Odd patina effect

[davepl]

This is from the recent patina thread, but has me confused.

But look at the tailgate and how the "CHEVROLET" letters appear to cast a drop shadow. If it were from the top down I could see it being from the shadow of the letters, but the angle isn't right for strong sun.

I thought perhaps when the truck was originally sprayed the raised portions created a shadow where there was less paint and hence faster rust, except the 'shadow' from the T has more rust and the shadow from the handle has less. If it were a result of the direction of the gun when it was first painted, you'd expect less paint in the 'shadow' of the letters, and hence more rust. That's what we see. Except the tailgate handle is the opposite, which is confusing.

Any good theories?

[BlackedOut67shorty]

Possibly road salt or being near salt water could do that, I think there's alot more to it than that though.

[mx289]

Maybe it was stored off the truck,and put back on recently ?

[Tim Christian]

Don't question mother nature!!! LOL

[Kennuck]

Looks to me like it may have been hung from a conveyor on a slight angle and put through some type of dip process at the factory before painting thus affecting the weathering process.

[Ft.ValloniaStreaker]

i going to guess maybe a tarp on the bed for quite a while.

[GASoline71]

Originally Posted by mx289

Maybe it was stored off the truck,and put back on recently ?

That's my guess too.

Gary

[BB72CHEVKT]

Possible sunburn.

[jocko]

3x on stored off the truck, leaning on its edge against a wall - caught the sun in the morning or evening only probably. Great question!!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Kennuck

Looks to me like it may have been hung from a conveyor on a slight angle and put through some type of dip process at the factory before painting thus affecting the weathering process.

Nope. Parts weren't dipped until later (mid to late 70's); parts were sprayed in the installed position.

K

[jmj4]

i think it has to do with the direction of the paint as it was originally sprayed. the tailgate on my GMC had a similar pattern which can be seen in the photo below. BTW, the tailgate has never been removed from the truck.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by jmj4

i think it has to do with the direction of the paint as it was originally sprayed. the tailgate on my GMC had a similar pattern which can be seen in the photo below. BTW, the tailgate has never been removed from the truck.

Keep in mind there's double the paint thickness in that area: both the white and the green are covering the primer, so there should be plenty of corrosion protection (more than in other areas).

Question: any indication of if the green was applied over the white, or the white over the top of the green?

2nd question: Which plant was this truck built in?

K

[jmj4]

due to the amount of rust, i'm probably not going to be able to tell which paint came first. i removed the tailgate and put it in storage after restoration of the truck.

truck was built in atlanta, may '70.

Edit:
Looking at photo zoomed in, you can see the green coming through the white.

[Keith Seymore]

That's good; thank you -

K

[dmartin1]

davepl, what a sweet little truck! i'd love to have that.