Door jamb paint

[Don M.]

At a recent event I was questioned on the glossyness of my door jambs, Now , the car was painted in lacquer 9 years ago by Nabor Bros. Any easy ideas of how to flatten or should I say dull my door jambs, and hood jambs. It has been suggested to use real fine steel wool? any other ideas. I don't want to make things worse. ????

[Donald T.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Don,

Are you sure it is lacquer? You shouldn't need to dull the jambs if it was painted in lacquer. Lacquer is dull when painted and you have to polish it to bring out the gloss. I don't think Nabor's would spray lacquer and then polish the jambs. The only reason to paint in lacquer is for originality and judging. If originality wasn't a concern and they wanted all the jambs to look nice, then lacquer would be a very odd choice. It would have made more sense to have just sprayed BC/CC. Bottom line is if it is lacquer paint and the jambs haven't been polished, then they should be fine. If you attempt to dull the jambs with steel wool, the judges may even detect the very fine scratches left behind.

[Kurt B.]

Re: Door jamb paint

I was told the same thing by an NCRS Judge and he suggested hitting the door jambs and the hood surrounds with Krylon Satin Clear to give it a dulled look. He advised against the steel wool because it left marks.
Kurt

[Patrick H.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Don,

I often think that some judges expect the door jambs to be far duller than they were when these cars were built.

Below I have attached pictures of portions of my 72's doors. Note that this is untouched St. Louis lacquer. It's the inside surface of the door (not even the jamb) and observe how glossy it is. If you look closely there are runs, too. When I inspect my door jambs I'd never really call them any more flat than semi-gloss.

Just my thoughts.

Patrick

[Steven B.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Patrick, your amount of gloss or dullness looks alot like my '77 and '78 original paint. The (large) amount of weatherstrip glue is also like mine.

[Michael H.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Don,

I often think that some judges expect the door jambs to be far duller than they were when these cars were built.

Below I have attached pictures of portions of my 72's doors. Note that this is untouched St. Louis lacquer. It's the inside surface of the door (not even the jamb) and observe how glossy it is. If you look closely there are runs, too. When I inspect my door jambs I'd never really call them any more flat than semi-gloss.

Just my thoughts.

Patrick

I agree with Patrick. Why would ALL of the paint in a door jamb be dull? Any area of a door jamb that has a substantial coat of paint should be no less glossy/shinny than any lower outer panel of the body. (the possible exception being 64-67 A O Smith built bodies)

Some areas of a door jamb are difficult to paint and light/dry spray results and that area would be somewhat dull but large areas that received a decent shot of color would look almost exactly the same as "original paint" on the lower half of a louver panel or rear lower panel.

[Tom B.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Am I not correct that door jambs and inside the trunk ect. is laquer left "as sprayed" and simply not buffed as the outer surfaces were? Our '81 St. Louis car (original owner) is very much like the above pictures. I agree with Patrick that "some judges expect the door jambs to be far duller than they were when these cars were built."

[Michael H.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Am I not correct that door jambs and inside the trunk ect. is laquer left "as sprayed" and simply not buffed as the outer surfaces were? Our '81 St. Louis car (original owner) is very much like the above pictures. I agree with Patrick that "some judges expect the door jambs to be far duller than they were when these cars were built."

You're almost correct Tom. The only part of your statement that is incorrect is the part about the outer surfaces being buffed at the factory.
I'm sure a lot of folks will disagree with this but the ONLY part of the body/paint that is buffed is the horizontal surfaces and verticals about half way down the panels. The rest was left as is.
If any judge thinks there was some little old guy at the plant that machine buffed/polished the lower sections of fenders, doors or front/rear panels, he doesn't understand the paint process that was used at St Louis.

The paint process used at the St Louis plant had a unique featue that eliminated most of the buffing required to become glossy.
The paint itself, was unique to production lines and NOT available to the general public, or any aftermarket shops.
It was a totally different formula, called a "reflow formula". The binder, or base component of the material was designed to reflow at a low temperature. (compared to paint available for service)
When the body was sent through the "reflow oven", the paint on body and most of the internal surfaces automatically became glossy.
The door jambs would see close to the same temp as the outer panels so it would reflow and gloss about the same as many outer panels.

