Underbody coating

The plan is to take the whole shell back to bare metal and get rid of every trace of rust, was thinking of doing the underside in a high content zinc paint then appplying the orignal vw rubery underseal, anyone done something simular? opinions on this please, its a car i plan to keep forever

There was a recent post about underseal etc. Opinion seemed to be from a few to try out the following;

http://www.rust.co.uk/

A little pricey but good stuff!

I think i would prefer the rubber coating which they used from the factory on the basis that it would probably withstand stone chips etc much better, seems pretty tough stuff and with a good zinc paint under it i would imagine it would last a long time, the current stuff is all still on there even after nearly 25 years, what i realy want is someone who has done the same say 5 or ten years ago and there opinion on it

storm81, I think Rich (crazyquiff) is probably someone you should have a chat to.

He has done a few bare metal shell resto's (including the current Campaign he is working on). I think like you he used a high zinc based etch primer and then undersealed with some of the flexible, overpaintable sealant similar to the stuff used on the car originally.

Rich - you back from your hols yet?

Cheers,

Chris

Ive just finished the restoration of my shell and last summer I stripped every bit of under seal from the floor pan/inner turrets etc and treated it with epoxy mastic - this stuff is by far the best and it is rock'ard.

Give it two coats by either brush or spray. I brushed it on as I wanted a good thickness on it - I then had it sprayed the same colour as the panels and it came out really neat! Well pleased and no more rust! It will only be a dry day car anyhow but I still wanted the headache of rust delat with - BTW testament to VW as the only rust on the floor pan was at the rear of wheel well where the back panel meets it - the muck seems to gather there and do its worst!

I took the sealer off with a wire wheel on the hand grinder - dead messy but easy.