midnight02

I'm detailing my '79 and the spare tire carrier is currently painted black on the bottom where you can see it from the back of the car and is unpainted on the back facing the rear end. I thought it was 'natural' finish from the factory and would like to have it looking closer to factory instead of a spray bomb'd "restoration".

Thanks

0Willcox Corvette

The tub and the cover were not painted. The brace for the tub was satin black and held in place with aluminum unpainted rivets

Willcox

7T1vette

Some dealerships may have sprayed some undercoating on cars, as requested by the buyer, or just because they wanted to charge a bunch of $$$ for spraying a little oil under the car.

But, if you don't see undercoating anywhere else, some PO sprayed the underside of the tub with black paint. To my knowledge, all of the fiberglass tubs were unpainted.

When I cleaned mine up, I removed all the paint/crud/grease, washed it well in degreaser then detergent, rinsed, dried and finally gave it a coat of semi-gloss clear engine enamel.

midnight02

Thanks for the replies. Yea I figured it was unpainted but just wanted to be sure. I'm not going NCRS on it but if I can have it look close to the way it was delivered then I will. Looks like I'll have to go at it with some thinner or something in order to get it all off.

Wow 7T1vette, that looks fantastic!

7T1vette

Lacquer thinner, gloves and done outside will get the job done. DO NOT blast it, as most grits will damage the top surface of the glass. Not sure about walnut hulls.

You don't need to cut the rivets off and re-rivet to make the tub look original...or just look good. Mask stuff off, as needed; mask rivet heads (and around the heads) when you paint the support ribs. Remove tape and voila'. MUCH better than trying to get new rivets to look like factory work. (Hey! It already looks like factory work. )

hotrodnick

That's what I did with mine