what paint should I use for my wheel wells?

I'm repainting the whole car, and I am just finishing up the smoothing of the engien bay area. Today I took a wire wheel to the wheel well and took off all the factory undercoating (I presume). I am considering paintthing this blue (to match the rest the of car)
painting it with POR 20? (or which ever POR you recomend)
or undercoating it.

I have it down to primer and some baremetal. so i would have to primer it first.

I'm interested in what you guys recomend and why. this will be for a daily driver, and unfortunatly up here in canada, we get a lotta rain on the west coast

 

anyone got any input?

 

Undercoating so when rocks hit it you don't think WTF was that? Plus tar and oil won't be as noticable. Or you can put little tiny mirrors like a disco ball!

 

do you guys recomend primering, painting then under coating? or just under coating over primer? or por 15 and then under coating?

cheers

blake

 

I would prime it first but I don't think it's gonna matter unless the undercoating cracks for some reason.

 

If they have rust all over them por 15 would be the way to go.. If they are jut bare metal with little bit of rust I would primer them with some expoy primmer and than get some good undercoat..

 

i took a wire wheel to it to strip the old stuff off, took awhile, and risked getting wires projected at me (wire wheel on grinder!!!). should look all good and fresh. i might give it a coat of por 15 or whatever grade, and then under coating.

Does por 15 act as a primer as well (capable of sticking to bare metal just as good as if it were on primer)

cheers

blake

 

no, im pretty sure por 15 needs something to stick to. I "think" they say a ruffed up not bare surface is best. Prime it first.

For my wheel wells i just undercoated them then painted them gloss black. They are holding up fine and look great all the time!

 

Marine Clean to get rid of the grease and oils, and Metal Ready to prep the surface. Than the POR 15 goes on and it's all good, unless you get it on your skin, then it's a tattoo for a month.

 

I just did mine I sprayed them with 3M rubberized undercoating. I used that because the factory had undercoating there I think they had a reason to do it that way. I also took the plastic liners out and cleaned and armor-alled them. If you use POR 15 you don't need primer marine clean and metal ready will prep the surface as previously mentioned. If the metal is rusted or rough you don't need metal ready.

 

I have never used por 15. But i thought it was suppose to only go on rust.. I think i read some were that they want u to spary water on the metal if its clean so it will rust alittle. That true?

 

^ No, if it's bare metal you just use their "Metal Ready" product to etch the metal or w/e it does. You're better off leaving light surface rust b/c A) it's less work, and b) it's less costly (no need to buy Metal Ready, less time spent prepping)

 

3M rubber undercoating will be just fine, looks pretty good and is functional as well.

 

i got the wheel well competley clean (well one of two sides done, takes about an hour). just needs a degress before paint. i think i might prime it, then pain it, with lots of clear (car is a total rebuild basically, i've already had it on jackstands for 2 years), and then let it be for now, undercoating can alway sbe done later, and is simple as hell. at least i'd have the same amount of coats as per factory. no rust got through to the wheel wells. so the gm undercoating held up great. I can also apply the undercoating as soon as i do the c5 brake install with everything mounted back in, just for the bling bling picture.

cheers

blake