Did the 72 Cutlass get undercoating applied to the inner plastic fenderwells?

In looking at mine, it appears that half of an undercoat job is left, but not sure if it is factory.
If factory, I would like to reapply it. It looks like I can pull it off since the wheels and hubs are off.
Can a wirebrush be used to remove the rest of the old crap and scuff the surface to better hold the new UC?

 

Anyone know? Assy manual does not mention it.

 

Not sure on a '72, but my '68 had the inside of the inners fully coated with this goop....same as the whole underside. I can 'peel' small chunks of it off and expose the pristine plastic underneath. I haven't tackled completely removing all of it yet....

 

Thanks Indy - I can scrape it off with my fingernail - it is thin and hard, probably deteriorated. Most is gone as it is.
Sounds like your car had it too. I was just not sure if UC was used much back then.

Since I have the front suspension off I may just pull those inners, clean em up and use some spray-can undercoat on them. They look nasty right now...

 

Sure....
AFAIK, cars destined for northern climates got this stuff. Southern bound cars did not. Mine was originally destined for WA state so they hosed it with the tarry goop.

It did its job as the underside body & frame (where coated) were in good shape despite being a run_hard_put_up_wet_midwestern_salt_exposed_kept_o utside car...

I can peel dried out chunks (looks like pieces of tree bark) off the inners where its smooth, but haven't figured out how to efficiently remove it from contoured areas. I've seen/read somewhere of people using heat to soften/loosen the UC.

There's also the matter of the tops being grayed and rough...but I'm not sure how to address this... If you come up with a restoration solution for the plastic wells, post it up in one of your 'tutorials' ! I'd like to know.

 

Hey Rob,

I had that stuff all over my fenderwells in the front, it's kinda like a caked-on tar, i got it off with a pressure washer and my car on the lift, i think i'm going to have it reapplied once i finish patching the floors and get my car undercoated.

Cheers,

Tony

 

Thanks guys for the insights.
Seems like this WAS factory applied so i will try to restore it.
I hope to get the worst of it off the flatter areas (not much even left there) and whatever is in the countoured ares that will not come off easily, will just get recoated over. I would not apply much heat to the plastic.
Hopefully this will be an easy job.......

 

found it on my 69 inners also, sprayed and soaked them with wd40, and a day later, it almost wiped right off.

not sure I would use wd40 if you were going to paint them though.

tim

 

I plan to use a generic spray undercoat, so i will try to scrape it, sand it, or brush the old stuff off. I will pull the inner when i get home to see what I can do with it.

 

Hey Rob, My 71 Cutlass Supreme had the same undercoating on the front plastic inner wheel housings ( she was a New York car). Either the factory or the selling dealer applied this (remember Ziebart under coating). Anyway, I removed this from mine with engine degreaser, a good brush, & Schotchbright pad. I soaked the plastic housings with the engine degreaser then worked the undercoating off. When I was finished they looked NEW when wet. Once I dried them they looked faded, so I painted them with a SEMI gloss spray paint. Now they look GREAT...I hope this helps you....fred~

 

Yep, mine too (69). I removed it and never put it back on.

 

Mine are nasty under there. 153k miles of nicks and scrapes and discoloration. I figured readding the undercoat will make them look a heck of a lot better. I do not expect any sound dampening by it...