65 F40 front shock question

[John S.]

Have looked extensively in the archives with no answers to this question. Was the chassis painted with the shocks installed. Reference the picture below. This is the original F40 shock off my 65 fuelie. Note the date is 1B65 or Feb. 1 1965 on a march 3rd build date car. I believe it has never been off the car. After cleaning the shock it is very clear that there are intermittent black spots or stripes on the shock. Only explanation I can think of is the shock was installed before chassis paint and it is over spray through the springs. Any thoughts?

[Bill W.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

When the "frame" was painted it was bare . All other parts were installed later . Any thing else that had paint on it was painted or coated by the supplier .

[Dan H.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

John, looks like maybe the original Dealer shot on a little undercoat and some hit the shock through the front springs? Any 'extra' undercoat on the floor pans etc.?

[John S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

IDK. Kind of dirty under there. Have not tackled the cleaning part of the underside. On the to do list though.

[Michael H.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Was the chassis painted with the shocks installed. Only explanation I can think of is the shock was installed before chassis paint and it is over spray through the springs. Any thoughts?

John,

It's entirely possible that the coating on the part is from a process that was called final blackout. That's a process that was performed on the completed chassis just before the body was installed. We've seen several front shock absorbers with black paint stripes/overspray. Was there more chassis black on the outer surface of the coil springs?

Or, as mentioned by Dan, it could be from a dealer undercoat process.

[Tony S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Have looked extensively in the archives with no answers to this question. Was the chassis painted with the shocks installed. Reference the picture below. This is the original F40 shock off my 65 fuelie. Note the date is 1B65 or Feb. 1 1965 on a march 3rd build date car. I believe it has never been off the car. After cleaning the shock it is very clear that there are intermittent black spots or stripes on the shock. Only explanation I can think of is the shock was installed before chassis paint and it is over spray through the springs. Any thoughts?

John, you have incorrectly decoded your F40 date code. The correct sequence for your F40 date code of 1B65 is: MMWYY. That means that your F40 shocks are dated: January, second week,1965.

It's very possible that the black paint on your shocks came from the final chassis blackout process as Michael Hanson has pointed out.

Tony

[John S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Tony,
I believe I have it correct. Latest edition of 65 judging manual page 144 says "The optional F40 shock is dated in the DDMYY format where DD is the day of month, M is month (alpha) and YY is the year. Example: 2A65" With mine being 1B65 that decodes to 1St day of February 1965.
As for the final black out over spray, I will clean up the springs and see what I find.
John

[Tony S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Tony,
I believe I have it correct. Latest edition of 65 judging manual page 144 says "The optional F40 shock is dated in the DDMYY format where DD is the day of month, M is month (alpha) and YY is the year. Example: 2A65" With mine being 1B65 that decodes to 1St day of February 1965.
As for the final black out over spray, I will clean up the springs and see what I find.
John

John, that error is being corrected in the upcoming 1965 6th edition. Look at the 1966 JG, which has it correct.
Tony

[Tony S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

John, btw, are your half shafts original and untouched? If so, can you see remnants of blackout paint being applied to the tops of your half shafts (maybe even your strut rods)? Here's a photo of a typical '65 under-car exhaust rear suspension showing obvious signs of factory blackout on the half shaft (which may explain the black paint on your shocks). I admire restorers who are willing to replicate the factory blackout on these suspension parts as the car was originally built at the factory. My '65 had alot of chassis blackout on the front and rear suspension parts. Most of the 1965's chasses that I judge--even at the national level, are devoid of blackout paint to nicely restored suspension areas. However, I am beginning to see '65 owners that are putting blackout back onto these suspension parts. Check out this photo of Kevin Dewitt's 4-star Bowtie car from the 2012 nationals at San Diego. This if fairly typical for 1965 chassis blackout.

Best,
Tony

[Ronald L.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Tony, dating on F40 and F41 shocks are different than the base shocks, don't have either JG in front of me, what do they say about those?

p.s. a 11E64 is special why?

[Mark D.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

F41 shocks are dated by week...unless they never made an F41 after May:-)

[Tony S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Tony, dating on F40 and F41 shocks are different than the base shocks, don't have either JG in front of me, what do they say about those?

p.s. a 11E64 is special why?

Ron, the 1965 standard shocks are julian dated. The optional F40 shock date stamped 11E64 is decoded as 5th week of Nov, 1964. On an F40 shock, you won't see the middle letter higher than an E.

[Ronald L.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Guys, I know that, F40 41 dating, but you (both) missed the point of the "11E64" question based upon the Gregorian calendar, get that cup of coffee and try again.

[Tony S.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

Guys, I know that, F40 41 dating, but you (both) missed the point of the "11E64" question based upon the Gregorian calendar, get that cup of coffee and try again.

Ron, it wouldn't be the first time that I missed something due to coffee deprivation! All I can say is that the 5th week of Nov, '64 had only two days in it: Sunday the 29th and Monday the 30th. What am I missing?

Tony

[Dan P.]

Re: 65 F40 front shock question

I have rebuilt several F40 and F41 shocks . I have never seen a letter greater than E ,5^Th week. All Delco shocks since the 50's were date Month Week of the Month. Year.5 A 65 is May first week 1965. In January 1963 Delco went to a Julian date ,except for the F40 and F41 heavy duty shocks. They were date Month week of the month Year and stayed that way till 1969. Most of the JM have been corrected.