By Owen Webb
Meguiar’s Australia

Undercarriage - Street
Engineering and detailing the undercarriage is a big dilemma for many car owners, as most vehicles are regularly street driven. This can still be achieved, you just have to think it out and plan it. For street driven cars suspension parts can be modified and powder coated or painted. All paintwork underneath should be two pack (catalyzed with hardener) for durability and ease of cleaning. The finish of two packs is also more robust and smooth and therefore easier to remove road grime.

Exhaust systems can be modified making neater joins and tidying up or replacing brackets while it is off the car. With rear wheel drive cars the diff assembly can be removed, smoothed over and painted which tidies up the undercarriage enormously.

Undercarriage - Show
For a full on show car with limited street use, which is starting to emerge, the undercarriage is what will take you to the next level of competition. The car needs to be stripped bare of all parts, paint, and then start from scratch. The direction you decide to go is still based on personal taste, money or suitability for your circumstances. One direction is to use existing components and re-engineer the car underneath using the original floor pan with the proof cote cleaned off, seams welded, creases smoothed out, and painted with two pack. The alternative is to replace with false floor, smoothing all joins and fitting existing or new modified mechanical components in new recesses in the floor.

My preference is to work with existing floor pan, although there is more work to make it look good, therefore higher points if it is quality workmanship. After the floor is complete the next area is up in the wheel arches. This area is mostly filled with large wheels but the judges will also look closely at this area. The real issue here is the more you do the more you have to do, as any area not smoothed and detailed will stand out dramatically.

Like all other area’s of the car the undercarriage also needs to be thought out and planned especially with the location of lines, wiring and exhaust system. The more of these items removed or hidden the easier to clean and detail for showing.

When actually building a full on show car with undercarriage detailing the car should be on a spit (rotisserie) so welding, filling, smoothing and painting can be carried out in a vertical position not under the car on your back.

The biggest decision you have to make is the amount of street use you have in mind for your car. If you are intending to drive it regularly, tidy up and paint and if your intentions are full on show get to work and join the elite.

next >>

back to Judging