Paint and sealer peeled off. Bare metal exposed?

[HKSpeed]

The paint and rubber sealer at the front-right jack point (behind front passenger wheel) peeled off after approximately a dozen times jacking at that point. I always used rubber jack pads. Is that bare metal exposed or primer? Should I cover with touch up paint? I live in Southern California, where rust is not a major issue. What are your thoughts?

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[blueroadster]

Looks like the undercoating simply flaked off from stress. A simple fix to consider is using a brush with dish detergent to scrub the area followed by using a scotch-brite pad to lightly scuff the surface. Rinse it off and let it completely dry. Then tape off the area around the lift pad and spray some Eastwood rubberized undercoating on the lift pad. Remove the tape and let the undercoating dry. Once dried, you can optionally tape again and spray paint the area with a matching color.

 

[AZCWTypeR]

Nothing to worry about. I lived in the rust belt for decades. Never had a jacking point go beyond normal surface rust and I kept cars for 8-10 years.

 

[TypeRD]

Yeah, the jack points can get rusty if not taken care of. Eventually they’ll break…but as another poster said, that’s really more of a rust belt concern because of road salt and chemicals. In your neck of the woods I wouldn’t worry too much about it, but if it helps you sleep at night it’d be easy to clean them up and coat them with something protective. If you scuff them down to actual bare metal you’ll want to put some primer on there before putting any kind of rubberized coating on them. A body shop would probably make quick and easy work of it if you didn’t want to do it yourself.

 

[latole]

This is the first time I've seen this type of undercoat. In my opinion, any undercoat won't stand up to the use of a jack.

Living in Canada where the winters are harsh and the roads have a lot of ice salt, I've never had any problems under my car or on the spots where to place a jack.
I had a 2018 Civic replaced in 2025 and my wife still has her 2016.

And I'd never have an undercoat put on my car, as cracking it could retain moisture and damage the bodywork.

 

[TypeRD]

This is the first time I've seen this type of undercoat. In my opinion, any undercoat won't stand up to the use of a jack.

Living in Canada where the winters are harsh and the roads have a lot of ice salt, I've never had any problems under my car or on the spots where to place a jack.
I had a 2018 Civic replaced in 2025 and my wife still has her 2016.

And I'd never have an undercoat put on my car, as cracking it could retain moisture and damage the bodywork.

It’s possible that wherever you have your cars serviced that they’re using rubber jack pads, which would help prevent damage to the jack points. My 2009 Si, which had seen northern US winters for 10 years, had rust developing on the jack points. They weren’t crumbling apart by any means, but rust was definitely on them. It would take many years, but I’m pretty sure they would eventually break (if driven in harsh winters for the rest of its life).

 

[blueroadster]

This is the first time I've seen this type of undercoat. In my opinion, any undercoat won't stand up to the use of a jack.

Living in Canada where the winters are harsh and the roads have a lot of ice salt, I've never had any problems under my car or on the spots where to place a jack.
I had a 2018 Civic replaced in 2025 and my wife still has her 2016.

And I'd never have an undercoat put on my car, as cracking it could retain moisture and damage the bodywork.

Undercoating is minimally used today as compared to the blanket spraying of the entire undercarriage as used in the past. Undercoating is a headache as you mentioned regarding cracking, moisture retention, and rust damage particularly in older cars.

Case in point is my 1964 Impala SS that has 17k on the odometer and sat outside for decades allowing moisture to rot out the floor pans because of moisture trapped in the undercoating. Interior PIC is a gem considering the age:

Rip out the interior and the same gem looks a bit different:

Project for that car and this year is to replace the entire floor and trunk pans.

Modern undercarriage coatings tend to use a high build epoxy primer followed by urethane instead of simply relying on a rubberized undercoating.

 

[latole]

Front jack point on my wife 9 years old Civic : Only surface rust.

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