63 Rear suspension finishes

[Steven B.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

i don't know what happened, but I'm taking off the blackout that passed last year, so I can have it judged in July. What a pain....

Mike, why not leave it on, take these pics with you, and escalate if points are deducted? Steve

[Michael G.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Thanks guys. I suppose I could take my chances, but now I'd need to repaint the axles (seen in stripped form below). I've gone this far, I might as well do the other parts...

photo-2.JPG

What color is a bare strut rod?

[Bob J.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

I asked Carlton about this at the Judging retreat and he said it was the descision of the judging team to remove the reference to Blackout finish on the rear suspension. So while we were there I asked if he wanted to take a look at the VERY original Daytona Blue 64 sitting there as one of the cars used in the school and he declined. Even Stevie Wonder would have noticed the remains of factory blackout paint on the rear suspension of that car.

over and out...

tc

Pretty well explains why the 63-64 JG has had these problems for the past 20 years.

[Michael H.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

This is a good shot of a very low mileage unrestored 63 car sent to me a few years ago by Gary Cox. Note the different shades of black on various parts in the picture.
The differential housing and half shafts are coated chassis black. The upper crossmember is painted a thin coat of GM semi gloss/flat black.

There's still a lot of original chassis black on the diff and half shafts.

The underside of this car has been washed.

[Gary C.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

That was my low mile 63 in Michael's photo. It was a very original old car, though some might argue that too. Anyway, there was a lot of black chassis parts on that car. Not as much eye candy as some of the stuff being produced today, but it did look like some of the factory pictures from the period and was probably as good example as any of the way St Louis put em together.

You might recall the 63 has a body mount just foward of the differential carrier shown in the photo. On that car, there was masking tape wrapped around the bumpers on those body mounts, with blackout spray on the top side only, the bottom side of the mount was masking tape, no blackout. Some of the other body mount points had masking tape with some black overspray as well. Some of the body mounts had the shims secured with tape wrapped in two directions as well. I had a hard drive crash some years back, all those photos were casualities.

[Tracy C.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Tony,

That is good news. The black out does "ugly up" an otherwise beautiful restoration and I can understand why some would not want it. I just wish the option was availible for those who want to be correct without worring about getting the "finish" deduct. A 20% hit on every rear suspension item is pretty stiff for being correct.

To the credit of the 63/4 revision team, they did correctly note that the front side of the FRONT suspension should have blackout paint.

tc

[Philip C.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

I don't know who decided that there was no chassis black on any of the rear suspension/drive components for 63-64 but....

There's a big difference between 63-64 and 65-67 when it comes to rear suspension/drive blackout. On 65-67, the blackout was done after most of the chassis was assembled and this occurred on the chassis line, just before body drop. There would be overspray on the rear end housing and most often, runs/drips on the 1/2 shafts. When the half shafts on a 65-67 received this coating, it was typically only on one side.

The process for 63-64 was an entirely different story though. The nearly complete rear drive assembly was coated before it even left the basement of the assembly plant. (minus spring)

The complete rear control arm assembly arrived at the plant COATED with chassis black. That assembly included the control arm, backing plate, spindle support, brake drum and even included the parking brake cable. We know it was coated as an assembly because the spindle hub has the coating only on the center hub portion.

After the drive assembly was completed in the basement of the St Louis plant, the assembly was coated again which almost completely covered the differential (minus drive flanges) and completely covered the half shafts.

When completed, the leaf spring and cross member were added so their coatings were different.

In the last several years, I and others have posted a LOT of original factory photos of brand new 63 and 64's that absolutely positively showed complete coverage of chassis black on this assembly. Every last one. That along with the many many original unrestored cars that still clearly show most of the original coating still exists.

I've posted many of these pictures over the years. So have a lot of other folks.

It's easy to prove that the rear susp/drive assembly was coated but I don't think it's at all possible for anyone to prove that it wasn't coated.

I would really like to hear, on this discussion board, from some of the folks on the 63-64 revision team that can show us any actual proof that there was no coating on these items.

I was told many times by several in the position to make corrections that any changes/corrections in the 63-64 JG required PROOF. It took a ton of info and an original dated print to finally correct the 3859326 water pump error in the JG so I have to assume the same would have been required to make the change for the rear susp/drive coating change.

These corrections are not a secret so lets get it out here on the board and discuss it. That's what this place was designed for.

AMEN to that my brother! My '63 14019 NO DOUBT about it had black out. Phil 8063

[Philip C.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Pretty well explains why the 63-64 JG has had these problems for the past 20 years.

AMEN and HALLELUJAH PRAISE THE LORD........

[John D.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Nice photos Hanson and others. Thanks

[Timothy B.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Philip,

I didn't know Mike is your brother..

[Michael H.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Thanks to all who provided photos showing the correct original factory applied coating on the differential housing and half shafts of all new 63 and 64 Corvettes. (MANY more factory photos available if necessary)

We would be interested in opposing views though. We haven't heard from Carlton or the folks that concluded that there was no coating on these items. Supposedly, from a previous post in this discussion,the JG revision team has stated that the coating doesn't exist. Can anyone show/post some sort of documentation/proof on this subject as I'm told this is the only way a change/revision can be made for a new JG. I think that means there is documentation showing no coating? Thanks for your participation.

[Michael G.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

While I appreciate all the discussion here, (I suspect you are all correct regarding the presence of rear suspension coating), I'm pretty sure that this will not get addressed before the National, at which time my car is scheduled for judging.

So, to get back to my original questions for a moment: In order to complete my transition from black to "grey", I need a definitive color for the strut rods. After stripping the paint, I get a darker grey that the castings. Is this correct?

Thanks,

[William B.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Very Good post's, Can we get Carlotin to read thease or is he not able to participate in open discussions about judging?

[John D.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Michael, If the guru's here say that black is correct why not restore your car like the pics and what they are telling us.
My '63 chassis is incorrect in that it has a ton of bare parts that should be black. Someday I plan on blackening those bare parts.
Don't strip the paint my friend. Move on and do the following.
Prepare the car for ops so you don't get any big time dings. When my 63 horn didn't blow the first time out at Marlborough that was a 25 point hit and all the guys thought it was funny. True story. Old JD

[Michael G.]

Re: 63 Rear suspension finishes

Thanks for the advice, John. I'll put it back to black after Duntov judging. My car has already passed PV, so Ops should be OK, unless something comes loose in transit. I fixed virtually all the issues found in my 96.5 at Nationals at Novi, so I'm quite sure it'll be way over 97 this time, but I can't afford major new hits on a suspension that didn't have any issues last time. Once the suspension's apart (it is) changing the finishes is no big deal. This way I don't have to take a chance on an "appeal" to a judges ruling.