I'm very nearly finished on the mini shell weld-a-thon, 18months of learning to weld and repairing my mini, the question is what to paint the underside with .... i'd like something red to match the rest of the body, i don't want that black oily sh*t it had on before, it didn't stop it rusting it just covered it up and it took me weeks to get it off and it will again when it rusts again.

so its something body coloured ... red
something hard wearing
something easy to repair
the car won't be going out in the rain just occasional hooning

its in red lead at the moment so i thought 2 coats of smoothrite ... any better ideas.

I've used Hempathane on mine after seeing the shot blaster painting some oil rig offshore modules.

Expensive to start with as it comes in 5l tins it seems the complete primer and top coat solution to me.

In my experience, smoothrite chips quite easily.

I painted under all 4 wheel arches on my old TR7 Years ago with silver smoothrite & I just used to touch it up now & again, in the main it stayed looking good.

I thought if I ever do the same on our classic mini, I think I will strip it, primer it, spray that stone chip stuff on & then do body colour over the top. Unless anyone gives you some better ideas that I can nick :-)

Is it on a spit or just axle stands?
As smoothrite is too runny to brush paint on if its on axle stands.

I've used non-drip gloss on a few cars now, great finish and doesn't run down your arm when brushing on!
But I will say it's only good for a top colour coat, you need something underneath to protect/seal your newly welded seams etc.
I used Rust Bullet Automotive as the protective coat, then sealed all seams etc with polyurethane sealant, then as many coats of non-drip gloss as required.
Well happy with how they came out

Silver is the Rust Bullet, Evo was taken back to bare metal:


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Underseal is fine as long as you inspect it regularly and sort any patches that have scraped off, you usually only get problems on low cars where it can come off scraping on the deck. If it were me I would rust treat the bare metal with one of these rust neutralisers like Fortran even though there is no rust as it will leave a protective coating, I would Hammerite / Smoothrite over this and underseal over this, stones bounce off underseal rather than chipping it. You could use an over paintable underseal and paint the car colour over it but I prefer black because as soon as you get any scrapes you can be straight under with an aerosol can of underseal to fix it.

[Edited on 14/2/15 by Scuzzle]

Maybe this stuff? Not used it myself but it seems up your street.
http://www.frost.co.uk/por15-hardnose-2k-urethane-red-two-component-coating-us-quart-946ml.html

Underseal is fine on a daily car or one you haven't restored the underside on, but imo if its just a weekend car that you've cleaned all the underside on body colour looks a much better job.

I used POR15 from Frost's on my Locost chassis after spending weeks stripping the car to the bare chassis and removing the crap powder coating, IIRC I used 2 coats , different colours so I could see that it had been covered, followed by top coating with Hardnose again from Frosts. Coming up to 6 years now and still looks good even after several very damp trips and could be touched up if needed

I used this stuff on my Monte after stripping the underside and rust treating it- http://www.fertan.co.uk/item-ubs120_transparent_wax_underseal.htm


They say it isn't over paintable but I did it with black chassis paint once it had set and it's super tough and has been for nearly 10yrs now

If you want to do it body colour then you'll need an extra layer of this on top of the UBS220 - http://www.fertan.co.uk/item-over_4_bodywork_and_stone_chip_p.htm

[Edited on 14/2/15 by Nickp]

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Originally posted by CosKev3
Is it on a spit or just axle stands?
As smoothrite is too runny to brush paint on if its on axle stands.

I've used non-drip gloss on a few cars now, great finish and doesn't run down your arm when brushing on!
But I will say it's only good for a top colour coat, you need something underneath to protect/seal your newly welded seams etc.
I used Rust Bullet Automotive as the protective coat, then sealed all seams etc with polyurethane sealant, then as many coats of non-drip gloss as required.
Well happy with how they came out

Silver is the Rust Bullet, Evo was taken back to bare metal:


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Exterior non drip gloss for wood and metal

If your minis bright red you'll find some easily that will match near enough.

http://rustbulletuk.com/content/12-automotive

Rust Bullet needs a minimum of two coats, it's unreal how hard it goes off.Make sure you clean around the rim of the tin before closing, as you will knacker the tin getting it open the next time you want to use it!

I used kbs rustseal on my anglia as I wanted off white and you cannot get por15 in that colour in the UK. But it is all in the prep, do as they suggest - wire brish, aquaclean degreaser, clean water wash, metalprep, clean water wash, leave to fully dry, paint (I did 3 coats). Remember this stuff stick, get it on kpyou skin and you have to wait for your skin to shed, wear gloves anspd a paper suit. Not cheap but I am happy with the results for a brush job.

Pictures here before and after - http://anglia1968.weebly.com/bodywork.html

Hi, when I did mine i etch primed the bare metal, then 2k primer followed by seam sealing all the joints, followed by 2k primer again then stone chip and finally the body colour

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Unfortunatley I don't have a pic of the underside in colour but you can see in the wheel arch how it looks

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