Red oxide primer undercarriage?

[ERIK88]

I bought some red oxide primer, my questions is what car manufacturers used red oxide primer on their chassis? I know typically the chassis also had over spray from the body paint. What years or decades was red oxide used? 

Looks like grey primer wasn't as easily available in the 60s 70s? Most company's used red oxide? Researched online 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Red oxide primers were used extensively for many many years (and still are) on ferrous metal objects because of their corrosion-inhibiting properties. We currently have an original-paint '39 Ford in the shop, and where the paint has been polished through in several areas, the base coat is very obviously red-oxide.

As has been suggested here many times, to get an idea of what is correct for a particular model you're working on, research online underside photos of correctly restored or original examples of the make and model in 1:1.

 

[Mike Chernecki]

I think the red oxide was more common during the 1950s and earlier. Tri-5 Chevies are red oxide, yet my 1962 Nova convertible is light grey and my '68-'72 Novas are a dark grey.

[Snake45]

I "normally" associate red oxide undersides with Ford products (light gray for Chryslers, dark gray for GM), but have also see it on a '57 Chevy. But I could be wrong. As Ace said, try to research the particular car you're building to be sure.

[ERIK88]

Thank you so much for the tips guys! I will definitely take a look at undercarriage pics online. I was reading somewhere certain manufacturing plants used red oxide or "slop" and vehicles in California usually had red oxide 

I "normally" associate red oxide undersides with Ford products (light gray for Chryslers, dark gray for GM), but have also see it on a '57 Chevy. But I could be wrong. As Ace said, try to research the particular car you're building to be sure.

thanks for the reference :)

Thats very interesting info, ill definitely  research online.

[MrObsessive]

Erik, eBay Motors is a great place to find undercarriage shots of a particular vehicle. More than likely, the higher the sale price (especially for older vintage vehicles) the more likely there will be pics of EVERYTHING including the underside.

Also, don't overlook completed auctions..........they stay up on eBay for at least 90 days, so it's worthwhile to check those out too.

Hope this helps!

[10thumbs]

If the red oxide paint was real bright red, there was some left on the trunk area of a very low mileage 57 Bel Air I owned back in 1969.  The car had less than 40k miles on it and was in 1A condition overall.

[1972coronet]

Local suppliers also played a role in what primer(s) were employed . For an instance : Chrysler's Los Angeles Plant (City of Commerce) employed a black primer , which was an exclusive to that plant .

[Art Anderson]

Primer colors (shades thereof) also varied from paint manufacturer to paint manufacturer, particularly red oxide.   From the time in the early 1920's when the DuPont family stepped in and rescued GM from sure bankruptcy (due to President William Craop Durant's second round of stock speculation with company funds!), DuPont was the exclusive supplier of lacquers (from nitrocellose to acrylic) to all GM plants.  This ended in the mid-1960's when the government began to knock on GM's door.  Ford, from their beginning in using lacquer finishes beginning in late 1925, went with Ditzler, and stayed with PPG-Ditzler for decades afterward.

But, at least into the early-mid 1960's, all I saw as OEM primer (I had three body shops on my rather large Indianapolis Star morning paper route 1956-61, age 11-16), and got to see a lot of cars being repaired, couldn't help but notice the "edge" of primer around areas of sheet metal under repair--and I don't remember EVER seeing anything but red oxide.    I did see a couple of antique cars under restoration at Demerly's Body Shop though, and they were using gray primer as a guide coat (a coat of red oxide followed by a coat of gray, and saw the resuts when they sanded that out (remember, this was back in the day when body shops were still working with body solder--lead if you will-- with torch and wooden paddles for spreading it out).  But, no matter what color a primer was used, back then, the final primer used was always red oxide.  In addition, in June 1960 (I was 15 at the time) I was privileged to have won a week's trip to St Louis from a newsboys' sales contest, which included a "most of the day" tour of the Chevrolet (and Fisher Body Division) assembly plant in St. Louis.  The 1960 Chevies we saw being built all had red oxide primer under their body color (got to see the paint department!).

I'd be willing to bet that for the first 40 years ago, or so, vitually all paints used in the auto industry were created for use over red oxide, as surely with lighter, brighter paints, the color of the primer could cause variations in the final shade.  In addition, auto company advertizing, beginning with American Motors (and Volkswagen) back then frequently touted their "rust control"  (severe rusting was an issue for a long time after the industry introduced full-width "envelope" body shells, with running boards and fenders extending outward from the body sides no longer there to prevent splashing.  Those pictures in the likes of LIFE Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, Collier's clearly showed the use of red oxide.

On the other hand, I bought, new, a 1970 Barracuda in June 1970, and got to watch the dealer prep.  The car was up on a lift when I got there, and it was clearly red oxide underneath (built in Hamtramck MI, btw), but a year later, as scuffed dent exposed GRAY primer, so go figure.

Fast forward to 1990:  I bought a brand-new '90 Plymouth Grand Voyager, and when I saw it on the lift at the dealership, the entire underside of that van was NOT in primer!  Rather, it had been painted, at the factory, in the lower body color, and as nicely as the exterior surfaces at that!  Nothing like robotic painting!

Art

[BubbaBrown]

Probably what ever was cheapest