Verne Frantz's 63 Impala Anniversary SURVIVOR

[moparts]

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First, were you able to confirm with him that the bodies were dipped in the red oxide primer, rather than sprayed?


[/ QUOTE ] Dad says that the St. Louis plant always sprayed their primer. Some of the other plants dipped. Any dripping under the St. Louis primmed cars would be due to the fact that they sprayed it very heavy by machine. Then a person would go over anywhere the machine didn't get. If there was any pause in the line the primer would get sprayed too heavy.
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Question on wheel paint: The wheels were painted with enamal, so I'd doubt they went through the same paint booth as the cars. Did the plants paint the wheels in another area, and if so were they done in order of the colors needed to match the cars' order on the line or were they painted in large batches of each color and "binned" for use? Or........were they received at the plants already painted?
Do you know if the wheel paint was baked, or just left to air dry?



[/ QUOTE ] Dad says the wheels were painted at the plant. Went down their own line and were sprayed and baked.

[Verne_Frantz]

Mo,
Thanks for the info on the primer and wheels.
Well, here I am again with a couple more questions. You said your dad was enjoying this, so here goes.

Getting back to the guy who removed the build sheets and marked the trim and paint codes on the firewall before the body went into the booth.....does your Dad know what kind of marker they used? Wax type crayon, paint stick, or other? I've confirmed that those markings were indeed under the paint, but the numbers don't seem to disolve in thinner very well.

Ques. #2: Is it possible that rather than writing the 3 digit paint code (or even in some cases just 2 digits, since the first was always the same), they used just one number, possibly to identify the hose/gun number?

Thanks again. There's nothing like an education from first hand experience.

Verne