Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

[Jamie F.]

I have a late '69 Convert that I am the 5th owner of. I contacted the second owner who bought the car in early '72 and he says the car was Black and didn't look like it was ever painted. The third owner says the car was always black. The fourth owner says the trim tag showed 980 (Riverside Gold) so he painted it the correct Gold in '03.
I can not find any trace of original Gold anywhere. The underside of the rear deck is still black, the front fender gutters are still black, everywhere I look. Where would be a good place to look for original paint that would not have been disturbed? Under windshield trim? Or???
How common is it to have a Trim tag stamped 980 when it should have been 900?
Thanks!

[Alan S.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

Hi Jamie,
I would look for the body paint color under the black-out in the wiper well. The nastier it looks the better.
Regards,
Alan

[Chuck S.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

To identify the original factory paint color, detach and fold back the carpet along the door thresholds to expose overspray on the interior fiberglass of the floor pans near the door threshold; it's highly unlikely a repaint would remove the carpet to cover that overspray. You would also likely find original overspray on the exterior sides of the pans below and behind the frame rails, but repaints would raise doubts as to whether it was original or not unless you could microscopically analyze a chip each layer down until you got to the original paint.

Any task performed by a human being is subject to error in execution. It's possible such an anomaly occurred, but you don't hear of it happening often on trim plates...there's no way you'll every know for sure.

If the trim plate IS INDEED the trim plate that came on the car, be happy with that, and paint the car in the color stamped on the trim plate...without some kind of documentation, there is no chance of convincing NCRS judges that it came from the factory in black.

[Jack H.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

Another forensic trick that applies to convertibles is to inspect the rear deck lid supports. They were installed along with the rear lid when the body went through the paint booth and items like the springs, back side of the supports and inner surfaces of the support tended to gather random overspray.

Few who repaint or restore cars bother to remove the deck lid AND the support hardware to oblitherate all evidence of the factory original paint process...

[Jamie F.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

Chuck, I had the carpet out and saw no Gold except the repaint. They had the sell plates off when it was painted.
Jack, weren't some of the rear deck parts installed after paint? So if I remove them there might be original paint under them?

[Chuck S.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

Chuck, I had the carpet out and saw no Gold except the repaint. They had the sell plates off when it was painted.
Jack, weren't some of the rear deck parts installed after paint? So if I remove them there might be original paint under them?

For a repaint, I would expect to see the repaint color under the sill plate, but it's much less likely on the interior floor. About the only way the original overspray on the floor gets covered with another color is that the car has been body-off restored, and the interior was completely gutted to paint the bare body "just like factory".

If the car was originally Riverside Gold, like the trim plate says, I would expect to find that color overspray on the interior floor. Then, there is the issue of Riverside Gold being original overspray or later repaint overspray. Again, I would not expect to see repaint overspray on the interior floor unless the car has had a body-off restoration. If there is no BLACK overspray on the interior floor, I would doubt the car was originally black.

All this discussion is immaterial anyway...If you're angling for a black car suitable for NCRS judging, you're going to be out of luck with this one using any color except Riverside Gold. If you're not having it judged, or you're willing to accept losing ALL the paint judging points, paint it any color you prefer. This is just my pragmatic opinion.

[Jamie F.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

Chuck, Thanks for the reply. I didn't see ANY color paint on the floor, just some carpet glue. I'm not angling for a black car, the car actually has a beautiful Riverside Gold paint job, and I LIKE it. Very 1969, if you ask me. And looks great with Redlines.
I just couldn't understand why it is all black under the rear deck, the fender gutters are black, and everywhere is black. Then I got a hold of the second owner through A LOT of detective work, and he said it was black in '72, and it got me thinking... Car is low miles, never restored, very original. L68 400hp, 4-speed, side exhaust, blk vinyl, alarm, nothing else. Trim tag is original and the third owner, (again major dectective work) mentioned when he sold it that the buyer noted the trim tag said Riverside gold, said he never knew that, and he had the car 25 years!

[Jack H.]

Re: Original Paint Location Find? 980 or 900?

Yes, some deck lid locking/latching parts were added after the paint process. But, IF the car was professionally repainted, I'd expect the painter pulled these unpainted parts (or masked them) in his re-spray process.