How did the factory paint the wiper door trim and top fender trim. were they painted off or on the car?

Tom McCabe

 

Tom, I just went out and looked at my wiper door, and I can say POSITIVELY that the trim was ABSOLUTELY NOT on the door when it was painted. Since my body is already stripped, I can't be as positive about the fender trim pieces, but I have to believe that all three pieces were installed at the same time for alignment purposes.

Others have raised the question of whether the side grilles on 70-72 were supplied to assembly plants already painted with body color, and that is also a possibility in the case of these trim pieces. In the case of the side grilles, I do not agree with "others", because the flat area in the rear of my side grille openings was still in red primer as if something had been installed to cover the opening during body color painting...installation of the side grille is the only thing that makes any sense, and if it was pre-painted, then it must also have been pre-masked.

 

Chuck,

Thanks for the info, that was exactualy what I was looking for, I have never seen the trim removed from an original car, they have all had multiple paint jobs, and I would have found it hard to believe that they left the places covered unpainted but you never know.

Tom McCabe

 

Tom,

My early build 1970 coupe is exactly as Chuck describes; there is a considerable amount of paint on the wiper door and fenders under this trim. It certainly appears that all three trim pieces were painted seperately from the car and installed at a later point in the assembly process.

Chuck,

Perhaps the process was changed later in 1970 production, but I know that the area under the side grills on my car were completely painted body color (there was even overspray on the #1 body mount). In addition, there was also overspray on the back of the side grill - both body color and a black primer. I don't know if the grills were painted at the plant or by the supplier and shipped in, but (at least in the case of my car) they were not installed when they were painted.

Regards,

Stan Falenski

 

Stan, it is possible that both of us are correct on this matter...painters being more likely to be free spirits, there may have been NO set procedures; the paint shop may have done it according to whichever was best for the schedule that day. But, while rare, I know that I am probably not the only incidence of primer behind the grilles; once in one of my conversations with a very well known NCRS 70-72 authority, he specifically asked what color was behind my side grilles. At the time, I was pretty green, and I remember thinking "This is significant?", but unfortunately I resisted the urge to ask a "dumb" question to followup.

My car may have been the exception in that they couldn't get the car in the spray booth, but they wanted to progress some of the trim installation (I am thinking that many of the brackets and supports were applied by the bodyshop before paint; maybe some of the body trim unaffected by assembly operations was also applied by the body shop after paint.)

If my car had body color behind the side grilles, and had been previously repainted (as it was), I would wonder if the body color was from the later repaint or was it factory color. If I were the original owner, and the car had NEVER been repainted, I would be fairly confident the side grilles were off the car when it was painted at Saint Louis.

With the red oxide primer behind the side grilles, and absolutely no evidence of the car being primed again before the re-paint, I am left with the inevitable conclusion that the grilles were OFF my car when primed, ON THE CAR when it was sealed and color coated. When I stripped the body, I found first the repaint layer of acrylic lacquer, then I found the original factory acrylic lacquer coat, a layer of gray primer-sealer (I suppose), and finally, the layer of red oxide primer which had to be hand sanded to bare fiberglass.

I also found black primer on the back side of my grilles, but it was not like overspray...It was like it was deliberately painted solid black inside the egg crate and on the back surface. And, it was like primer from hell...the paint remover that worked so well on the body, or lacquer thinner, wouldn't even touch it. I finally got it off (preparatory for replate), but I think it was friction that removed it.


[Modified by Chuck Sangerhausen, 7:48 AM 8/7/2001]