The 1960 - 1966 Chevrolet & GMC Pickups Factory Correct Restoration Thread

[Brad54]

Originally Posted by 60-66

That's still a learning process Les. What I do know, again, is that everything was dipped in black primer just like buying NOS parts. The complete front end was painted over the black primer. Now the cab is where that changes. Every one I have seen, the cab and doors where the paint fades off of factory paint its red oxide underneath. I know from cutting cabs apart that these cabs were not dipped as there's bare metal between the layers. Doors however , I have several NOS doors in black primer. Im guessing the doors were shot in red oxide primer over the black while the cabs were being prepped, then painted in body color with the doors mounted to the cab.

Every book I have from Chevrolet and GMC states these trucks were factory painted in Enamel while the touch up paint you find from this era for these trucks is a can of Lacquer . The old saying was , " You can spray lacquer over enamel but you cant spray enamel over lacquer.

From my time as the editor of a Mopar magazine, the guys in the Mopar hobby taught me a LOT about how things were painted from the factory, versus the replacement parts market. Over the years I also picked up stuff from the guys at Muscle Car Review.

For instance, chassis components as-installed were dipped in black to a certain point, then bare metal, while parts for the replacement market were fully coated. That way they didn't rust on the shelf.

The factories stamped body panels for the crash market long after the model year ended, so your NOS doors weren't necessarily painted as they would have been on assembly-line assembled cabs.

I would guess the factory-installed doors were painted with red oxide, like the cab, not pre-primed in black.

-Brad