Unpainted undercarriage

[Jerry Medlin]

Anyone have a reason why the manufacturers dont do a better job of painting the undercarriages of their vehicles. My 09 ST didnt have the drive shaft or the half shafts painted at all, they were rusty as can be. Also the trailing arms werent painted very well. Is there a specific reason they do this , or is it just to save some time and money in production. If there is anything I hate , is to look up under and new vehicle and see all that rust!! Well even an older model as far as that goes, I try to keep all the undercarriage as clean and detailed as the top side, just makes it a lot nicer to look at and work under.

 

[EddieS'04]

Cost is the main reason.

 

[Bill Reeves]

So they can sell you an undercoating......

 

[Jerry Medlin]

Well ,Bill, I don't know too many people that would undercoat their half shafts OR their drive shafts That's the whole deal, the rest of the undercarriage, front end, a arms, springs, sway bar, etc and the majority of the rest of the underside, floor pan, rear springs, shocks, etc. are painted or coated of some kind. BUT not the half shafts or the drive shaft?? On my 02 ST ,it had an aluminum drive shaft, that polished up rather nicely.

Mostly i was wondering if it had to do with the curing of the steel or iron. I know that years ago , they used to store new engine blocks, and trans. cases and differentials, outside to rust and cure, and then bring them back inside and do the machine work on them. Just curious if there was a reason, or just they way its done?

 

[mookie]

If I had to guess, it probably has to do with balancing of the rotating parts.

 

[Rodger Tellefson]

I tend to agree with both Eddie & Mookie in that the cost of painting the drive shaft so that it is perfectly balance would be way to costly. Maybe someone else will chime in to shed some light on this subject.

 

[EddieS'04]

As for back as I can remember. Steel drive shafts have never been painted and were rusty.

 

[Jerry Medlin]

Every vehicle I have ever owned, If the drive shaft wasnt painted, I painted it myself, and never had a balancing problem. If you' ve ever noticed, all NASCAR cars have the drive shafts painted white, so they can easily seen on he track should one get loose from a car. And most of the older cars that i can remember, from the late 50s and 60s, had the shafts painted?? It just seems to me that if I was a car dealer or manufacturer, I wouldn't want a customer that was looking at one of my vehicles for possible purchase, the last thing I would want them to see, would be a lot of rust under the vehicle! Just seems like a very simple thing, that get ignored for whatever reason.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Painted driveshafts might not be balanced...right. Sounds unlikely to me, unless painted with a brush, by a spaz.



What's to say that the rust forms on the DS in a balanced fashion?



TJR

 

[EddieS'04]

Pudge, I have had cars from the '50s and '60s. Never had a painted driveshaft. Maybe cadilac or lincolns, dunno...

 

[Russ Lynas]

A rusty drive shaft is unacceptable.

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[chargedtrac]

On a related note - the manager of my local Midas, who has an '08 Adrenalin, mentioned that it wasn't painted between the bed and the box on his truck. Couple other spots that didn't seem to be even primered, but you have to get under it looking in the nooks and crannys.



It kinda stinks, especially up in the widely salted northeast winter roads. The under body spray at the car wash probably does little for getting the spots cleaned. Even if the reason was cost, I wouldn't think it would had much to just have that done a little better at the factory.