Although the owner is being forced to sell his BB '67 (427/435-hp.numbers matching) or his replica Cobra, I am still trying to finish it, the Vett as correctly as possible. This brings me to 'underhood' finishing. The car has been done once and it is impossible to go back to an OEM type finish, so should I just paint the car-color coat/clear coat, go with acrylic enamel w/hardner flattened a lot,or suggestion #3???. The car and interior are black.

Once again thanks, all these silly questions have meant a lot to us.
DV
PS.,Does anyone have a decal they want to rent or sell for the stripe?

 

Double Venom,

Check out these 2 threads or do an archive search on "underhood" if you need more info.


http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ight=underhood

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ight=underhood

 

Thank you for the tips. I never dreamed of looking in the archives, thinking that no one was as **** as I am about refinishing! I even found out where the 'break' goes. You Corvette people are serious aren't you?
DV

 

Speaking of 'breaks'... on one of the archive posts it stated GM used a 'stencil type material to mask for the break. That makes me think if I mask off the the edge- inner side of the hood, and the bottom, then paint the top and actual edge in a finished B/C-CC black,then once dried mask off the total top tightly, leaving the edges unmasked, then very carfully paint the bottom in semi type paint, letting the semi-gloss just naturally fall on different parts of the edge I'd end up what could reasonably be accepted as OEM type finish? Does this make sense?
DV
PS or part 2...I just thought of something else which I can almost answer myself but in the 'real' NCR world of things, didn't GM leave an 'edge' on the hood stripe that you could feel? As a long time habit I have always painted stripes, flames etc. without an edge at all. (Yes, an awfull lot of extra work and just piling on clear aint the answer!) Since this car is only 'very close to NCR' and not, then I think I'll do the stripe without a visible or feelable edge. OK? Or Not?
DV

 

You can do the stripe any way you wish, any way you like it. If judging is in your plan, they'll expect to be able to feel the edges of the hood stripes; the hood was masked and the stripe was shot last, and there was no clearcoat in those days, so the stripe edges weren't "buried".

 

Couldn't have worded that worse if I had done it myself!
Somebody, Johnz(?) is going to half to explain to me how GM did lacquer in 'those' days, they sure didn't have an assembly line full of guys with 20lb buffers in their hands! I know they used heat in the process but it's never been explained to me?

Any way I thought for sure GM had to at least dress up their stripes with a plain old clear coat of the day, especially the Vettes but I guess not. I just can't force myself to use BC/CC and have an edge you can feel and trap wax with. I find it verey hard that the original stripes didn't chip around the edges! I will say one thing, the factory'(s) had one heck of a system for stripes in the 60's! Z-28's, SS Chevelles, Barracudas etc. Of course tape/decals weren't bad either!

DV--Engine side of hood is now 77% flat black (Hardened acrylic enamel-Thank You!)

 

Here's the midyear paint process; no clearcoat, lots of wet-sanding and buffing. The hood stripe was masked and sprayed between steps 7 and 8.


Corvette Exterior Paint Process


1. PRIMARY SANDING – All body panels and bonded joints that receive acrylic lacquer are dry-sanded to prepare surfaces for painting. A filler material (called putty-rub) is applied to fill minor imperfections.

2. PRIMER – Two coats of primer are applied (the first red and the second gray) and are oven-baked for 60 minutes at 280 degrees F.

3. WET SANDING – The body is wet-sanded to provide a smooth surface
for the sealers. Most of the gray primer coat is removed, with the red
primer acting as a depth signal for the sanding operation. The body is
oven-dried to remove all moisture.

4. SEALER – One coat of sealer and one coat of color acrylic lacquer
are applied and baked.

5. DRY SANDING – The body is dry-sanded to prepare surfaces for the
final acrylic lacquer.

6. LACQUERING – Three coats of acrylic lacquer are sprayed on the body to build up the required paint thickness. The paint is “rested” for eight minutes to permit it to partially set up and to remove excess volatile paint vehicle.

7. INITIAL BAKING – The body is oven-baked for 30 minutes at 140
degrees F to harden the paint, which permits the subsequent operation.
Small interior and exterior parts are painted to complete the body paint schedule.

8. FINAL BAKING – To assure a durable, hard, high-luster finish, the
lacquer is oven-baked for 45 minutes at 250 degrees F. Re-heating the
lacquer permits the paint film to soften and allows surface blemishes and
sanding scratches to disappear during the thermo-reflow process.

9. FINAL SANDING AND POLISHING – The body is lightly oil-sanded and
polished to bring painted surfaces to a high-luster finish.


Chevrolet Engineering Center – September 1965

Corvette Body Engineering Group

 

JohnZ,
You bring tears to my eyes. Where were you in 1967 when I 'came in last'- but passed but still ahead of some 40 other guys, and was accepted for the GM Tech school. My dad (a shop foreman-Mansfield, Oh. for many years.) and my sponsor were so proud until they found out the same day the test scores came out, months after the tests by the way, my friend and I enlisted in the Army, the same day, cutting my GM career to a really short span of time!

DV--if you couldn't make 'em, at least fix 'em right! Airborne

 

John that is a very infomative reply . I grew up spraying lacquer and have been painting corvettes for years but never knew of the exact process that the factory used Thank you for some very good reading Paul

 

JohnZ before I go further, thank you again, I knew there was a heating process in there somewhere. I just didn't know when or how long! Now its time for one more test.



Well I'll be! I've posted pictures all over the net but for what ever reason I couldn't get them to load here. Thank you Duntov097.
PS... the light spots are from the lights, the car is now in full black sealer.
DV