1970 UNDERCOATING

[Gregory G.]

On my original bill of sale there is a line item as an option for undercoating.The original owner of the car had the salesman put a line thru it denoting not to install any undercoating for a cleaner looking undercarriage.
To say all 70's received this option I do not know,but it was available not to.The order was written on May of '69.The car was an early January build.
Does anyone have this line item shown not to install undercoating and was the undercoating not installed?

Greg

[Dick W.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

Greg, it would be my guess that the dealer had this line on all of his bill of sale documents. It was a very popular option in that era. It was not a factory option in 1970. The only undercoating on those cars was in the wheel well area, and done for noise reduction, not rust protection.

[Dave S.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

Greg,
What Dick says is most likely what happened. Salesman loved to sell undercoating to get an extra $5 or $10 onto their commission. Be glad that your original owner declined. Its an ugly situation if it was installed.

[Gregory G.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

Dick,

The order was written in '69.Does that make it an option during that time frame?

Greg

[John H.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

Greg -

No, it was never a factory option. However, dealers loved to add it as a "profit-enhancer" to all cars they sold, and applied it in the back room.

[Gregory G.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

Dick,John and Dave thank you for the info.I do appreciate clean wheel wells and not that ugly mess.The Original Owner made the right decision.

Greg

[Dick W.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

John, during the brief period of time that I was a service manager the dealer sold undercoating for $99.95. Took two cans of 3M Body Schutz at $8.00 a can and about one hour of labor. Same deal with fabric coatings....over 100% profit.

[John H.]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

Dick -

Yup, forgot about the "fabric protector", "super-shine paint protector", VIN etched on the windows, etc. Back in the late 80's, I bought a new Dodge via long-distance (exec discount, etc.) from Preston II Dodge in Dallas/Ft. Worth for my daughter who lived there, handled it by phone/fax, and got a copy of the factory invoice from the plant manager (right here in town), which has the employee price already printed on it. Naturally, the price they gave me was $600 too high (they didn't know I had the invoice and swore their number was correct), charged me for the floor mats (which were included with the car), and further padded the deal with undercoating, fabric protector, finish-enhancing "forever" wax job, VIN-etching, and film-tinting the windows, none of which I asked for.

My daughter had already driven the car home the day before, and I refused to pay for the car; more phone calls, more arguments with the dealer principal ("we include those customer features on ALL of our cars"), and then I sicced Chrysler Legal on him. He accepted the employee price on the invoice the next day; just another slimy dealer, and he had to "eat" all the "customer features"

[Mark Heff]

Re: 1970 UNDERCOATING

You're right Dave, it's an ugly situation if installed.
Currently scraping off and carefully removing the old, thick undercoating from 1970 wheel wells ! Lotsa fun.