Alright, so in the midst of my project, I've decided that while I'm waiting for my engine and transmission to get built that its time for some body work. The car is getting painted here soon, and I'm debating just tearing the whole car down to a bare frame.

But, for now, its just going to be paint and some rust removing and rust repair, so my first question is this. What is better to coat your car with? Rust Bullet or POR15? I want to coat the engine underside of the car after I sand it all down to bare metal but I want to make sure that I use the best possible product that I can.

The only serious rust that I have on the entire car is a few spots of surface rust underneath, the "lips" where the sheet metal is all stamped together underneath are starting to bubble, and the passenger side wheel well has 3 larger bubbles in it, but has not made it through to the other side yet. So nothing major. Oh yeah, and I have a bad spot in my battery tray, but who doesn't?

After that, my car is factory Brilliant or Bright red, and I want to re-paint it that color, but I don't even know if they still make it anymore. I know GM has Victory and Torch red, but they are a little different. So what paint should I go with? I don't want to spent way way too much on a gallon of paint, but I don't want to get cheap stuff either. My plan was to get a midranged paint, and a clear coat more towards the top of the price range since its really what protects the paint and makes the car shine.

What do you guys think?

I want to get the color as close as possible because as of now, I'm not going to be tearing the whole car apart for paint.

Also, any tips or advice on how to go about coating the entire underside of the car would be greatly appreciated, thanks again guys!

 

If I remember Ill write down ppg's corresponding paint code and Ill bring it back to you. then you can just go to a body shop supply place and theyll mix it up (place like Colours)

 

That would be a huge help. I don't know paint codes or anything. Thanks. Do you have a preference to Rust Bullet or POR15?

 

Well, if it worked, I'd give a to the RustBullet... Requires, in my own experience, TWICE as much work as POR-15 just to get it to adhere to what's already there. If you plan on using the black on top of the silver auto formula, forget it. It doesn't stick. Already spent $370 on the stuff (4 quarts silver and 2 quarts black), and I'm probably going to have the car sandblasted to get it all off...

There is a stuff called KBS Rust Seal that's still cheaper than either, comes with everything needed to prep the car, and in more colors.

Don't apply either when the temp is above 75 or you're not going to get a smooth finish as they all advertise (the other reason I'm stripping it off). Do tear everything down to the bare frame. That way, you can clean everything up and find out what's rusted and what's good. And you can also coat brake and fuel lines (not the fittings!) and other things that just might look nasty.

 

I have used these with success.

http://www.magnetpaints.com/underbody.asp Painted my rear axle with this.

http://www.masterseriescoatings.com/index/ag111/ I have this under my entire car, dark grey. I brushed it on.

For my next project I will try this:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-CSUMUP501/ Epoxy is an excellent corrosion fighter. Plus it doesn't have the nasty fumes like the urethanes.

 

I really like the looks of the KBS 3 step system. It looks great on all the user submitted images of it. I might just take the whole car apart and do it all over with that now! I would really like to take the whole car down to just a chassis and get it resprayed that way, but how much paint am I looking at to do that? Two gallons? What all would I need to get this done like that?

I really do want this car to last forever, I don't care so much as engines and transmissions and stuff of that nature going out, I want the body to be in as great a shape as it is now for the foreseeable future. Rust protection is a must!

 

Remember when using Rust Bullet or POR15, they're formulated to be put over rust. They're not formulated to be put over paint, primer or even clean, bare metal. They're rust encapsulators, in order to encapsulate rust, rust must exist for the product to be successful. I've used both, including Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator and they all work fine.....when used as intended. I've also used them to cover bare metal and it's not as effective, but it still works.

 

sorry it took me so long, I kept forgetting to write down the code. But for RPO wa 8774 the PPG paint code is 3794. Thats called "Bright red" Which also happens to be the color of my car lol,