Engine Compartment and Chassis Detailing

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mechachy

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As some of you may have seen in my first post about being back in the Tiger game, I’m restoring a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang. For the Mustang, there are a ton of resources out there regarding the “proper” detailing of the engine compartment and chassis to achieve that just-from-the-factory look. Some of this includes, but is not limited to; correct assembly line paint markings, duplicating factory overspray, proper painting techniques, correct sound deadener/undercoating texture, etc. and all of this based on the build date of the car and the right production plant.

While neither my Mustang nor my Tiger will be show cars, I’ve found on the Mustang that doing things “right” is about as easy as doing things “wrong” and only slightly more work than not doing anything at all. I’d like to take the same approach with the Tiger when the time comes but so far I haven’t been able to find any resources. I did a search here but came up empty.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!
 
Not a trade secret

BON is a great source but you don't have to buy one to get its benefits.
 
Easiest Way

The easiest way is to meet with other Tiger owners and talk with them and look at their cars. Check out the Calendar section at the bottom of the Forum and look for CAT meetings. There is a meeting coming up next month at Woodley Park, in Van Nuys.

The other tools are the Rootes Shop Manual and Rootes Parts Manual. Both are available on CDs. The Tiger parts book is a supplement to the Alpine parts book. Some of the CDs are missing some of the Alpine book section, which leave out some of the Tiger information.
 
The BON is a great reference as are the period road tests with their engine bay photos.

The bon doesn't have all the finishes of the various clips, brackets etc .. So there is additional info/ research required
 
Thanks to all who replied.

Without making this a Mustang/Tiger comparison, which I certainly am not doing, I'm told one of the biggest mistakes Mustang restorers make when detailing their chassis is copying what someone else did as there was so much variation from plant to plant.

While perhaps the BON might have the detail I'm looking for, I'll throw out a specific question to see if perhaps someone has a definitive word. That question is how were the chassis and wheel wells finished? Was the bottom of the car primed and/or painted or was it covered with undercoating? Same question on the wheel wells.

My dad's car seems to have undercoating in the wheel wells and I would like to know if that's something he did back in the day or if that was from the factory.
 
This pic would suggest that the cars arrived at the dealer without undercoat... at least in Western Canada :)
attachment.php
 
mechachy said:
Thanks to all who replied.

Without making this a Mustang/Tiger comparison, which I certainly am not doing, I'm told one of the biggest mistakes Mustang restorers make when detailing their chassis is copying what someone else did as there was so much variation from plant to plant.

While perhaps the BON might have the detail I'm looking for, I'll throw out a specific question to see if perhaps someone has a definitive word. That question is how were the chassis and wheel wells finished? Was the bottom of the car primed and/or painted or was it covered with undercoating? Same question on the wheel wells.

My dad's car seems to have undercoating in the wheel wells and I would like to know if that's something he did back in the day or if that was from the factory.
Click to expand...

There is some conjecture over the order of these things and extent.

The underside is definitely body colour, as were the wheel wells. But there are several good examples of factory cars where the body colour doesn't make it to the centre of the car and the is the red oxide primer visible on the underside of the panels.

The general order was primer/undercoat/ paint... But steps 2/3 it didn't always make it to the centre.

Wheel arches are primer undercoat and paint ... A dealer might then add another undercoat over the paint, but that's not as it left the factory.

As s side note there might have been changes along the way during production as there are some early unrestored SIV alpines I've seen where there is evidence in the arches or primer, paint, undercoat and paint again. Also there is variation on how there areas were masked... But ultimately as it left the factory it would have been body colour as the final finish.
 
In my restoration I took a long time to heat and scrape off the underseal on the underneath of my Tiger. That exposed the dark red primer applied at the factory. I then painted the underside (it was on a rotesssery) in the midnight blue the Tiger was. When I finally got the body back from the shop, it was a great midnight blue. When I looked underneath it was gloss as well. Only when I got it home and did a final check, the paint man had painted over the colour and it is now black.:(
 
mechachy said:
As some of you may have seen in my first post about being back in the Tiger game, I’m restoring a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang. For the Mustang, there are a ton of resources out there regarding the “proper” detailing of the engine compartment and chassis to achieve that just-from-the-factory look. Some of this includes, but is not limited to; correct assembly line paint markings, duplicating factory overspray, proper painting techniques, correct sound deadener/undercoating texture, etc. and all of this based on the build date of the car and the right production plant.

While neither my Mustang nor my Tiger will be show cars, I’ve found on the Mustang that doing things “right” is about as easy as doing things “wrong” and only slightly more work than not doing anything at all. I’d like to take the same approach with the Tiger when the time comes but so far I haven’t been able to find any resources. I did a search here but came up empty.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Being a Tiger and Boss 302 restorer too, why not have a picture page of correct cars to show how things were done and where things go like the Boss 302 forum pages? I'm sure there are a lot of owners with properly done cars who would share pictures. It would be a great help to restorers.
 
Boring?

Maybe because the majority of Tigers in a concurs (car show) are Personalized and the Modified Class usually out numbers Stock as well.

TigerBlue is painted a GM metallic blue and my best feature under the hood is a Boss 302! :rolleyes:

PS Windsor heads of course. Those big port Boss heads are too wide.
 
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For what it's worth I do think a better more accessible guide to stick tigers would be a good thing. Yes while many people in the tiger community go down the personalised path, myself included, it's good to know what they were as delivered.

I had an unrestored car, but even that had in the course of its limited use had small details replaced in servicing in its past that were not correct, so getting it back to bone stock knowing how to maintain it as factory required some research... It would be beneficial to the marque if the information was better compiled and more readily available.
 
Albums

Everyone can establish public and private albums be nice to see the system we have available used. There is a bunch of space waiting.
 
For what it's worth I do think a better more accessible guide to stick tigers would be a good thing. Yes while many people in the tiger community go down the personalised path, myself included, it's good to know what they were as delivered.

I had an unrestored car, but even that had in the course of its limited use had small details replaced in servicing in its past that were not correct, so getting it back to bone stock knowing how to maintain it as factory required some research... It would be beneficial to the marque if the information was better compiled and more readily available.
Click to expand...
I totally agree.

There is a gentleman by the name of Jeff Speegle that spends time on both the Boss 302 forum and the Concours Mustang forum. Jeff is a wealth of knowledge on all things Mustang and this thread is a great example of the type of chassis detailing I'm referring to:

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=9374.0

Such a compilation would be a tremendous help to all of us but it would obviously need someone or a group of someones with lots of time on their hands to take ownership of a project like this. Finding some survivor cars would also be a huge help. My dad's car may fit this bill as far as the underside detail goes although the wheel wells look like they have had a liberal application of some now unavailable petroleum based undercoating that he applied himself.

I'll report in when I can really get under my dad's car to check things out.
 
CAT sections

What I was trying to say and encourage is for our best stock placing cars to build a album in their user page. We have more than one near 100 point car. All forum members may build and album and comments may be made and recorded in their visitor message board. Such albums can be made public or private meaning open to your selected contacts or free for the picking of the WWW bots. If I had a stock car with a great history of high point winning I'd hang up the pics in a private album add a thread and tag it for easier searches.

I understand the feeling of not wanting to restore things twice. I remember my first United and the inquisitive " Why don't you show your car don't you want to know what's wrong with it?"
Since I was still in the honeymoon stage I was taken back a little:)

As Woodley park is coming up there will be the best op to view the local talent. Next best would be the coming United. I will certainly encourage a few guys to make their album Book of _____ on CAT :cool:
 
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