1969 Camaro Special Order Paint Process

[70 copo]

<span style="text-decoration: underline">I spent quite a bit of time looking into the EO mystery as presented only to be too late to get in before the lock.</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold">What got me thinking is three statements made about the car over at team Camaro in 2012 as follows:</span>

The Restorer said: <span style="font-weight: bold">&quot;At the time of the appraisal we looked there and behind a door panel and both places looked silver&quot;.

&quot;Later on after tearing the vinyl top off it looked more reddish silver (look at the photo earlier in the post) but i didn't think much of it&quot;.

&quot;Then after getting the story from Clem i started to look harder, and found the color under the tar on top of the saddle bag area, on the wiper transmission, on the front inside edge of the fender's, on the heads of some of the door hinge bolts, and on the tail pan underneath the bondo&quot;. </span>

A person replying said: <span style="font-weight: bold">&quot;Whatever you found on the wiper transmission is not original. Was installed after paint; never had overspray&quot;.</span>

Another person then replied: <span style="font-weight: bold">&quot;Brad - understand your dilemma. Any chance that the car was resprayed Evening Orchid over the Cortez Silver soon after delivery, hence why original owner may have thought it was EO from the Dealership? Would also explain why no EO under roofrail w/strips, and the overspray on the wiper trans arms&quot;....</span>
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With a picture of the car I consulted with two Norwood Production Superintendents that were in plant in 1969:


<span style="font-weight: bold">First up Fisher Body</span>



Q: Tell Me about special paint cars?

A. We hated them a real pain in the ass to build.

Q. Why?

A. All of our in plant chemistry was engineered, meaning primers were designed to work for color match with approved sourced paints. Anything else was out in the wild.

Q Can you expand on that?

A. Yea, the SP cars usually used Jobber grade paint that was locally sourced. Complicating matters was that it was a pot job, which interrupted the normal function of the line and with Union classification was normally done with ARO's. Two guys - one on the right and one on the left hand spraying the paint -- dragging pots.

Q What about color match?

A. Most of the time one side of the car did not match the other especially with the lighter colors. One guy would spray it light, the other guy would spray it heavy, coverage and paint color was dependent on how the paint worked with the primer. Some better some not so good. There was no chemistry validation... . In a production setting we relied on engineered processes that confidence was not there all the time on a SP job.

Q. Who mixed/tinted the paint?

A Paint shop. Color chips by eye or we could get it premixed by a local jobber.


<span style="font-weight: bold">Next Chevrolet Chassis side</span>

Q: Tell Me about special paint cars?

A. Pain in the ass.

Q. Why?

A. Sheetmetal match was nearly impossible.

Q how did you build them?

A. Sheetmetal was specified install in primer.

Q So the front end met the car in Primer?

A. Yes and built out on the final line in primer.

Q. How was the car finished?

A. Car was sent to AGR where the trim was removed from the front end to the fullest extent practicable, and then the paint Fisher left in the trunk was used to match the front end in. This was again a problem as we had to match Fisher's Primer to get the top coat to match and often they forgot to give us the primer. Remember we were two separate divisions then. Next was the oven where we did the best we could to get reflow and a gloss match but there was only so much we could do. These paint jobs were often terrible with high customer dissatisfaction.

Q. What about overspray in areas under the hood- at AGR?

A. Sure. Think Earl Sheib quality. The hood was popped to get the edges..so yes they taped it off the best they could but these were done very fast.

Q. Did the AGR Process change much through the years?

A. A bit when we switched to Towveyor, but we still painted cars in AGR one after the other right up to close of the plant.

Conclusion:

<span style="text-decoration: underline">The Picture Below is AGR in 1982. In this case I believe William and Jerry saw a bad quality paint job. I believe Clem and his wife were the recipients of a bad quality paint job that was likely a bit on the light side. I believe all parties have acted in good faith and the recollections of these two workers place this situation in proper prospective. The car in question was EO just a light EQ and poorly mixed, poorly matched, and perhaps on the inconsistent side in coloration to boot. The wiper transmission overspray as reported by the restorer is consistent with an AGR front end paint job</span>