Z/28 Paint Application ??? - 76 76 Daytona Yellow

[jasonL78]

no 2 cars where the same, it was an assembly line. Different people different shifts. It was all about putting the cars down the line as fast and productive as they could. Restore it back to how you found it. Looks like you have pictures to back that up on what ever you are going to do. To many people over restore these cars that's just my opinion.

[CamaroNOS]

Hello Graeme,

When I was restoring the last few 1969 Camaros I did, I found this article to be a great resource. It is on the CRG site written by John Hinckley.

It really dissects the assembly and painting process in great detail.


http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml


http://http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml

Paul

[rlw68]

Originally Posted by CamaroNOS

It really dissects the assembly and painting process in great detail.

Originally Posted by John H. on CRG

Assembly Process
In the first prime booth, the entire body, inside and out, was manually sprayed with primer, and confined areas subject to corrosion were given a second coat of heavier primer material;

Was the first primer gray, and other in corrosion areas red? Might explain this. I haven't asked my painter to reproduce the runs ...

[x33rs]

To answer your second question NorCal, the black out used under the cowl on our Z, with black stripes, was not a satin or flat. It's gloss.

Mine is still original in this area and it's clearly a gloss black. Why the factory would bother in this area on a black stripe car since the firewall is getting blacked out anyway I'm not sure, but they carried the gloss black all the way out to the edge of the firewall, much like you see a white stripe Z done. My firewall then transitions into the satin finish over the edge.

I'm sure this process varied with plant and time of production. Mine is a 12D Norwood Z.

Another interesting point on mine, with it's original firewall paint still intact as well, is they weren't all that generous with the blackout. Mine has a lot of Frost Green showing through all around the trans tunnel right where it makes the transition behind the engine. I also have a fair amount of Frost Green showing through below the brake booster. The blackout was used very sparingly. I also have quite a bit of Frost Green showing through in the rear wheel well areas, mainly down on the frame rails that is still there. The black out of the rear wheel wells seems to have been done sparingly as well.

Something else I noticed on mine that wouldn't be present on an X77, Mine being an X33 has the lower rocker black out treatment. So when I carefully cleaned the floors, I didn't see a ton of Frost Green blown in on the floor pans, it was mostly black and faded to some Frost Green starting to show the closer you get to the rear wheel wells, where the green appears to be deliberately shot.

[NorCam]

Originally Posted by rlw68

Was the first primer gray, and other in corrosion areas red? Might explain this. I haven't asked my painter to reproduce the runs ...

Attachment 172273

Rob, although reports say that all cars received a gray primer-surfacer before being baked, I've been told by multiple people that different color primers were known to have been used between light and dark colored cars and have shown up on many survivors? Many of the dark colored cars have been found to have a red primer used under body color in some areas? Not sure if that was from the beltline down or just the wheel areas???

[NorCam]

My Lemans Blue car had a lot of exposed gray primer along the front edges of the toe boards, inside the rear frame rails and all along the rear valance under the tank. Lots of black was sprayed up inside the differential tunnel, trans tunnel and covered all of the main floor boards.

In talking to a couple people with original paint cars, I was told a few have been found with red primers here and there but I think that was mostly found on dark colored cars. Who knows, maybe they ran dry of gray and pulled a tank of red into finish some productions? On this yellow car, it's most if not all gray primer underneath with considerable yellow over-spray. I'm really not seeing much of any black being applied anywhere?

I think I will stick to the original plan and do it like I first intended which is pretty near to what Mike D had done on Grady's Copo. Black out the main areas and keep some gray inside the center of the tunnel and under the tank. Can't go wrong there.

[NorCam]

Big Shout out to Mark Bulaw for taking the time to send over 50 pictures of original paint cars for me to study. Very helpful with everything from base floor colors and interior primers to the correct firewall paint applications. Bonus for the day included some original stripe measurements from his low mile Hugger Orange Z/28. These will serve me very well.

You are a great steward to the hobby Mark!

Thanks

[rlw68]

For the main body (the part without overspray ), are you using single stage paint? It appears that Grady's was done with a base coat/clear coat. That's my current plan also but assume it won't look like the original paint job
.

[NorCam]

Rob,

I considered using TCP single stage but after thinking about it, I decided to stick with modern 2 stage base clear paint. We will tint the color until it perfectly matches the existing DY paint in and around the jambs. A good painter can lay the stripes on so they can still be felt even after it's cleared.

Myself, I don't like the clear built up to the point the stripes are completely buried.

[X66 714]

They're using PPG single stage on mine. With the problems they went through on the color, they were concerned with a possible color change it clear was used....Joe