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Old 10-12-2020, 09:39 PM
68hotbird 68hotbird is offline
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Default rear differential detailing

Was the complete differential painted black from the factory or was any of it natural cast iron or bare metal? thanks for any info.

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Old 10-13-2020, 02:46 PM
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It varied by plant and year. A lot of survivor cars I have seen seem to have had the cast iron components painted only on the back side (facing the gas tank).

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Old 10-14-2020, 10:11 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by north View Post
It varied by plant and year. A lot of survivor cars I have seen seem to have had the cast iron components painted only on the back side (facing the gas tank).
….and by shift and by operator.

Just to expand on what North saying: the application was pretty haphazard so there would likely be bare spots opposite of where the operator was standing and spraying.

K

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Last edited by Keith Seymore; 10-14-2020 at 10:18 AM.
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Old 10-14-2020, 10:17 AM
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Oldsmobile Lansing plant shown, but this will give you an idea.

This guy starts at the front of the chassis and works his way rearward, drizzling the chassis black in the general direction of the frame as he goes.

K

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Old 10-16-2020, 05:58 PM
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I've been working on making my 68 bird as correct as possible. The rearends for 1st Gen cars were not installed when they were painted. While I can appreciate the picture above, that's for a full frame car. Since the rearends only got paint on the backside, it's 100% correct that the paint on them got varied a lot. I've heard they were painted with the rear springs attached and I've also heard they were painted without the springs attached, so I'm not sure which is correct. For the rearend itself, if you want to do a "fake" correct looking detail job, you can paint the pumpkin with cast iron gray and the tubes and brake backing plates with Stainless Steel color paint. Then paint the backside only with black covering as much as you think might be correct if you were a GM worker (read into that whatever you want). So, you might ask, were the brake backing plates on when the rearend was painted? Again, I don't know for certain. I think, yes they were on the rearend before it got painted black and therefore received the same partial coverage, but I have no absolute proof.

Here is a link to a photo of a 69 bird being assembled at the factory. Looks to me like the springs were assembled to the rearend as well as the backing plates before painting black, but you be the judge of what your eyes are telling you. BTW, the springs were gray phosphated prior to all of this.

OJ

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Old 10-16-2020, 05:59 PM
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Woops...... forgot the link: https://www.ebay.com/c/28022510633

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Old 10-16-2020, 09:50 PM
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Since I worked for GM for almost 40 years, in product design and a dozen different vehicle assembly plants, let me see if I can help your understanding a bit:

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtobird View Post
The rearends for 1st Gen cars were not installed when they were painted. While I can appreciate the picture above, that's for a full frame car.
Doesn't matter. I'm trying to show you that the concept is the same.

Even though the 'bird is a unibody construction, the front suspension and rear suspension are processed in vehicle position by using the "tow-veyer", which allows you to install the brake lines ahead of body marriage and maintains the correct spacing through the process. That technique was used on early unibody vehicles like the Corvair and is still in use today building unibody vehicles.

You can get a visualization of that in the photo that you have referenced (which I am familiar with - the author of the link I am about to provide is in the photo).

You might also note in the photo that there is a Chevrolet B body on the line directly in front of the subject red bird. That's a full frame vehicle, further proof that the process was exactly the same since they were going down the same line.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtobird View Post
So, you might ask, were the brake backing plates on when the rearend was painted? Again, I don't know for certain. I think, yes they were on the rearend before it got painted black and therefore received the same partial coverage, but I have no absolute proof.
Rear brake backing plates (and brake assemblies) absolutely were installed on the rear axle. The rear axle was received as an assembly, drum to drum. The appropriate axle was picked off the rack based on the build sheet and placed on the axle subassembly line, brake lines installed, drive shaft selected, and then conveyed to the main line in sequence.

