A.O. Smith Green Chromate Undercarriage Brackets

[Mitchell S.]

I found past posts on this topic and questions have been directed to the seat and seat belt brackets finish. But, per my attached picture, what is this finish of these corner brackets. I found a picture on the Corvette Forum that shows the brackets with a natural finish, not Green or Black. The John Hinckley article would suggest these brackets should be Green. Appreciate some help with this question.

[Mark F.]

Hi Mitchell,

Per John Hinckley's C2 Assembly Process Presentation (available in the Database of Restoration Documents [DoRD] Sticky Post), here's what he said about one of the differences in AOS assembly processes:

A.O. Smith built the Corvette body in essentially the same manner as the St. Louis body, with a few exceptions as noted below.

Body Shop (BS):
…The radiator support, front header reinforcement bar, and all of the various riveted-on body brackets, reinforcements and anchor plates installed in the underbody subassembly operation were spray-primed with green zinc chromate vs. the St. Louis black flow-coat primer process. A.O. Smith didn’t have a black prime flow-coat system, so they used the same zinc chromate process they used for the Birdcage (Cab Frame). This required extra operations in their body blackout booth to fully cover both sides of the radiator support so the green primer didn’t show against the black background in the engine compartment.

[Joseph S.]

Mitchell, Every 63-67 Corvette I have seen, owned or worked on has Cad plating on those seat belt brackets.

[Mitchell S.]

Joseph,

Attached is the picture I mentioned from the Corvette Forum showing the brackets in question to be CAD plated. To confirm what you said, this would be the correct finish.

Thanks

[Gary B.]

Michael,

Years ago, when I was about to restore those brackets in my ‘66, I asked John Hinckley about a photo he posted showing those underbody, seat belt reinforcement brackets to be semi-gloss black and he told me the black paint was someone’s restoration error and the brackets were “poor quality, zinc plated”. One can quibble whether they were cad vs zinc, but regardless, they were plated, not painted.

Gary

[Mitchell S.]

I have my answer, thanks to everyone for your responses.