Anything attached prior to painting

[Tom R.]

Was anything attached prior to body painting such as the radiator core support brackets, or front nose reinforcement? I realize that the header bar near the headlights was there and bonded in but what else. I have the nose reinforcement off and was wondering if I should reinstall before painting which would mean the rivets would get paint. That brings up the question about the door lock pillar panel rivets - would they be painted as well?

[Gene M.]

Re: Anything attached prior to painting

Tom,
By nose reinforcements do you intend the hood and radiator core support braces? Yes they are in prior to body paint and also black out.

The big brace, "Horse Collar" is best installed after body is on frame. It is not riveted on, bolts secure it with core support and frame. Having all the weight of these braces will make difficult time on a body cradle while painting. You should have some added support to the c3 nose due to it wanting to drop lower than normal when assembled on frame.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Anything attached prior to painting

Tom,
By nose reinforcements do you intend the hood and radiator core support braces? Yes they are in prior to body paint and also black out.

The big brace, "Horse Collar" is best installed after body is on frame. It is not riveted on, bolts secure it with core support and frame. Having all the weight of these braces will make difficult time on a body cradle while painting. You should have some added support to the c3 nose due to it wanting to drop lower than normal when assembled on frame.

Maybe John Hinckley can add something more here, but I believe anything that was riveted, welded or bolted in AIM section UPC 1 (Bolt and weld) happened in body assembly. From the body shop, the body went to paint. I believe the trim line assembly (after paint) begins on UPC 1, Sheet D2. However, I doubt the assembly happened in the same sequence as the pages, but maybe close.

My first impulse was that anything pop-riveted happened in body assembly, but that is incorrect...there are exceptions that required pop riveting after paint. The two that come quickly to mind are the rear window weatherstrip retainer and t-top/halo trim moldings, and I'm sure there are many others. The pop rivets on the lock pillar are definitely painted.

[John H.]

Re: Anything attached prior to painting

I'm not a C3 guy, but here's a photo of a C3 leaving the Body Shop, headed into the Paint Shop, and the radiator support is definitely in place; without it, there would have been no support for the notoriously weak front clip on the body truck.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Anything attached prior to painting

I'm not a C3 guy, but here's a photo of a C3 leaving the Body Shop, headed into the Paint Shop, and the radiator support is definitely in place; without it, there would have been no support for the notoriously weak front clip on the body truck.

Yup.

My yellow 72 has yellow paint under the blackout paint on the rad support.

So, technically the support is black-over-color-over-black when you strip it.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Anything attached prior to painting

I'm not a C3 guy, but here's a photo of a C3 leaving the Body Shop, headed into the Paint Shop, and the radiator support is definitely in place; without it, there would have been no support for the notoriously weak front clip on the body truck.

Yes, I agree...the radiator support provides the structure that holds the two front fenders together, so it was definitely installed in the body shop along with a lot of other parts shown in UPC 11/13, "Front End Sheet Metal". I wasn't disagreeing with anything Gene said; I was trying to add some possible guidelines for helping determine later use of rivets.

The fact that a lot of body assembly occurs in UPC 11/13 late in the AIM, and the fact that it's entitled "Front End Sheet Metal" is a curious thing to me. It makes me wonder if the authors were trying to make the Corvette AIM comply with a format established for the metal-bodied cars.

[John H.]

Re: Anything attached prior to painting

The fact that a lot of body assembly occurs in UPC 11/13 late in the AIM, and the fact that it's entitled "Front End Sheet Metal" is a curious thing to me. It makes me wonder if the authors were trying to make the Corvette AIM comply with a format established for the metal-bodied cars.

Chuck -

That's exactly the case - all Assembly Manuals followed exactly the same format (UPC 0 thru 14, then RPO's), to match the Engineering Releasing format. For everything except Corvette, UPC 11/13 WAS front end "sheet metal".

The Assembly Manual wasn't a process document - it was an Engineering document intended to be an aid to the plants, who developed their own assembly processes; there is no correlation between the order in which things are organized in the manual and the order in which the car was built.

Shameless plug: If you plan on attending the 2011 National Convention in Novi, Michigan, I'll be presenting a 2-hour Tech Session that will cover the complete St. Louis assembly process from the first rivet in the off-line underbody subassembly to the shipping gate. Might have a quiz.