Door Sill Paint?

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Jul 8, 2025 | 01:43 PM

nwav8tor

Thread Starter

Old Fart Pilot

Joined: Apr 2010

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From: Spokane, WA

Door Sill Paint?

Getting ready to refresh the door sills on my 71 coupe. What "shade" of black was/is used in the recesses, satin, matte, semi-gloss or gloss?

Thanks

Jul 8, 2025 | 03:07 PM

69L88

Melting Slicks

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From: Apple Valley, MN

I have a NOS set in storage and IIRC, they are semi-gloss. Definitely not gloss and definitely not flat.

Jul 8, 2025 | 03:26 PM

7T1vette

Team Owner

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From: Crossville TN

The door sills, as with ALL other interior trim paint, was semi-flat or satin black paint. Those are just different terms for the same gloss of paint. Semi-gloss paint was used for frame parts and engine area COMPONTENTS (brackets, housings, plates, etc). Engine compartment SURFACES were satin black paint, as were wheel wells. No FLAT black paint, nor GLOSS paint was ever used on a C3 to my knowledge.

Jul 8, 2025 | 04:17 PM

laurieonthego

Instructor

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From: Fountain Hills, AZ

I believe the air cleaners of some c3's were gloss black

Jul 8, 2025 | 10:10 PM

7T1vette

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From: Crossville TN

Air cleaners were always semi-gloss. But, you need to check that out, of course.

Jul 8, 2025 | 10:49 PM

laurieonthego

Instructor

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From: Fountain Hills, AZ

Like I said, some C3's had gloss black painted components, such as air cleaners...As you can see in NCRS Judging Manual (73-74)

Jul 9, 2025 | 11:55 AM

7T1vette

Team Owner

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From: Crossville TN

Well, I guess even NCRS can be wrong. I bought a brand new 1974 base engine C3 and it had a semi-gloss black air cleaner (as did they all).

I would love to hear others chime in on this one (whichever view you may have).

Jul 9, 2025 | 08:23 PM

litevette

Safety Car

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From: out of nowhere

Honestly, unless someone is talking about the nit picky judging stuff, I think you can’t go wrong with satin on anything that is black on these cars. Gloss jumps out at you and flat jumps out at you (just looks wrong). I tried semi gloss and while it does not jump out as bad as gloss, it still looks out of place compared to satin.