I've been sandblasting the underside of the SD body before it goes back on the chassis but short of the body colour found on the firewall and possibly some in the wheelwells, I don't see any evidence of original paint down under. Was it bare metal from the factory or painted, and if so what colour?
This is a question that I would want the answer before I paint mine. But, if it could help a bit, when I removed the undercoating under mine, I found all the underneath all paint in green army style, the car was apple green. I suppose they paint under the car like the over part with primer, and don't paint under, leaving primer alone. And most of the new owner bought those car with dealer applied undercoating. I saw overspray into the rear wheel well and under the rocker panel.
To me, the underneath is near car color match primer.
Fitz.
__________________
www.FitzbackGarage.com Look for Easy Steering in your vintage Poncho, Look for the EasyDrive Power Steering System in the web site
when I was getting mine painted.. the look I saw most consistantly was painted firewall with a faded blend onto the underside. as though you stood outside the engine compartment and shot what you could reach with the paint gun.
don't take my word for it but i might have been a very thin coat of semi gloss black
Right answer! While I was drilling out some broken body bolts today I had a lot of time 'downunder' to scope things out. What I found was under the old rubber mounting pads was a thin coat of 'chassis black.' I also see a small area the same along the driveline.
I guess the body colour was applied and Kelico says was feathered down the firewall (mine has drips). The body was then presumably dropped on the chassis with engine previously installed, then front clip?
My 65 Beaumont 4 spd car had red paint under the car above and around the tunnel hump but most that I have seen have paint in behind the gas tank and faded from the fire wall back with the stock primer under the other areas. I cut out the old tunnel so I could show you. I painted mine completely under it because I thought it looked better but the fade would be correct also.