63 bottom floor pan color, red oxide or black???

[bobs409]

So... it's almost time to paint the bottom of my new floor and was all set to spray it GM chassis black but another post mentioned red oxide. So which is correct???

I dug through the scrap pile and found a few section of my old floor pan to see what it had. I honestly do not see ANY signs of red primer anywhere. I would think I should see something even with the heavy undercoat.

When I chip off some undercoat, I do see what appears to be either black or bare metal with white spatter over spray. (my car is white) It appears be everywhere, not just near the rockers, etc where you might find over spray.

If it matters, my car is a Baltimore, MD built car, May of '63.

 

[Ishiftem]

My car was red oxide.

 

[real61ss]

The old Late Great Chevy Assoc used to accept either Red Oxide or black as correct. It was also proven later that some came with grey primer. My '61 SS had grey primer, it was an Atlanta car.

 

[1961BelAir427]

Glad Tommy posted that.....I'd always seen either the red oxide or black on restored cars, yet the old unrestored '61 cars (several just parts cars) we used to have looked to be either bare steel or grey primer......so I'd always wondered. My Bel Air was built in Atlanta and has grey on the underside floors. The Parkwood was a LA built car and had black floors.....can't say if they started out that way or not.

 

[63impalass409]

Both of my 63 ss cars built in January of 63 in l a had red oxide and my 65 was just a rust and undercoat

 

[63 dream'n]

Mine was built in April, Los Angeles...... red oxide

 

[bobs409]

I checked again and there is NO red primer on my old pans. If anything at all, it would be a thin coat of black at best but has the white spatter all over it. See:

 

[bobs409]

A few more questions. Did the factory undercoat these? If so, maybe the undercoated cars got the black and those that had no undercoat got the red primer?

I think I'll have to go black with mine. (minus the white spatter & undercoat)

 

[DonSSDD]

I'm sure I've seen red oxide with undercoating- I think the colour had more to do with the plant, some did red, etc. I think Cdn cars were all red, they had only one plant for most of the x frame years.

Don

 

[oldskydog]

I'm sure it was but would have been done by Fisher Body, not the final assembly plant.
The 62 Assembly Manual shows only undercoating/sound deadening applied at the final assembly plant and is Section 11-13, Sheet 3.00 where it is applied to the front inner skirts.

 

[Brandon 348/320]

Just had my body of my 60 Impala bead blasted. Before I had it done, I pressure washed the underside when it was on the rotisserie to see if this very thing. My car was built in Atlanta and is white. My bottom side looks exactly like the pictures you included. I assume that mine was grey primer with the little small white dots being the over spray of the white paint. No red oxide underneath body at all but upper body and inside interior red oxide was used. I thought the hole body would have been spray at once. But I do remember seeing assembly plant photos with guys wet sanding what looks like red oxide. So when would our cars be primed underneath? Fisher body or the assembly plant? Did different Fisher body plants use different primers just like we have heard different assembly plants doing things different? I thought I might paint mine back red oxide because it would give more contrast and look good against the black frame. What would you all do?

 

[GCAMINO]

My 63 Biscayne was built in California and was painted black on the underside. I've heard that 62 was the last year for red oxide on the bottom.

 

[blkblk63ss]

Just had my body of my 60 Impala bead blasted. Before I had it done, I pressure washed the underside when it was on the rotisserie to see if this very thing. My car was built in Atlanta and is white. My bottom side looks exactly like the pictures you included. I assume that mine was grey primer with the little small white dots being the over spray of the white paint. No red oxide underneath body at all but upper body and inside interior red oxide was used. I thought the hole body would have been spray at once. But I do remember seeing assembly plant photos with guys wet sanding what looks like red oxide. So when would our cars be primed underneath? Fisher body or the assembly plant? Did different Fisher body plants use different primers just like we have heard different assembly plants doing things different? I thought I might paint mine back red oxide because it would give more contrast and look good against the black frame. What would you all do?View attachment 25674

Don't do what we tell you to do , it's your car , you have to be happy with final result's we don't!!!!!

 

[bobs409]

But we need guidance.

Funny how long they carried things on the trucks. The 67-72 Chevy/GMC's had the red oxide floorboards as well. Trucks seemed to get changes last. (key on dash is another that comes to mind)

 

[real61ss]

I don't think undercoating had anything to do with what color primer was used. The normal color used at Atlanta was red oxide but I've seen several Atlanta cars with gray, it's my understanding that they used whatever happened to be in stock at the time. I think the way it worked was the plant would order X number of gallons of primer paint, the vendor would deliver the paint to the plant, if he didn't have X number gallons of red oxide he would supplement the order with what ever he had, be it gray, black or whatever. I've seen cars that had nothing but surface rust on the underside of the body, no signs of ever having any kind of paint on the underside.
My '61ss had primer shot in the seams along the rocker panels and inside the front and rear wheel wells. The front wheel wells had heavy primer on the roadside. The rear wheel house's were painted body color with undercoating over the paint. And, it wasn't overspray, there was a nice shinny white paint under the undercoating.