The exception, as previously mentioned, would be areas where paint was applied as light/dry spray. Many areas of door jambs and hood ledges etc would show these areas and would appear a lot less glossy than the outer surface of the lower body.

As seen in Patrick's pic's above, some of the paint is at least as glossy as the outer lower panels on the body.

None of the above would be the case for cars/jambs refinished in base/clear paint.

[Mike M.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Right, Michael
The term "Dulling" is a misnomer.
Simply put, the "Hidden Areas" were full gloss paint with varying degrees of overspray.
HaND

[William L.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Don
I was told the same thing at St. Charles this year. My car was painted in Lacquer 3 years ago. So if you want to play the game and dull these areas down. Try this trick. Use 'Mr Clean Magic Eraser" I know it sounds silly but try it in a spot. It gave the door jams and rain gutters, on my car, the finish that I think judges are looking for!
Bill

[Edward S.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Check with any good vette paint shop, our chapter had a rep from a large shop in Philly come to give a paint class at one of our meetings. In one part of the meeting the guy had a large part of a door panel - one side was real glossey the other half being very dull. The dull side was sprayed with some type of dull matte - just left to dry to a real dull finish. No rubbing, no nothing.

[Michael H.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Here's a shot of the original paint in the door jamb of my 66. Notice the gloss on the door hinge arm? Looks just about exactly the same as the paint originally looked on areas of the outer body that were below the side body line. It's NOT dull. There are a lot of areas on the door jamb fiberglass that are even more reflective but I can't seem to get a good pic, yet. When I do, you will be quite surprised at the gloss level.

There are areas around the hinge arm that are dull but these are areas of dry spray. Also, there is an area of dry/mist around the dash panel end tab but that's an entirely different matter that I'll explain later.

Basically, all we're trying to say is that if all of the door jamb paint is dull, it's not typical factory production paint.

So.... how bout that maroon overspray on the interior light switch behind the hinge??? "How can that switch have overspray if your saying that's original paint?"
That should be another interesting discussion.

[William L.]

Re: Door jamb paint

I think that most guys agree that there are various degrees of gloss in the door jams and other ares. But there are a lot of judges that want to see these ares dull. So, right or wrong, if you want to play the game and get all the points you can then you had best dull the paint in the area's that the judges like to see dull paint.
Bill

[William L.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Here's a shot of the original paint in the door jamb of my 66. Notice the gloss on the door hinge arm? Looks just about exactly the same as the paint originally looked on areas of the outer body that were below the side body line. It's NOT dull. There are a lot of areas on the door jamb fiberglass that are even more reflective but I can't seem to get a good pic, yet. When I do, you will be quite surprised at the gloss level.

There are areas around the hinge arm that are dull but these are areas of dry spray. Also, there is an area of dry/mist around the dash panel end tab but that's an entirely different matter that I'll explain later.

Basically, all we're trying to say is that if all of the door jamb paint is dull, it's not typical factory production paint.

So.... how bout that maroon overspray on the interior light switch behind the hinge??? "How can that switch have overspray if your saying that's original paint?"
That should be another interesting discussion.

Micheal
How about spot repair or hinge replacement after the car left the assembly line, in the repair area of the plant???

[Michael H.]

Re: Door jamb paint

Micheal
How about spot repair or hinge replacement after the car left the assembly line, in the repair area of the plant???

Actually, most of the 63's and 64's probably had mist body color overspray on the dome light switch and I would guess that at least 60%l or more, of the 65-67's had it too.

There's a really good reason why this is the case and it wasn't from a repair. It's actually "typical factory production", depending on the year and selection of options.

I hope this gets cleared up because I think some/all of the C2 JG's state that there should be "no overspray on the dome light switch".