1963 antenna hole mistery ?

[Michael W.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

which picture? Thx its there now....

[John D.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

Sander, Being a 63 owner myself I feel for you friend. I have read a ton of your posts. Bite the bullet. Stop the show. Fill the hole in at all cost and do it right.
When my white 63 was judged for the first time in its life at a regional In Marlborough there were 16 cars in my class. I had the worst antenna in the show. Guys laughed as they always do when I screw up. My AM radio worked and works perfect. You know why? Because my antenna was sooo high. Or was anyhow. Now its a nice NOS one. In a line up of 63's your car is going to stand out like a sore thumb with the antenna in the wrong location.
Fill the hole in no matter what the cost or delay in restoration. That's my opinion. It's not your fault that some bubba made a mistake. Fix it. John D.

[Robert C.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

John, If that's true, how come all L-88's had filled holes? We look for that on every one we judge.
Bob

[Cecil L.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

What is NCRS position on dealer installed accessories? Are they recognized or not and do they incur a points penalty? Sorry for not knowing the answer but even though I've been a member since the 70's I have have not been involved in nor interested in the car show/judging scene. My interests are more technical and historical.

With reference to Sander's car, it looks like it was a dealer installed radio by the location of the antenna. As best as I can tell that is the only difference between dealer installed vs factory installed if the car is late enough to have the vinyl covered dash. On early cars with the painted fiberglass dash, I believe that the dealer installed radios would have the trim bezel that was added later in production to the vinyl covered dash. It would have been necessary to hide the somewhat rough cut of the dealer installation. The trim bezel was part of the radio installation kit probably from the beginning of production.....it was probably already available in parts supply when they decided to use it in regular production. It would be interesting to check early 63's with radio trim bezels on painted dashes to see if they also have antennas mounted forward of the normal location.

Attached are pages from the 63 Passenger, Chevy II, Corvair And Truck Accessories Installation Reference Manual (P&A 15) dated 1962. If you don't have the P&A Manuals in your reference library you should.

There are too many pages to post in one message so I will post them in several installments.

[Cecil L.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

Radio pages 2-5

[Cecil L.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

Radiop pages 6-8

[Michael H.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

Interesting. Thanks Cecil. Difficult to tell but the dimension shown looks like 28" from the forward end of the peak line to the front edge of the template? I wonder how much further rearward the hole center was supposed to be. Usually those templates had a center cross or punchout for the hole location.
What manual are these sheets shown in?
Any chance you could make these larger?

[Cecil L.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

Michael,
Yes it is 28" to the front edge of the template. It doesn't give the dimensions of the template, but it looks to be no more that 2 or 3 ". On the convert it is lined up with the decklid opening corner edge. In either case it is just forward of the rear compartment bulkhead. As I previously posted the factory hole was about 41+" from the same reference point. This is from the assembly manual.
I don't know how to enlarge the pics and still keep them within the limitations to upload.

[Cecil L.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

This is as big as I can make it within the 800x600 limit and with my limited editing skills.

[Sander B.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

Thank you Cecil
For the picture's this gives me a good feel that it is done by GM's intructions
and that it is most likely done at the dealership

i will measure the distance of the hole to check if it is indeed the 28''
but i am almost sure it is the 13,6'' (34cm) more forward

also see how the ground strap is routed and attached tru the body and on the frame......
and No ground plate installed because it will not fit

great info !!

thanks again Sander,

[Robert C.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

All dealer installed items are off base for judging. Major deductions can occur.Speacial paint, pin stripes, locking gas caps,undercoatings etc. can hurt your score badly.

[Michael H.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

This is as big as I can make it within the 800x600 limit and with my limited editing skills.

Thanks Cecil. I've definitely learned something from these pages. I've seen antennas mounted forward of the correct location but I never knew it was actually GM recommended when dealer installed.

I wonder if the 64-67 installation kits were the same?

[Cecil L.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

I don't know. 63 is the newest P&A Manual I have in my collection so I don't have anything to compare to the 64-67 assembly manual but I would suspect they would be essentially the same except for the different part numbers of the kits and contents.

[Nick M.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

I agree with John. That is that the antenna will stick out like a sore thumb, just like his did in Marlborough. Sorry John. I can say that because my 63 was parked right next to Johns' 63 in the judging lineup. The way they line up the cars for judging makes any obvious exterior flaws extremely noticeable so I would fix it now. John, glad to hear that you got rid of that whip that you tried to pass off as an antenna!

[John H.]

Re: 1963 antenna hole mistery ?

John, If that's true, how come all L-88's had filled holes? We look for that on every one we judge.
Bob

I have no idea why that would be the case. My Production Engineering Group supplied the apply fixture the plant used to drill the antenna hole.

If the rear upper panel was received with the antenna hole pre-drilled, there would be an A.I.M. sheet somewhere indicating that it should be filled, as the UPC 1-14 section deals with "base cars". Neither the Chevrolet A.I.M. nor the A.O. Smith Process Sheet Manual (which is five times thicker) has any such reference, and A.O. Smith documented EVERYTHING.

I'd be skeptical of an L-88 with a "filled" antenna hole.