79 Mini - undercoat with truck bed liner or not?

My son's 1979 Austin Mini shell is in the paint shop and we have a decision to make. The shop owner does some nice work, including one recent concourse winning high value car.

Now although the Mini is special to my son, it isn't historically significant, nor is it being kept original - so we don't have to worry about being purists. The shell is about as close to rust free as can be at this point, and he would like to keep it that way, and will be using the car as his main driver for nine months of the year.

The reason I am posting is to ask for opinions and experience that some of you may have - and we have one day to decide on how we proceed!!

The owner of the shop wants us to have the underside, wheel wells, and floor all shot with truck bed liner (he recommended Gator Guard II). He does this on any of his own collector cars that are drivers - and to be clear it is not a money grab - he says if we supply the material he will apply it for free.

Opinions? We don't want to see the car rot and it seems like a reasonable solution.

We do this on most cars. I have a Alfa GTAm replica and a Ferrari 250 GTE next to me that have received the treatment.

It looks very much like the factory undercoating and is very durable. It adds a decent amount of mass and acts as a sound deadener.

If all the repairs to the car are good then it should only help protect the car from damage and rot. The only drawbacks to it are stripping it for future changes or repairs, the cost and the weight penalty (which is minimal)

I am a fan and will be doing my own cars whenever I have them stripped.

Thanks DitchDigger,

I have been leaning towards yes - and your post and picture push me even further in that direction. It looks fantastic.

The car has been 100% stripped down to a bare shell, and there is zero rust visible anywhere, and not a weld that doesn't look factory.

By the way, any opinion on a partiular product over another?

Cheers,

Rob.

I tend to default to Raptor brand bed liner as it has the nicest, most uniform finish of the three products usually in stock at the paint supply shop.

Ditchdigger wrote: It adds a decent amount of mass and acts as a sound deadener.

Just curious-- How much weight are we talking here? Less for a Mini than most things, I imagine, but what's a ballpark figure?

In reply to saruken:

I did the inside of my entire Jeep tub, educated guesstimation based on the product weight on the package and the amount I applied I'd say it was ~15 lbs of liner applied.

• Lee

In reply to Ditchdigger:

If this guys says to do it, no further need to ask. That would be gospel in my book (The book of GRM)

bigdaddylee82 wrote: ~15 lbs

Well I'm sold.