73 under hood paint

[David C.]

In another thread re: acorn nuts, I see photos of the underside of hoods that don't look like mine (my car was repainted by PO). I looked at the TIM&JG and see no description of under hood paint, nor a photo of the full underside. Judging by photos from the other thread it appears my car needs a lot more blackout paint under the hood. Here's a photo of my car. Am I missing a lot of blackout?

73-under-hood.jpg

-- Dave

[Jimmy P.]

Re: 73 under hood paint

Hello again Dave,
Yes, your hood underside is missing the factory blackout…but it sure looks like your car has a real nice paint job.
I’ll share some photos here for you to observe. A couple from photos I kept in my Revision files from back then. The yellow car photos are from an original unrestored ‘73. The silver hood example is from an original ‘74 that belonged to another revision team member’s original car. Tougher to see the blackout edges on the silver hood. The red car is my ‘73… Note that I had my hood repainted and had my painter try to simulate the factory blackout from original car photos I gave him. (First…looking at my car…yes I have a non original chrome air cleaner lid on it, as well as the aluminum L82 HP finned GM valve covers! My car is an L48 and I do have the original orange steel covers and original gloss black lid.
The factory workers used a ‘MASK’ to lie around the edges of the hood then quickly sprayed out the blackout. Please know that it was not perfect and every car could have more or less than the next one going down the line! I’ve also attached a couple photos showing the blackout at the rear of engine bay at the inner rear fender edges.
I apologize for all the garage clutter on the walls in the background of my car pics. It’s too cold out this morning here in SW Pa. and I didn’t want to take the car out.
Oh, and one more thing, take note of the original under hood insulation on both the original examples I posted. Originals had those formed impressions on them. That same hood insulation was used under the hoods on ‘73, ‘74 & all ‘75’s ( those three years only!). These are not reproduced by any vendor! The repos are just flat like yours and the one I now have on my car. I did keep my original after I had my car judged, but removed it because it looked a bit ‘ratty’.
Hope all this helps.

Sorry for the two sideways photos! I forgot that you need to rotate the pics sometime so they appear correct in the thread. You can save and flip them yourself!

[David C.]

Re: 73 under hood paint

Wow, thanks Jimmy. That's just what I need to get the blackout right.

-- Dave

[David C.]

Re: 73 under hood paint

Just to add more data, I saw this survivor 75 convertible at the cars and coffee this morning. The blackout is somewhat worn away, but you can still see the outlines of the mask, as well as an original heat shield mat. They match the photos that Jimmy posted.

75-hood.jpg