1970 Boss 302 Grabber blue with green undercarriage?

[68stangcjfb]

I was putting a transmission in my friend's 70 Boss 302 today (going from a close ratio transmission to a wide ratio transmission) and I couldn't help but notice it's obviously green undercarriage instead of the usual red oxide primer you would normally see. This is an unrestored undercarriage and it is clearly all the original paint under there. This car has a mid January build date from Dearborn. Are there any other 70 Boss 302s in this time frame with this unusual green undercarriage paint? It's kind of like lime gold metallic without the metallic. Just for reference, some years back I worked on someone's 73 Mustang convertible that was light blue that also had this green paint on the undercarriage and this car was light blue and had 19,000 original miles on it.

[Bob Gaines]

I was putting a transmission in my friend's 70 Boss 302 today (going from a close ratio transmission to a wide ratio transmission) and I couldn't help but notice it's obviously green undercarriage instead of the usual red oxide primer you would normally see. This is an unrestored undercarriage and it is clearly all the original paint under there. This car has a mid January build date from Dearborn. Are there any other 70 Boss 302s in this time frame with this unusual green undercarriage paint? It's kind of like lime gold metallic without the metallic. Just for reference, some years back I worked on someone's 73 Mustang convertible that was light blue that also had this green paint on the undercarriage and this car was light blue and had 19,000 original miles on it.

Batch paint or slop paint is the typical underside paint used from the firewall rearward on 69 and 70 Dearborn Boss cars. Batch paint is a mixer of left over paints which is typically predominantly a gray but at times depending on the left over paint mixer can have different predominate tints like green, blue or even maroon in it.

[J_Speegle]

Red oxide is not what one would expect to see on a 70 Dearborn built car. Will find plenty of them on "restored" cars since organizations like MCA allow your choice of undercarriage colors. Dearborn rarely used a red oxide base for the firewall rearward application. Rec oxide was used prior to 69 at San Jose and all of NJ production of the Mustang

The base used was mixed with the remains of earlier exterior paint barrels creating a fairly custom mix that could change even during a day or so. Often the color comes out to a dark gray with blue or green tint but with 70's enlarged exterior color choices the ranges swings allot more than in the prior years. Of course with the addition of body color over spray the look can differ even more. In q970 the same or similar color/paint was used at times fro the firewall forward application by hand also.

Would have to look through my files to see if I have something like your description

[68stangcjfb]

Here are some pictures of the transmission tunnel area. Disregard any redoxide primer you might see in the pictures. The owner didn't know the green was correct and painted a little of red oxide over it.

[cboss70]

If you search YouTube for 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302- Unrestored Survivor a poster called Callaway Classics posted a nice video of a green undercarriage.

[J_Speegle]

In my collection I found the green floor color trend from 0F17xxxx into the later 180000's





For others with 70 Dearborn build Mustangs and Cougars here are a few pictures that represent the range of finishes typically found

[427hunter]

They must have painted a lot of green cars on that day of production.

[68stangcjfb]

If you search YouTube for 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302- Unrestored Survivor a poster called Callaway Classics posted a nice video of a green undercarriage.

In the video you suggested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTak2_MrgQs that car appears to have almost no under coating on the floors and wheel wells. Also no seam sealer on the seat belt mounts. was it removed or is that typical of production? If you look at my second picture, the undercoating on this car spreads from just past the transmission tunnel to the rocker panels on both sides and in the wheel wells. When it was sprayed, it appears the worker was standing under where the right-side muffler sits as that seems the be the spray pattern direction.  It is also sprayed lightly in the tunnel above the transmission closer to the firewall where the firewall and floor pan come together. I don't think it was dealer applied because there is no way a dealer could have sprayed it there without removing the transmission. This car also was a California delivery with the extra emissions hardware. The green on that car is sprayed pretty much exactly how this car is painted front to rear.

[J_Speegle]

In the video you suggested, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTak2_MrgQs that car appears to have almost no under coating on the floors and wheel wells.

Just to help. Typically we refer to the thick tar and asbestos material that was applied after the car was delivered to the dealership as "undercoating"  and the stuff applied at the factor as "sound deadener" to keep them separate in discussions

Are you referring to sound deadener in the rear wheel wells or front. Ford applied it to the rear wheel wells before body color was applied over it and I doubt that missing this step would pass any of the hundreds of inspectors on the line. As far as sound deadener being applied to the floor area that depended on the model of Mustang and the options in most cases

Also no seam sealer on the seat belt mounts. was it removed or is that typical of production?

Likely removed, cracked and fell off or cleaned away at some point

If you look at my second picture, the undercoating on this car spreads from just past the transmission tunnel to the rocker panels on both sides and in the wheel wells. When it was sprayed, it appears the worker was standing under where the right-side muffler sits as that seems the be the spray pattern direction.  It is also sprayed lightly in the tunnel above the transmission closer to the firewall where the firewall and floor pan come together. I don't think it was dealer applied because there is no way a dealer could have sprayed it there without removing the transmission.

Didn't watch the video but if there is spray on thee muffler then that is very likely and indication that someone on the line caught an issue and it was touched up or that is undercoating applied later. Mufflers as we understand it were installed after the factory floor sound deadener.   For above the transmission it was installed before thew sound deadener so the workers didn't want any on the transmission or linkage to screw operations later so typically the factory applications started to the sides and behind at the plant.

Not the typical location of the spray so likely undercoating. Easy to get to that area with the long wands used to apply the nasty stuff in the 70's

Though different year, same plant some of the information in the article below may be of help. Found it using the search and the words "69 undercarriage" and my screen name as author

https://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=929.msg6979#msg6979