Topic: Undercarriage slop paint - Dearborn June 3rd 69

[69eliminator]

Can someone post some photos of the slop paint used on Dearborn built cars around the first week of June 1969?  The prior owner remembers then Cougar I'm restoring having a black undercarriage covered mostly by the body color almost to the tunnel. He says he has photos of the undercarriage but hasn't been able to find them. I have the car to the point where I am ready to start painting the bottom and could use some help/ advice on how to proceed as accurately as possible

Thanks
Brian

[Bob Gaines]

Can someone post some photos of the slop paint used on Dearborn built cars around the first week of June 1969?  The prior owner remembers then Cougar I'm restoring having a black undercarriage covered mostly by the body color almost to the tunnel. He says he has photos of the undercarriage but hasn't been able to find them. I have the car to the point where I am ready to start painting the bottom and could use some help/ advice on how to proceed as accurately as possible

Thanks
Brian

Details like the under side color are not something important back then that many people would remember correctly.Most likely the PO is remembering a darker gray. Typically regardless of other paint it was mixed with it the shade would be some kind of gray-blueish gray,greenish gray,dark gray etc. A picture on a monitor will only give you a general idea. Hopefully Jeff with his vast picture library will be able to comply.You will not get it exact unless you had a panel from a car made that day and even then it may be different if they were changing over to another tank. If all else fails I would suggest a medium to darker gray with a little metallic mixed in (one of the many possible ingredients)  .That seems to be a more common variation. It is hard to get wrong . It most likely could have changed by the day or week given the nature of the batch paint (mixed up unused extra colors ) . Something reasonable is usually the best you can hope for if the original panels have already been striped. That is all a reasonable concours judge would expect given the nature of the product.

[J_Speegle]

Like Bob posted the best place to look fro what color was being used was your original floor pans but as you report that resource is long gone

Being such a late car it could have been IMHO a red oxide car (from firewall rearward) but if you choose to rely on the prior owners report (you really don't have allot more to go on at this point) then we'll compare batch color from that period

If we knew the specific cay you car was completed on and we had another original example from that same day - we would have a better system to gather info from but unfortunately I haven't collected all that many from every week/day as of yet

Will go through my picture for June 69 Dearborn and report back

[69eliminator]

Thanks for all your help.
The car was built on June 3,1969.
Best
Brian

[J_Speegle]

Thanks for all your help.
The car was built on June 3,1969.

Just for the heck of it what VIN number would that make your car (only want/need the first four numbers ex. 5162xx)?  I've got some pictures from Cougars but they are more difficult to date since I don't have allot of books or data that helps like I do Mustangs and Shelby's. Might have some additional shots to share from that pile also .

[69eliminator]

Hi Jeff
5784xx
I sent you a PM as well
Thanks
Brian

[calypso]

Jeff,  are you saying that late build cars (mine is a July 70 Dearborn) could have been red oxide instead of slop??

[J_Speegle]

Jeff,  are you saying that late build cars (mine is a July 70 Dearborn) could have been red oxide instead of slop??

Your car would not be a "late build car" in this discussion  since yours is a 70 not a 69 - the focus of the question posted

Different year makes all the difference 

[J_Speegle]

Looking at the pictures I do have from Mustangs around the 9F196xxx period and the limited Cougars around the same time I offer the following since the poster lacks any original clues - next best choose at this point IMHO

Anyway looking through everything we got lucky and I happened to have to samples cut from cars from about that period. Here is a scan of them. Right one is in much better condition since it was under the sound deadener

Looks like the fairly typical dark gray batch with a tilt towards blueish green. I've used a dark gray VW gray exterior color in the past and tinted it to blueish thing it would work in this car also with maybe a little white (very very little) but would have to see what the green did to the mix first




Hope this helps





Also notice on the sample on the right you will see the sound deadener which would have been sprayed on your car over the batch color. Typically looks to be three passes front to rear from the center of the car (worker standing under trans and walking down the drivelien tunnel) starting just behind the torque box area on the sides and behind the trans in the center. Driveline and exhaust was not installed on the car at this period from what we find. All stop or fade away before the rear end rise in the floor board typically

 

[69eliminator]

Thanks Jeff,
Really appreciate  all the help.

Brian