Cars Painted With Doors On At A O Smith?

[James B.]

Were A O Smith cars primed and painted with the doors on? On stripping and sandblasting my '67 door hinges I found that the color coat (Ermine White) was the only paint on the original zinc cad primer of the door hinges- no red and gray primer as on the rest of the car and door jambs. I have always thought the cars were primed and painted with the doors on. If that was the case I should have found the two primers under the color coat on the hinges. Is it possible that the cars were primed (red and gray) with the doors off but doors were mounted before the color coat??
I would like to paint it like the factory did so had planned to prime and paint with doors on. However it sure would be easier installing the door seal off the car.

[King M.]

Re: Cars Painted With Doors On At A O Smith?

My coupe is a A.O. smith car as well and my hinges just had zinc chromate paint as well. I know the hinges were on the car when painted due to overspray and attaching bolts were body colored. The doors were mounted as well because the hinge mounted in the door had the since chromate as well and then body colored as it exited the slot in the door. By the way if you are looking to duplicate the hinge zinc chromate, I found a source of rattle cans that match the color very well.

[James B.]

Re: Cars Painted With Doors On At A O Smith?

I might be interested in your source for zinc chromate. What is the recoat cycle time given on the can? I ask this because I bought a can from a boat supply house and the color is great. However the recoat time is 1 hour. Based on this my restorer/friend says the carrier is enamel and he is concerned that wont react well with the lacquer primers and paint we will be using on the car. If your can says you can recoat without a delay I would be very interested in your source. If I can't find a source for a lacquer based zinc chromate it is not a big deal. We will just spray some primer on a hinge and see what happens. In any case, thanks for the response

[Donald H.]

Re: Cars Painted With Doors On At A O Smith?

Here is a picture of the hinge after door removal (hinge is still mounted to the body) on my 66. The picture isn't great as I took it with my Iphone, but you can see the zinc chromate primer that was under the bolt heads. There is red oxide primer under the paint on my car.

Don

[Tom A.]

Re: Cars Painted With Doors On At A O Smith?

The two primer coats were on the exterior panels only as they required sanding. The fiberglass inside the doors on original cars is normally somewhat rough and shows sand marks etc. They only received color for the most part. It would have been extremely difficult to sand inside the doors.

[King M.]

Re: Cars Painted With Doors On At A O Smith?

Check out skygeek.com. Tempo A702 primer