage from firewall rearward was coated with an epoxy primer similar in color to a red oxide primer though since it was an epoxy based sealant it has a smooth and somewhat shinny final surface. At other plants this coat was applied by spray jets mounted below the moving tracks that held and guided the unibody during this part of construction. Since they didn't want overspray to rain down on the following car the jets were set to stop before the rear of the car was reached so it is not uncommon to find little undercarriage paint in the forward facing pockets of the rear frame rail, the bottom surface of it. And one of the reasons that cross member was galvanized coating.
3- The undercarriage section forward of the firewall (frame rails and lower inner fender panels for example) were then coated by hand with red oxide colored epoxy primer like the rear section. The source for this paint/coating may have bee different from the rear application so the tint can be visually different or very close to one another.
4? During these stations interior color is applied the dash, the A pillars and the interior of the doors depending on interior code. There were some areas where after that paint dried black out paint was applied to eliminate the possibility of seeing body color in areas where Ford didn't want to have it visible or stand out in the finished product.
5- Exterior paint was applied to the unibody from about where the fire wall was to the rear of the car including the door jambs and trunk sections. Overspray and direct application was introduced into the interior section of the car during this process.
6- Exterior color was applied with some over spray flowing onto the undercarriage. The further a part of the pan hung down the more overspray it received. Can be a little or allot but never the whole floor pan. In the rear wheel wells the area received a nice coat of paint in most cases and over spray/ nice coat often found its way onto the exposed rear frame rail that are visible from the wheel well and possibly further towards the middle of the undercarriage of the floor over the where the rear end housing would eventually be installed.
During the process of painting the exterior car fully body color was applied to the rocker panel pinch welds and because of the pressure and angle the paint coated panels that hung downward and faced out with paint and paint overspray was introduced to other panels in other areas that diminished as the floor goes toward the center of the cat.
7? Next the semigloss black engine compartment paint is applied. Like the San Jose paint process the exterior sides of the inner fender panels were coated with the black paint from the forward facing panels at the rear of the front wheel wells where the splash shields would attach, all the way around to the other side of the car in the same area. This included the forward facing side of the radiator support and the #1 front cross member. As the drawings and pictures show on the wheel side the black would stop about the front edge of the sprung area. The area above the firewall pinch weld appears to have been blacked out on some models this year and plant. At the same time the area at the base of the windshield and a small area around the rear window vent hole was sprayed
6? Next the pinch weld was blacked out. The outer edge was a soft edge so many painted just back mask the line. The over spray from this application would again cover some of the undercarriage as it would naturally. Again the more part of the pan hung down the more paint/black out it received. The amount of overspray generally would be less the distance that the body color traveled as it was applied with less pressure and a single pass with the spray gun or jet was used.
7? Once the rest of the body panels were installed and the car pretty much completely assembled the front wheel wells were coated over the inner fender panel, along the area of the fenders that meet the splash shields and up over the top of the fender. For this year and plant the coverage was pretty heavy and covered a good percentage of the panels
Please forgive any spelling or wording errors. This was created in the moment so expect it to have some. If you have any questions please ask. This will help us flush out the descriptions and make the job of creating a full article easier. Will post some example picture over the next day or so. Hope this helps
