Underbody Coating

UNDERBODY COATING - CASE STUDY

• Introduction:

Underbody coatings is used to protect the vehicle chassis from the external environment, to ensure the integrity and safety of cars. The use of UBC plays a important role in the service life of the vehicle. In general, it is required to spray such a protective coating in the manufacturing of the new car. You can also get a thinner clear coating which is like a lacquer that coats the entire entire under side of the car. Some even inject rust preventive coating material into crevices such as the bottom of the doors and door sills, to prevent them from rust.

Some car manufactures already offer some underbody coating straight out of the factory which is usually sprayed inside the wheel arches and under the floor board of the car.

Above photo shows the Underbody coating process

Many car owners all knows the regular maintenance the vehicle by changing the engine oil and having the paint polished, but the little attention has been paid to the bottom of the car. There are many cars that surface looks glossy, while the under body already rusting.

• Types of Underbody coating

• Rubberized Undercoating

Rubberized undercoating is easy to apply, and generally offers best coating for all car under carriage . It cushions surfaces against moisture, rust, dings and dents. Rubberized undercoating is safe to use on quarter panels and wheels as wells and drives with soft rubbery finish.

• Asphalt-Based Undercoating

Asphalt-Based Undercoating offers a higher level of protection suitable for large trucks, recreational vehicles and heavy machinery. It’s formulated with some bits of rubberized material to aid in noise reduction. It offers extra protection against chips moisture but is not paintable and, therefore, only suitable for undercarriage

• Polyurethane Undercoating

Polyurethane Undercoating is easy to apply and works by sealing up cracks and seams. The compound displaces salt and moisture and protects the unoxidized metal from rust. It’s often sold in canisters that are ready to preload into an application gun. It, however, requires some surface prep work before application, like degreasing, and applying an etching primer to the bare metal.

• Pros of Underbody Coating

Here are the some important benefits of underbody coating

• Prevent from stone chip

There are thousands pieces of stones on the road, and they are constantly hitting your car on the under body, wheel arches, sills and the trunk lower part while driving on the road. In some cases, the under body might be scratched by uneven road. As such the thin corrosion protection coating on the metal sheet will be destroyed and leave the bare metal exposed to the air, which will soon come to corrosion when contact with the moisture in the air. If not promptly getting anti-rust treatment, then the rust will soon spread to large areas. Under body coating or the anti-stone chip coating is a thick elastic layer which could not be easily damaged by stone chipping or scratch, therefore could basically protect the metal sheet of the under body.

• Rust Prevention

Ideally any additional underbody coating should be applied when the car is brand new and clean. Car manufacturer use thick paints sealants for the underbody, but adding an underbody coat especially in coastal cities is useful. Salt water tends to corrode cars really badly.

• Keep the value

A car could keep a high value while it is well maintained. It means that if a car is well treated on under body protection, it could keep the car in a good condition and extend the car’s service life, or you could charge a higher price in a used-car trading.

• Improve driving comfort

After curing, the under body coating becomes a thick elastic coating covering the whole under body, which could act as a good dampening material, significantly reduce the vibration of the metal sheet and reduce the noise inside the car.

• Collision body repair

For a collision body repair, usually metal part need to be re-shaped or replaced some of the parts. These new parts also need to be treated against rust and anti-stone chip. So it is still mandatory to spray a under body protection coating on the repair car. Because it doesn’t need spray gun and compressed air, aerosol UBC seems to be more suitable for small area repair.

• Cons of Underbody Coating

Here are the some downside of the underbody coating.

• High cost

Cost of underbody coating has come down, but still it is expensive. This is because of underbody coating offered by by a car dealer is one way in which they make money off the customer

• Risk of damage during application

Care must be taken while applying underbody coating. This thick rubberized point if not applied properly, can get into moving mechanical parts and cause parameter failure – such as into the U - joint or CV joints in a cars propelled shaft and drive shafts. They can also hinder smoother movement of suspension components, if applied incorrectly.