Original paint on '65????

[Norris W.]

Looking at a white '65 Corvette. The seller is representing it as being original paint. The car has a lot of door dings down both sides on the ridge where they'd be expected. In each of these dings I'm seeing grey primer. To the rear of the rear tires at the bottom of the quarters, where there's some road rash I'm seeing the red primer I would have expected. So my question is was there anything grey put on top of the red primer on a white car in 1965?

[Mike E.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

Norris,
Yes I believe there was a gray sealer put over the top of the red primer. It can be seen in this photo from one of John Hinckley's PowerPoints.

You can also see coverage was not 100%. John talks about it on page 5 of this document.


Job Number checked against run sheet to determine color; sprayers apply lacquer-based quick-flash sealer coat to entire body and parts on floor; sealer (called “adhesive” by sprayers) helped topcoat adhere to primer coat. After one-job flash, sprayed three coats of topcoat color lacquer, wet-on-wet, including parts on floor. Flash time between sealer and each color coat was 1-2 minutes.





Mike

[Tom A.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

The factory sprayed a coat of grey primer down first then a coat of red. The red was mostly removed by the sanding process as it was a depth indicator for sanding. The lower panels got very little if any sanding or prep. It is not unusual to see bare fiberglass on lower panels and the bottoms of doors.

[Russ S.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

When I stripped the original paint from my 66 in 1979 it had no grey under the red primer.

[Tracy C.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

The factory sprayed a coat of grey primer down first then a coat of red. The red was mostly removed by the sanding process as it was a depth indicator for sanding. The lower panels got very little if any sanding or prep. It is not unusual to see bare fiberglass on lower panels and the bottoms of doors.

Interesting Tom, When I stripped my 63, I found red oxide under the gray sealer coat. not vise versa.

tc

[Bob J.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

Interesting Tom, When I stripped my 63, I found red oxide under the gray sealer coat. not vise versa.

tc

Tracy, I found it red under gray on my 63 also.

[Jack M.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

This was the exterior paint process in 1966... I'm guessing it was similar in 1965: CLICK HERE

[Tom A.]

Re: Original paint on '65????

Sorry, I got it backwards. That's what I get when I answer while doing something else. I guess multitasking ability deteriorates with age (along with most everything else).