I recently had my care detailed and noticed that almost all the undercoating in the rear wheel wells was removed. What would you recommend I use to replace the undercoating?
You might want to go back to the detailer and tell them to put the under coat back on. It is very unusual for a detailer to remove under coat. You need to find out if this really happened. Who put the under coat on and why do you think it is missing?
What year is it? Did you have it undercoated? Cars don’t come with it from the factory, and it’s very seldom put on these days.
You can buy a spray-can version of rubberized undercoating and apply it yourself at any Wal-Mart. For an underbody you would want to buy maybe five pressurized cans, a cost of around $30. You would want to apply it after a dry spell, on as clean a surface as you can manage. This kind of application is actually superior to so-called professional applications, which ranges from nothing at all to almost nothing. Best bet is do it yourself, and much better.
It’s a 2003, had been a rental car. When I bought it it had very low mileage. It was spotless and I noticed that the rear wheel wells had a rough, black coating. In monthly washings I would spray out the wheel wells and all the mud would come off and leave this same lumpy, rough black finish. After a few years I noticed that some of the ‘finish’ had come off in spots, leaving a finish similar to the exterior of the car. Are you saying that the ‘black coating’ may have just been road spatter? What I have now is shiny, green wheel wells with some spots of “black coating”
Thanks for the info. I will just do the wheel wells, so I’m sure it’s something I can do.
My temptation would be to do nothing. If moisture gets trapped between the undercoating and the metal, this can cause rust. Any weak spot or crack in the undercoating can cause the moisture to be trapped.
Both you and texases came up with the same idea, I think. What I took to be undercoating in the wheel wells of my Forester looked black, rough and rubbery. Now I have shiny, green wheel wells that match the exterior finish of my car.
My concern is that because a lot of our ‘driveways’ here (Hawaii) are pretty rough (I really use my all-wheel feature) that things will get chipped up by flying lava rock.