Underbody weld nuts-black or metal?

[Frank B.]

On a 1957 C1 are the many weld-nut and attachment rivet plates 0n the underside of the seat area painted black or bare metal. I have seen Duntov cars and others in bare metal ,but my gut feel for corvette production is they must have been black originally. I am currently sandblasting underbody and it sure would be easier to leave them bare metal.
Frank Bloemke (Corvette Assy Tooling Production Engr. 75 to 82)

[Gary C.]

Re: Underbody weld nuts-black or metal?

Frank, the Bowtie '57's we've seen in the last 5+ years were rusty so one could conclude they were bare metal. Do not recall any showing any signs of paint along the edges, etc. The '57 at the Boston Convention is the nicest original '57 NCRS Bowtie and its plates were rusty. Not sure anyone knows for sure. Could've been thin CAD/Zinc plated, oil or thin coat of black paint which became corroded and rusty over the years. Sorry don't have a definitives answer for you. Gary....

[Rod K.]

Re: Underbody weld nuts-black or metal?

Removed some of mine when doing the underside, no signs of paint or plating, just bare metal.

[Steven B.]

Re: Underbody weld nuts-black or metal?

I checked mine tonight and did not see traces of any coating. It has not been in rain since '64 and no Winters since '61 but all traces could have been gone by then.

[Mike M.]

Re: Underbody weld nuts-black or metal?

bare metal. mike