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Hi all,

I'm in the middle of a resto on my FHC, I'm (finally) getting to the point of being ready to paint the underside, having removed all the paint and underseal, and cut out all the rust (see blog in my sig).

Couple of questions:

1. I'll be painting the underside in POR 15, and am wondering what to topcoat it with. My original thought was to just brush paint with the POR chassis coat, but then I got thinking about topcoating in body colour. Is it worth the effort? I'd like to have it body coloured, but this is going to be more of a drivers car than a show-n-shine concours effort. Opinions would be appreciated, especially in terms of maintenance and longevity.

2. The sills are currently painted black (see below), but I'm having difficulty deciding whether to keep them that way, or paint them in body colour (car is being resprayed anyway at some point so cost/hassle isn't really an issue). I like the way the black makes the car look a bit more streamlined, but at some angles it gives the illusion of looking quite high off the ground!

Ta for any input!

Garry


Garry

1976 2.0 (soon to be 3.5!)FHC
http://reds-tr7.blogspot.com/

For what it's worth, black sills every time on an unmolested car...
Body-kitted? A different matter: colour-code everything!

Maxwell [8D][8D][8D]

Black works for me as well on a standardish car!

My DHC was resprayed with Body coloured sills. It wasn't my choice, but having got it back it looks OK and if I ever get fed up it can easily be changed back to black so I would go for it.

I like black. In fact I had mine sprayed a flat/satin finish which makes repairing stone chips so much easier. The lack of a mile deep shine at that level on the car is fine. I still wax it to help keep the dirt from sticking to it. [:D]

The sills done in black was part of the styling. The TR7 was considered to be too broad sided and blacking the sills made it look sleeker. The swage line was also there for similar reasons.

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Leave the under side POR-15 black. Not worth painting it body colour unless your going for concourse points. I personally I like black sills. Body colour sills make it look like a 80's/90's car which something it's not.



TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by John Clancy</i>

The sills done in black was part of the styling. The TR7 was considered to be too broad sided and blacking the sills made it look sleeker. The swage line was also there for similar reasons.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

So was that done at the factory then? I always thought it was something done after that...

If that's the case, that's another mark for the black sills! Although the car is going to end up a fair way from original (the new engine will see to that), I'd at least like it to look standard-ish. I'm also considering putting the light panel back to the original black (been oversprayed in red currently), but that's something to decide later.

FI Spyder: You're probably right, I would prefer body colour, but I think that's going to be too much hassle. Give it six months and it'll end up being a dirty grey-brown anyway! [;)]

Garry

1976 2.0 (soon to be 3.5!)FHC
http://reds-tr7.blogspot.com/

Red,

Check out my photobucket page or signature block. My car's sills are body coloured, but in my honest opinion i'd go with black sills everytime (not that i don't like mine, but it's gotta be black each time).

The pheonix rises from the ashes - just give it time!http://s733.photobucket.com/albums/ww338/macmattom/

If ya go into my photo album, there is a pic of my dark red TR7. If ya wanna see something different, the Previous owner painted the sills semi-gloss Gray. I like it (on my car. IMHO)

Johnny

I debated the sills also and decided to go with the flat black. As noted, makes the car look longer and sleeker IMO. Plus if it gets messed up , which it will, a quick respray is no big deal.

My MGB was done inside out in body color. I used the spray on chip gaurd beneath the paint on the underside. I ended up undercoating the wheel wells. This was back in 92. Not sure what it looks like under there now but pretty sure it would take some elbo grease to get to the BRG.[:)]

Some of the MG guys have reported using the spray on truck bedliner on the underbellys with good result. Should work well for stone abrasion and I believe it can be tinted.

72 MGB BRG
80 TR8 Persian Aqua
If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

I had to make the same decision when I did my respray last year. I decided to paint everything red including the rear panel which is also usually black on earlier cars. In my opinion it is much better without the dowdy black sills. The satin black will never gleam & shine like gloss paint.


Never say die. At least not while you're still breathing.

Body colour all the time, for me.
At the end of the day, your having it re-sprayed anyway. See what it looks like in one colour, and if you don't like it paint the cills black.
It's your car at the end of the day and I'm sure it will look good either way [;)].

I'm with the two last posters.......it will be mono-colour all the way for me, when my car gets it's eventual 1st respray.
(I really like Peters red fhc, with the dark center rims)
-never appreciated the flat black rocker sills (or rear panel for that matter) makes me think of a bodger patch and rattle-can spray job, like what you see on the beaters to cover rust on the lower sections......


As for the chassis and underside, unless I'd be doing a complete rotisserie resto (like Beans fhc), only then would I contemplate painting the chassis the same colour as the body....if the car is to be driven on the street....I'd stick with the gravel guard/ undercoat black on the undercarriage....it makes detailing and retouches so much easier (and yes I do wash my underside,suspension, inside wheels at least once a year)

Ron.

I had a dark blue metalic FHC, fully colour coded, & it looked
really great. It had a kind of menacing edge to its appearance.

However I think my orange/red FHC looks sleeker with black bumpers &
sills. The black sills seems to camouflage them, & make them
disappear, making the car look lower.

Hasbeen