Black Tail Light Panel and Rockers

[Charley Lillard]

Nope..I gotta disagree. Here is my 7000 mile Yenko and it is gloss even around the weatherstrip.

[396L35]

Charley did you wax that with Mothers Polish????? Yours might be painted gloss, but mine is original satin finish with 30,000 original miles. I can't really say which way is correct then. I guess the only way to know is if we were there on the line when the cars were born. Now I guess its a matter of taste which way you like it.

[LVCamaro]

That's because KH had his rattle can out again...LOL.

[CamarosRus]

Charley, Curious if your Yenko that you attached picture of is the former BKH car or only similar in Color......I have picture of the former BKH Yenko showing very glossy tailpan.
Also observed Joe S 69 Harrell car at Vette Fest / Noc 03 with GLOSS tail pan......My mostly original paint 70 L-78 Camaro shows Black paint tailpanel (attached) underlicense plate quite glossy....I hope somebody, someway can justify our allegations with paint company documentation.......Chuck S

[Charley Lillard]

Yes it is Brians old car.

[bkhpah]

We are working on an original paint garnet red car with only 209 miles. The original tail panel is a satin color now, but the trunk lip and under the rubber is gloss. The car has had exposure to the sun. The panel has not been repainted. It's an X66 car. Just to add to the confusion...BKH

[bkhpah]

To help clear up my last post. The tail panel on the red car has seen a weathering that is consistant with the other paint on the car. But the trunk area where shut still shows a high gloss rear panel. I have seen this time after time. The paint on Charlies panel is so thin in the right light you can see through it. That car was a garage car that never was driven. It did not see constant waxing. It never had love for years till I bought it...BKH

[bkhpah]

Charlie, your car never sat outside a day and was never washed with a hose. I know all the owners from 1971 on personally. It always was in heated dry storage...BKH

[DjD]

How and when during the paint process was the black applied to the tail pan or rockers? I ask because hand application during the assembly line process could have a big impact on final gloss. Too dry of an application or the gun too far from the surface could leave what was meant to be a gloss finish more of a satin or semi-gloss look. On Team Camaro the current argument is the tail panels that are survivor and glossy just got polished and waxed that way over the years... I've polished and waxed a satin finish and got a bit of a sheen but not a real gloss!!

[Mark_C]

My contention on Camaros.org was a) that there was only two blacks available in the plant to paint anything with, the Gloss Tuxedo black, and the 80 percent gloss that went on the firewall, and that b)that the rear was painted following the color coat in the Fisher Blackout booth when the dash top, firewall was painted and as such would have had to have had the same 80% gloss satin paint used on the firewall. However I went back and reread the CRG assembly page:

CRG Camaro Assembly Page

And found:

Discussing the Fisher Paint Process, after body color application, reflow oven but before the blackout booth (firewall painting).

"If the car required Z-28, Z-10, or Z-11 stripes or a black rear end panel or rockers, they were masked and sprayed in the in-line repair booth/oven system after the reflow oven."

So now that it is clear that there was two processes where black paint was being applied (the inline repair booth, and the blackout booth) it would appear that the rear panel, and rockers if applicable should have received Tuxedo black gloss paint. Otherwise everything could have been painted in the blackout booth with the satin paint at one time. This would save time and money, things GM loved.

Seems logical to me from a manufacturing process point of view. Why else would you have two processes. Maybe there are differences between a Norwood car and an LA car, since they had a common GM/Fisher paint booth and did things a little different as far as painting goes.