Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

[Tom R.]

Brian Pearce and I have come across several Pace Cars with the spoiler (front) still wrapped in plastic and stowed in the rear storage compartment. He has mentioned the issue encountered with Pace Cars and the loading/unloading of them onto rail and trucks and if shipped with front spoiler installed, scrapping of the spoiler due to equipment not intended for low profile spoiler equipment. Of course, subsequently that was solved.

I am looking for some insights from those who may have experienced or viewed these issues during this period for background Pearce and I are researching for a Restorer article. All insights appreciated.

[Steven B.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, I gave my order for a PC to a friend and was at the dealer when the car came. The car did have the front spoiler delivered in the car and not installed. Somewhere I have pics in the yard at STL before lower paint was applied. I will look for them and see if spoiler was on the cars. Steve

[Tom R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, I gave my order for a PC to a friend and was at the dealer when the car came. The car did have the front spoiler delivered in the car and not installed. Somewhere I have pics in the yard at STL before lower paint was applied. I will look for them and see if spoiler was on the cars. Steve

Thanks Steve and much appreciated!

[John H.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, I gave my order for a PC to a friend and was at the dealer when the car came. The car did have the front spoiler delivered in the car and not installed. Somewhere I have pics in the yard at STL before lower paint was applied. I will look for them and see if spoiler was on the cars. Steve

Tom & Steve -

I'm not much on identifying the year of later C3's, but here are a couple of photos of them in the Final Paint Repair process at St. Louis - one is the normal everyday spot-repair line, and the other is the portion of that line that was used to mask and paint the Pace Car lower 2-tone treatment. The photos are bit on the dark side, but I don't think any of them have the front spoiler installed.


FinalPaintRepair.jpgPaintRepair78.jpg

[Arland D.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

John,

Any thoughts on the 'Install Decals' sticker on the windshield? Pace Cars were supposed to be delivered without the decals installed on the doors so is this a special request or perhaps a reference to some other decals??

[Steven B.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

John,Any thoughts on the 'Install Decals' sticker on the windshield? Pace Cars were supposed to be delivered without the decals installed on the doors so is this a special request or perhaps a reference to some other decals??

Interesting. I never saw that before. Possibly refers to the striping decals but if so then I would expect the Silver Anniversary cars to have the same notice. I wonder if they had them. Steve

[Brian G.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Perhaps it means to just put the box of decals into the car.

[Edward J.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, I can tell you that I was a Tech. for a Chevrolet dealer76-87 for about 11 years before I went into business for myself and I prepped many corvettes for delivery of the era and remember the spoiler being wrapped in a plastic bag in the rear with the hardware and stripe kits in the boxes for the pace car. this was not just for the corvettes. the Anchor motor freight trucks had those metal grid type plates and if not careful when backing of the truck, damage to the lower panels could be a problem. The C-4 era had a black plastic spoiler that was also not installed.

[Tom R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Perhaps it means to just put the box of decals into the car.

Its an instruction to the dealer to install decals or box em for the owner!

[Tom R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, I can tell you that I was a Tech. for a Chevrolet dealer 76-87 for about 11 years before I went into business for myself. I prepped many corvettes for delivery of the era and remember the spoiler being wrapped in a plastic bag in the rear with the hardware and stripe kits in the boxes for the pace car. this was not just for the corvettes. the Anchor motor freight trucks had those metal grid type plates and if not careful when backing of the truck, damage to the lower panels could be a problem.

Do you have any recollections of prepping the 1979 Corvettes with the D80 front spoiler and the screw/captive washer requirement? We have seen this on a few 79s during judging but have no evidence whether this was factory..assuming it was. The AIM does not document this change from the 78 Pace Car.

The C-4 era had a black plastic spoiler that was also not installed.

Most interesting...so when would you estimate that freight trucks changed the metal grid type plates to accommodate the low profile Corvettes? This seems like an interesting transition between factory and freighters.

[Edward J.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Do you have any recollections of prepping the 1979 Corvettes with the D80 front spoiler and the screw/captive washer requirement? We have seen this on a few 79s during judging but have no evidence whether this was factory..assuming it was. The AIM does not document this change from the 78 Pace Car.Most interesting...so when would you estimate that freight trucks changed the metal grid type plates to accommodate the low profile Corvettes? This seems like an interesting transition between factory and freighters.

Tom, I Believe I can remember that the attachment screws were with a captive washer. The problem is there were is few different color fasteners, I was thinking a blue color which was common for fasteners is this era(switching over to the metric system). but black was also a color common with body fasteners.

[Tom R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, I Believe I can remember that the attachment screws were with a captive washer. The problem is there were is few different color fasteners, I was thinking a blue color which was common for fasteners is this era (switching over to the metric system). but black was also a color common with body fasteners.

had not thought of that...that is the color-coded fasteners to match body paint. But than interior used either chrome or flat black fasteners so, perhaps a similar method was used to fasten the front spoilers.

[David R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, These pictures were previously posted by someone, maybe they are John H pics also(Edit- they are Tom Hendricks pictures from a Dec 2010 post). They both show no front spoiler pieces attached. The hood decals are being installed; looks like a work area not 'on the line'. The transport picture should be your 'money' shot.

As Steven B suggested: wonder if the Silver Anniversary paint scheme cars had the same windshield notice.
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[Tom R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

Tom, These pictures were previously posted by someone, maybe they are John H pics also. They both show no front spoiler pieces attached. The hood decals are being installed; looks like a work area not 'on the line'. The transport picture should be your 'money' shot.

As Steven B suggested: wonder if the Silver Anniversary paint scheme cars had the same windshield notice.
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Yeah...that be the shot. I'm sure John H is monitoring but would really like to have a scan of the original for the Restorer piece. The quality of the resolution...as is...would be marginal for print publication.

[Tom R.]

Re: Background information sought for the Freight & Ship of 1978-79 Models

The hood decals are being installed; looks like a work area not 'on the line'.

I visited the plant back around 2000 and talked to an engineer who was a supervisor of various lines and shared with me that the Pace Car decals were applied in the Final Process area of the Impala plant (I believe that was the plant he mentioned) or where they had room to move the cars around. You can see other vehicles in the background. The Corvette plant was simply out of space to accommodate both the SA and the Pace Car decal assembly

As Steven B suggested: wonder if the Silver Anniversary paint scheme cars had the same windshield notice.

Good question...thanks for sharing David