NewbVetteGuy

I recently bought the Wilcox interior screw set because I needed a rear compartment set and had a couple random rusty screws in the dash and the interior plastic A-pillar trim and I figured "might as well get a full set at once and then pass on what I don't need".


Half of the mini screw bags use terms I'm completely unfamiliar with; what the heck are these screws called that are covering the pillars that hold up the windshield?

I've got a bag of "FA48A" that are called "77-82 Windshield Header Trim Screw Set" -that sure sounds like it could be them, except that they're shiny metal (14 pieces) and my screws are black and there aren't nearly 14 of them....



So confused... and getting the feeling that I'm going to regret buying the interior set and saying " at least everything will be in there..."




Adam

Street Rat

i think this is what you are talking about?...

http://www.parts123.com/corvettecent...50g&ukey=11585

NewbVetteGuy

Yes! That's exactly it!

Ok so the trim at the top of the windshield is called "Windshield Header Trim" and the side posts are called "Windshield post side trim" -those are great names for it.


I can also see from Corvette Central that 14 screws will cover both the header trim and the side trim- so the bag that I have must be the correct bag; I'm just disappointed that my black, on black, on black 79 has chrome replacement screws for screws that came from the factory black... ;-(


Not a good replacement option at all; the chrome will just look weird when much of the rest of the dash is all black with black screws....


Adam

Street Rat

Yes I hear you.

I actually paint mine black.

NewbVetteGuy

I'm just afraid that black paint over a chrome screw just won't hold up and as soon as a screw them in the black paint will start coming off.


There's so many NCRS-obsessed Corvette owners out there, I was just shocked to see a major Corvette supplier with a part that's so different than the one it replaces. I think I'll give them a call and see if maybe I got the wrong year screw set???.....? (Wishful thinking, huh?)


Adam

Street Rat

Sorry I wasn't clear. I purchase black screws from my local auto parts. I scuff them up and paint them with John Deere Blitz Black.

SwampeastMike

The screws used on the piece that goes across the top of the windshield seem to be chrome regardless of the interior color. The ones I replaced in my '79 with dark green interior sure seemed original and were chrome. The "A" pillars, rear pillars, etc. all have black screws. Door panels, dash pad and carpeted console trim are all chrome.

C3 4ME

Swampeast, I'm going to have to differ with you. On my 79 all the screws on the windshield header and the A pillar are black. So, I wonder which one is correct?

0Willcox Corvette

I can answer this for all of you. I own a very low mileage 100 percent original car.. and all the screws all the way around the header trim and pillar trim are...... (and I just checked it before leaving my office)

Black...

So it look like the manufacturer of the screw kit has the right screws with the wrong coloring.

Nothing I can do about the kits, but I can make a change to the individual kit number. If you don't wish to mess with painting them I can have someone pull the screws out of my original car and match them up to some I have here and ship them to you no charge.

Willcox

SwampeastMike

You're certainly welcome to disagree! Perhaps the screw color choice depended on what the assembly worker had at hand... Maybe they were out of the long black ones when mine passed on the line I've double-checked and the ones I removed from my header were chrome and I remember thinking at the time, "It's strange that the screws don't match."

NewbVetteGuy

My car is a single owner and I can tell you my dad did NOT replace the screws (or anything else for that matter);my car as the blackout exterior window trim, too; maybe the exterior trim is matched to the interior screws?? (yea, that's grasping at straws a bit.)


Adam

NewbVetteGuy

Willcox, if you'd do that, that would be awesome. Let me go down my list of things to be ordered and see if I can order some other stuff from you and just have you throw these in the order.
---Is there any chance that the kit MFGR offers two versions?

Adam

7T1vette

GM purchasing folks regularly bought 'similar' screws to what was specified, if the difference was not significant from an engineering standpoint and was not a problem visually. If these screws cannot be seen once they are assembled, it is VERY possible that both chrome and black screws were purchased at various times over that model year. If Purchasing could save a fraction of a cent on each screw, they would purchase it. There was a procedure for doing these kinds of things on an "as needed" basis.

SwampeastMike

Saving even a fraction of a cent on a part that meets your specifications has always and will always be good manufacturing practice.

gbvette62

In the late 70's and early 80's, Corvettes with dark interiors (black, maroon, dark green, etc), generally came with black screws, while cars with light interiors (oyster, camel, slate, etc) got chrome screws. I came to this conclusion years ago, when we were first working on the 78-79 and 80-82 NCRS Judging Manuals. I looked at a lot of different cars back then. From what I found, light colored interiors came with chrome screws, but dark colors seemed to come with a mix of chrome and black oxide ones.

Unfortunately all of the interior screw kits, only come with chrome screws, and always have. I'm good friends with one of the people that do the kits, and I've talked to him about this, as well as some of the others that do kits. None of them have received enough requests, to feel it is worth offering two different kits.

Near as I can tell, it was only the 78-82's that had screws that varied based, on the interior colors?

0Willcox Corvette

Okay.. after 2 hours of working on this I now have this kit corrected individually on our site. The manufacturer only makes the complete screw kit one way (with all chrome).

However, after I posted yesterday and left for the day I realized that I didn't look at all the screws. So here is what is original. The screws visible from sitting in the car are black. There are 10 of these black screws. The screws visible when you remove the T-top in the center header only are chrome.

You only need 10 of the black screws, so email me at service@willcoxcorvette.com with your full name and address and I'll get 10 on the way to you today. You don't need to order anything for me to do this.

Since most of our smaller screw kits are done by us here, I've made the correction to the individual screw kit. https://willcoxcorvette.com/corvette...crew-kit-77-82 (I'm sure this will cause us confusion but it's the only way to get the correct screws).

Here are a few pictures of what is in my car and what I believe to now be correct.

NewbVetteGuy

Wow. Insanely thorough; insanely fast! Willcox just "leveled up" 3x, in my opinion.


There's customer service, and then there's whatever you call that just happened in this thread (don't have words for it).


Adam

0Willcox Corvette

Shipped today.

SwampeastMike

The screws in the windshield header of my dark green '79 were the exact same mix as you see in the photo--chrome in the ones installed horizontally, black in the vertical ones.

gbvette62

On my 81, with the slate gray interior, all of the a-pillar and header molding screws are chrome. I bought this car new, and it has 40,000 miles on it. It's an NCRS Top Flight winner, and I've never changed any of the interior screws.