I would suggest you get familiar with this website, if you are not already. It's written for Camaro, but Norwood built Firebirds as well. Although there will be some plant-to-plant variation it's probably the best and most detailed summary I've ever seen.

http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml

K

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Last edited by Keith Seymore; 10-16-2020 at 10:10 PM.
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Old 10-16-2020, 10:05 PM
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'61 Tempest (Pontiac Michigan plant):








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'63 LeMans Convertible
'63 Grand Prix
'65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer
'74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/
My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524
"Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926
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Old 10-16-2020, 10:25 PM
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Quite a bit of general discussion (A body related) in this thread, too:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...ht=constraints

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'63 LeMans Convertible
'63 Grand Prix
'65 GTO - original, unrestored, Dad was original owner, 5000 original mile Royal Pontiac factory racer
'74 Chevelle - original owner, 9.85 @ 136 mph besthttp://www.superchevy.com/features/s...hevy-chevelle/
My Pontiac Story: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=560524
"Intro from an old Assembly Plant Guy":http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=342926
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Old 10-16-2020, 11:21 PM
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The factory assembly manual specifies that the brake backing plates are NOT to be painted. The paint on the tubes is to end about an inch away from the backing plates.

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Old 10-17-2020, 05:15 PM
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This is how I do them at
Pure Stock Auto Restorations Inc

Axle here is original 3.42 OO code posi rear axle in a customer's 1970 Buick GS Stage 1.

I will post some pics of 1969 GTO Judge axle later.
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1969 GTO Judge Ram Air IV M21 4 speed 3:90
1970 GTO Judge Ram Air III M21 4 speed 3:90 Oshawa Built
1970 GSX Stage 1 M21 4 Speed 3.64 # 67 of 678 Original Paint
1970 GSX Stage 1 Auto 3.64 # 603 of 678 12.44@109.73 mph 2011 Buick GS Nats Pure Stock, 12.71@110.64 mph PSMCDR 2011
1970 GS Stage 1 Convertible Auto 3:64 12.71@109.15 mph PSMCDR 2009
1970 GS 455 M21 4 Speed 3.42
1987 GN Astro Roof

Last edited by trishieldchief; 10-17-2020 at 05:34 PM.
  #12  
Old 11-07-2020, 12:58 PM
RA1John RA1John is offline
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There are a lot of variations when it comes to restored vs original. Especially true with regards to colors, plating, gloss and black-out.
Model, year, plant had variations in the process + the human factor; One Operator sprays differently than the next Operator.

At least for '67-'69 Firebirds, the Axle was not fully blacked-out; mostly just the rear facing side was hit with paint as well as some overspray on the backing plates as evident in '69 Lordstown pix above.

Another variation I often see at shows is the Upper Control Arm Shaft Hardware. More often than not, these will be shiny zinc plated washers & bolts. Shaft is often left natural (or painted to appear natural).
However, reference pix from factory, magazine road tests and low-mile original, survivor, unrestored cars show these were painted black. Only the attaching nuts and shims (to subframe) would have been natural or zinc.
According to CRG site (John Z), the Control Arms were dip painted, with the Shaft/Hardware in place.

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Old 11-08-2020, 08:59 AM
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Also interesting in that pic from Van Nuys that the end of the tailpipe is black, looks like it was dipped?

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1969 Fbird (Base, 350 & Sprint Cvt’s - 400HO & TA Hardtops)
1969 LeMans (2dr & 4dr Hardtop and a Cvt)
1969 LeMans Safari 2 seat Wagon
1969 GTO (2 Cvt, 2 Hardtops & Judge Hardtop)
1969 Catalina (3 Cvt’s & a 2dr hardtop)
1969 Ventura 2 Seat Wagon
1969 Executive 4dr Sedan
1969 Bonnie Cvt
1969 Bonnie 3 Seat Wagon (2 of them)
1969 Bonnie Brougham (4dr Hardtop & Cvt)
1969 Grand Prix SJ (2 of them)
1969 2+2 2dr Hardtop (Canadian model)
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