Paint question for TATA owners
 

Taking a survey.

What was the original underbody color (underside of the floorpans) on your TATA? And at which plant was your TATA built...Van Nuys(Los Angeles) or Norwood?

Thanks!

I had an original paint TATA years ago. It was a VN car, pans appeared to be black, no coating, with the silver overspray on the outer edges. I've noticed the same on all VN cars. I've owned 7-8 79s over the years, oddly, all happened to be VN cars. I've heard Norwood cars were red oxide but not sure.

My 24200 mile original paint car has the darker upper body color on the floorpans.

Black (black oxide primer) with silver overspray is what I thought it should be.

By the way, I have 2 79 TA's from Norwood and both have black, as do my 3 Van Nuys cars(2 79's and one 81)

I've always thought all 79-81's are black underneath.

But I a guy on one of the Facebook pages pointed out a restored TA specialties TATA with gray. I thought they had just done it wrong. But he has a low mile 81 SE that he says also had original gray on the underside, and his car was from VN. So that's why I was wondering.

Thanks!

Thanks for responding. That would be different. Are you sure it's not black oxide primer with some silver overspray around the outer edges of the pan? That could appear to be gray in those areas, and those areas are easiest to see when looking under the car. But the inner part or center of the underside might still be black. Have you checked the center? Thanks!

Most if not all 68-69 have body color on the floorpans , extending about 9 inches from the rockers. Hey John Glasco, with your experience with non undercoated 77-81 TA's, what is correct? Johns one the best in the business, he'll know. The dark grey tu tone on the 79 TATA could appear to be black, but it sure looked grey to me a month ago when I detailed the bottom.

Original paint 1978 Y88 built at Van Nuys.


http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...pseqsed5li.jpg

Every 79 I have owned has had a black underbody with body colored overspray around edges, including the 5 TATA's I have owned from both plants.

So what have we determined?

Well so far, everyone who has responded has said theirs was black underneath, with your possible exception of dark gray.

My 79's and an 81 have black, so I thought the TATA would the same, and it appears they are. I wanted to see if the factory did anything different with them underneath, like spraying it all body color or a different primer color.

There was the TA specialties restored TATA, where they painted the bottom gray, which I wondered about. And another guy mentioned he has an 81 SE that he said had gray under his low mile original car. And it's not a dark gray. He put up some pics. It looks more like a lighter to medium gray. So, I was wondering if there are any more out there with gray.

Thanks for the pic Bentwheelbob. But we know 78 and older are red oxide, so no mystery there :) . This topic is really about TATA's and 79-81's, and whether anyone has seen a different primer color than black on them. Thanks!