'67 Headlamp Door Bezels

[David P.]

Hello,
After a hiatus I'm back on my car.
I'm in the process of restoring the headlamp door bezels on my '67 327 Coupe.
They are definitely GM steel bezels.
They may have both been replaced somewhere along the way as one of them has a small square white and blue GM sticker and the other one has the remnants of the sticker.
I plan to blast them and refinish them to original factory standards.
My question is this:
1. What color primer would have been used originally from the factory?
2. After I prime them, the front exterior surface will be painted body color.
I assume that the back inside surface is not completely covered with body color paint but has some overspray.
Is anyone familiar with the original color of the primer on the inside of the bezels and what they would look like regarding overspray?
Thanks in advance.
David

[Mark F.]

Re: '67 Headlamp Door Bezels

...My question is this:
1. What color primer would have been used originally from the factory?
2. After I prime them, the front exterior surface will be painted body color.
I assume that the back inside surface is not completely covered with body color paint but has some overspray.
Is anyone familiar with the original color of the primer on the inside of the bezels and what they would look like regarding overspray? Thanks in advance. David

Hi David,

My recollection regarding this topic is that the bezels (and the cowl grill vents BTW - 4 parts in all) were laid on the floor of the car as it went thru the paint booth. In fact on some cars, you can see the "shadow" of over spray where those parts were laid.

I seriously doubt the back sides of these parts were painted at all - but I have no proof of that (they'd have to be manually flipped and dried on the floor at some point - and that does not seem practical in the assembly process at the time).

If I were redoing mine, I would lay them horizontally on a flat surface (cardboard?) and spray them from above (mimicking what took place TFP).

I also don't know if these parts were laid there in the primer booth or not(?).

I'm sure others may comment with additional info for you...

I'm also curious - does your car have a lot of miles on it? (maybe chips and nicks on the original bezels?)
I'm wondering why headlight bezels would have to be replaced?

[David P.]

[Mark F.]

Re: '67 Headlamp Door Bezels

Hi David,

I found your answer...
go to page 4 in John Hinckley's article on the C2 assembly process (this and many other excellent references are in Rich Mozzetta's Restoration Documents Database STICKY POST at the top of the forum page).

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/attachme...3&d=1499375207

near the middle of the page, you will see the following steps in the Paint Shop (hope this helps):

Dry-sand entire body and quick-dry pit-fill as required, blowoff and
tack-rag to remove sanding dust

Sprayers blow body off again and tack-rag entire body surface

Headlight bezels and cowl vent grilles laid on body floor area

Body transferred into 3-job long downdraft spray booth

Spray quick-flash lacquer-based red oxide primer coat, flash for one
job length, spray lacquer-based gray primer coat (including parts on
body floor); two sprayers – one on each side, mirroring each other’s
spray action.

Body moved across transfer area by sprayers to one of four floor
conveyors into prime bake oven.

Gas-fired primer bake oven – 60 minutes at 280*F

[David P.]

[David P.]

Re: '67 Headlamp Door Bezels

Just to reiterate my final question...
Does anyone know if the headlamp door bezels and the cowl vent grills
arrive on the assembly line for painting in bare metal or with some kind of black or or coating of another color?
Thanks in advance for any insight.
David