1978 TA undercarriage/ bottom metal coating paint?
 

Hi, I recently rented a steam pressure washer to clean the undercarriage/bottom of my 78 Solar Gold TA before installing new exhaust and suspension. I removed 45 years worth of old dried caked on oil, transmission fluid, grease grim etc. taking it back down to clean bare metal in most places. There are some areas which still have what looks like a reddish zinc Oxide type paint on the floor panels. I've owned the car 38 yrs. My car is 99% factory and I would like to keep it that way. My question is was the chassis, frame, and floor panels originally painted/coated under there or was it originally bare metal? Ames says it had the zinc oxide coating which make sense as there is still some left. Classic Industries says it was all painted black which I know is false. I asked the tech rep why there wasn't any black paint left and hew said because my care i old? Sorry for the long rambling post lol, Charlie

I found my answer by researching previous posts on this topic so no help needed. I tried deleting the post, just can't figure out how?

For sake of replies, your car is a 78. They used a red primer up until that point for the body shell. You'll find the same inside if your removed the dash or trim, carpet or seats. Same inside the trunk on the sides and under the rear shelf. The shade and formula changed a few times over the previous years and cars were originally dipped, later only sprayed. The 79-81 models used the black.

Many places make claims that are only partially correct, they don't say what or why. Often a tech rep knows how to look up vast numbers of repro part numbers for all manner of models, it doesn't mean they know specifics of any particular model. For many it is just a job, some are car fans, not always. They may know everything about Corvettes or Mustangs, but not a lot on Firebirds. Being vague is often as good as it gets, otherwise they are only reading off the ad that another similar guy wrote who was also guessing.

SPI(Southern Polyurethane Inc) sells a red oxide epoxy primer
Clean all grease with preKleno and sand with 80 grit then apply