Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

[Terry L.]

Are the door strikes taped off or removed during painting, or are they painted on the door jam?
Another question, There are two vacuum hose/wire harness locking clips that are riveted on the hood surround. One is located on the left side, the other is on the right side. I have looked at several 70-72 cars and I cant find any consistency on where these are located on the left side, any suggestions?
The right side clip seems to be located approx. 6 1/2" forward of the firewall, the left side though is somewhere between 6 1/2" to 9 3/4" forward of the firewall.

Thanks

[Chuck S.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Body was painted before assembly, so pretty much anything that is screwed to the body would have been after paint and therefore unpainted.

I'm not clear on what you mean by "hood surround", but clip locations are typically shown in the Assembly Instruction Manual. If you're talking about the forward harness clips on the left side of the engine compartment, the positions and number of clips changed during the 70 model year. That could explain why you have seen inconsistency.

[Terry L.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Thanks for the info on the door strike.
The clips I am referring to are on page 235 and 236 of the 70 AIM, item number 4 and 2 respectively.
Did GM just riveted these clips anywhere on the finder skirt area?

[Chuck S.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Usually, when something is to be attached to a fiberglass component, that part (e.g. inner fender) is molded with "dimples" that identify the location where the assembly worker was to drill holes for assembly.

If there is no dimple, and there are no dimensions in the AIM, placement was deemed non-critical and left to the worker. But, in such cases, you will see there's not a whole lot of latitude to "screw it up".

What I'm trying to say is, in the case of these harness clips, GM probably didn't care if they were within +/- 1/2" of the exact same position on every car. Find a car near your VIN (early/late), measure the locations, and go with that. I'm assuming that the fender/inner fender have been replaced and there's no existing holes (Item 4 near the firewall).

In the case of the clips along the inner fender, late cars will have one additional clip, and the clip locations are slightly different from earlier cars. I don't know the VIN where changeover began, but if you look at the bottom of UPC12, Sheet A14 (page K235?) you will see a revision block with one entry (late AIM). That revision indicates "2-5-70, ..., Redrawn & Redesigned"; that's probably when clip revision occurred, and in actual production some time after that.

From the page numbers you reference (K235, K236?), it sounds like you also have a Mid-America AIM which worked out well this time. The page numbers were placed by the reproducing entity, and may vary between the different versions. It's better to reference the UPC and sheet; e.g. 12A14, 12A15.

BTW, to add to my earlier comments, most parts that were riveted or bonded to the body would have been in position during body paint, and consequently may show signs of paint or overspray. The harness clips you're asking about would have been installed on the body when it was painted, and would be painted black when the engine compartment was "blacked out".

Exceptions to the "screwed to the body after paint" would be any component required to complete the body before painting; e.g. doors and hinges, headlight door supports and linkage, etc. Wiper door, plenum grills, T-tops were painted off the body.

[Terry M.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Body was painted before assembly, so pretty much anything that is screwed to the body would have been after paint and therefore unpainted.

Chuck is giving you the "textbook" answer, however about 120% in Corvettes went through the repaint line. During that process, depending what was "touched up," overspray could result on some items that were installed after body paint. If one has photos of the original parts, and the overspray is determined to be from factory processes (as opposed to subsequent repainting), that overspray should be duplicated. Absent that evidence, anything added after body body paint should, on restoration, have no overspray. It is those overspray details, among other things, that get some of us all excited about original unrestored, and unmolested Corvettes.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Chuck is giving you the "textbook" answer, however about 120% in Corvettes went through the repaint line. During that process, depending what was "touched up," overspray could result on some items that were installed after body paint...

Actually, I was taking the narrow perspective of someone whose car had been commercially repainted, and didn't even think of the repaint line scenario. You are correct, and it is important to mention that for those lucky owners restoring cars with original paint.

Graduate level paint restoration technique is not exactly required if your car has been repainted. Once a car has been repainted, any subtle "factory repair overspray originality" has been lost in the weeds and is not recoverable...repaint overspray looks exactly the same as factory repaint overspray. Trying to identify which was which caused me some confusion until I gave it up, and said, "All overspray has to be from the repaint".

I probably told Terry more than he wanted to hear anyway. My objective was to give him, and others needing to know, a logic process for determining what would normally be painted and what would not...assuming of course that the car hadn't gone through the factory repaint line at least once or twice.

[Alan S.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Hi Terry,
I checked the clip location on my 71.
I measured straight back from the center of the rivet to the wiper compartment grill. 10 1/4" on the right side and 11" on the left side.
A small variation on the left side doesn't seem like it would be a problem, but on the right side there is also the clip for the washer bottle neck to contend with near by.
I hope this helps!
Regards,
Alan

[Chris H.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Terry,

Attached are some photos from my early '70 LS5 Bowtie car. As you can see, the door striker has no evidence of paint. In the engine bay, on the passenger side, there is no rivet at all. On the driver side, you can see the location of the rivet and the paint detail.

[Terry L.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Guys,

Thanks for all your input.
Chris, thanks for the photos. I will be painting on Monday so, I will either tape off the door strike or remove them before painting. I am still curious about where to install the wire/vacuum hose clips.
Chris, your car is the first car I have seen with the wire strap riveted in the horizontal section of the flange. In your photo notice the 3/8" hole just forward of the tie strap rivet in the vertical section of the hood surround.
This is where I am going to rivet my clip.

Alan, is this where your clip is riveted? I have seen the clips riveted in this location and aft of this location approximately 6" on the driver side.
Maybe the clips location is based on the car's options.

I have decided to use base coat clear coat paint. I am still going to try and keep all the over spray markings.

[Alan S.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

Hi Terry,
On my 71, 350/270, 4-speed, no a/c, car, both clips have the pop rivet in the vertical surface.
On the passenger's side there is also a flat headed soft aluminium rivet for the washer bottle neck bracket that's in the horizontal surface about 2" forward of the pop rivet.
The driver's side has a well formed hole (3/16" ?) with nothing in it in the horizontal surface about 1" forward of the pop rivet.
Hope you can use this info!
Paint on Monday!!!! BIG DAY!!!
Regards,
Alan

[Chuck S.]

Re: Harness clip locations and door strike paint on a 70

...I will be painting on Monday so, I will either tape off the door strike or remove them before painting...

I would take them off; it's easier and faster than masking them.

Removing them will give you a nice sharp factory-look division between the paint and the backing washer. I don't care how skilled and careful anyone is, they can't mask a circular line that won't look like it was masked when examined closely (as in judging).