396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

[William B.]

I have an origional 30k mile 396 car with a chrome a/c lid. The owner told me the lid was black paint that was chipping off. He steel wooled the lid and it had chrome underneath.
I do feel this is an origional corvette lid, may be a 66 lid with chrome, or were the chrome lids painted black on the top for 65 396 cars?
If I am wrong and have the wrong a/c lid is there anyone out there with an origional for sale???

[Joe L.]

Re: 396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

I have an origional 30k mile 396 car with a chrome a/c lid. The owner told me the lid was black paint that was chipping off. He steel wooled the lid and it had chrome underneath.
I do feel this is an origional corvette lid, may be a 66 lid with chrome, or were the chrome lids painted black on the top for 65 396 cars?
If I am wrong and have the wrong a/c lid is there anyone out there with an origional for sale???

William------


I am not aware that these 1965 L-78 lids were originally black paint over chrome. In addition, paint does not adhere well to chrome (as the previous owner discovered) and it would surprise me that GM or their suppliers would have done that. Plus, it would have been pretty cost-inefficient to chrome the lids and then paint them.

However, it's possible that at some point the supplier of the lids had to meet delivery requirements for the black covers and, in a pinch, just painted over chrome covers.

The short of it is I don't think black paint-over-chrome is typical for the 1965 L-78 air cleaner lids but it's possible that it did occur as the exception rather than the rule.

[Clem Z.]

Re: 396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

I have an origional 30k mile 396 car with a chrome a/c lid. The owner told me the lid was black paint that was chipping off. He steel wooled the lid and it had chrome underneath.
I do feel this is an origional corvette lid, may be a 66 lid with chrome, or were the chrome lids painted black on the top for 65 396 cars?
If I am wrong and have the wrong a/c lid is there anyone out there with an origional for sale???

my new 65 396 built in march had a black lid and no chrome plating showing any place on the lid. when i picked it up at the st louis factory and opened the hood i was shocked no chrome air cleaner or rocker covers. i knew it was a truck engine but i did not expect it to look like one.

[Steve B.]

Re: 396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

Original lids had black paint on the back side with thin and often incomplete coverage.

[Mike M.]

Re: 396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

Original lids had black paint on the back side with thin and often incomplete coverage.

my 396 lids are as steve described.mike

[William B.]

Re: 396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

Thank you everyone, I believe I have a 66 lid that someone had painted black.

[Ronald L.]

Re: 396 air cleaner lid, chrome on bottom???

For the record these lids were made by AC Spark Plug Division in Flint MI. And no they didn't chrome them, they were stamped, hemmed and went to the next plant to be painted. And contrary to opinions of what the original gloss level of the paint was from observing 40 year old parts, its a semi gloss, not semi flat. 1966 started the chrome versions and that again was in house. At its heyday Flint had 47 GM division plants, and incredible manufacturing base decimated by the MBA's centralization cost optimization. Interestingly, VW's 21st century push to be the largest automotive company in the world bears a striking resemblance to the vertical integration found back then at GM.