C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

[Joe D.]

I have a 1961, is the drive shaft supposed to be painted?Thanks, Joe #37862

[Ron R.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

Painted semi-gloss black with Gloss black overspraying the number stencil.

[Dennis C.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

I've struggled with this issue. My current feeling: driveshaft was unpainted, except for yellow stenciled part number.

[Joe L.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

Dennis-----

I agree.

[John H.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

C1 driveshafts were natural unpainted steel with a yellow stencil, most of which was obliterated by the chassis blackout paint operation (but for judging points, just leave it natural).

[John M.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

Gentelmen,
I have heard this theory about the driveshaft being unpainted for quite some time, and can tell you that this was not so. I have had at least 3 original driveshafts in my possesion that have had black paint under the remnants of the yellow stencil.
In addition, all the shafts have had drips on the end casting which indicated that the shafts were dipped and hung to dry. At the end of my post, there is a link to a pic that I took of one of the shafts as I started to clean the stencil paint off. Even though my photo hosting site shrunk the rez on the pic to less than a third of it's original resolution, it s quite obvious that the black paint was UNDER the stencil! I am not sure of many things in this hobby, but of this item I am quite sure. If anyone would like me to send them a higher rez JPEG of this, I will be glad to do so.

Regards, John McGraw

http://www.villagephotos.com/viewpubimage.asp?id_=1785034

[Dennis C.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

Ok John. Let's chat. Would you say the shaft was welded then balanced, and dipped painted. Then the U-Joints were added.displacing the black paint in the yoke area. Seems curious, for mid year cars, they would have changed the whole process.

[John M.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

Dennis,
I would agree that it is indeed curious that they would change on C2 cars, but there are all manner of strange things that hapened over the years. I know almost nothing about C2 cars,and wold never offer an opinion on what was correct. On C1 driveshafts however, I have had enough unmolested originals pass through my hands that I can say that without a doubt that the shafts were painted before the stencil was applied. Just as some belive that the shaft was natural, there are those who claim the the stencil was not applied at all! I have seen drips from the SPICER text on the driveshaft ends on several shafts, leading me to belive that the shaft was dipped and hung to dry. The manner of painting is pure deductive reasoning, but the paint UNDER the stencil is fact!

Regards, John McGraw

[Roy Braatz]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

John I agree I have had and seen many C1's and the drive shaft was always painted black.

[John H.]

Re: C1 DRIVE SHAFT FINISH

Just to add another perspective (admittedly after the C1 years), I spent most of my life from '63 on in Chevrolet assembly plants, running Chassis and Final Assembly operations, and saw millions of Chevy driveshafts in dirty old steel gondolas from Chevrolet-Buffalo, and none of them were painted (other than the I.D. bands). They came out of the gondola, had the yoke dipped in ATF, and in they went. The only paint facilities at Buffalo were a couple of primitive spray booths where they shot that sticky/gooey "chassis black" paint on steering linkages and axles. On the prop shaft lines, the raw tubes came out of the yoke welder, the front yoke and U-joints were installed, and they went straight into a gondola for shipping. Dunno what they did before '63.

[Loren L.]

The Factory photos of the '58 & the

'60 shown on pages 222 and 223 of Noland's book CLEARLY show painted driveshafts. I know that the picture of 60 #2269 was taken one in Flint one week after the car was built.

[John M.]

Re: The Factory photos of the '58 & the

Loren,
You are correct, and for anyone thinking that the photos he is refering to show the chassis blackout, check out the photos of a unrestored shaft from a 59 in Tripoli's book on pages 69 qnd 70. This shaft has the stencil almost completely faded away but the shaft is still comletely black except where it has rubbed off at the balancing weight.

Regards, John McGraw