C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

[Joe D.]

What type of paint should I use for my 1961 drive shaft? Thanks, Joe DeLuca #37862

[Gary Bishop]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

There is still a discussion as to where the drive shaft was painted or natural.

[Steve Junkersfeld]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

Joe, All the indications that I have are that the shaft in my 56 was, originally, natural, unpainted metal. Since, after 45 years, it looked nothing like natural even after a lot of cleanup - I painted it natural cast gray. I have seen other well restored cars that are the same. Steve

[John M.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

Joe,
I have painted my driveshaft semi-gloss black and then applied the stencil with yellow paint. I have never taken any deducts for it and have had positive comments about it from chassis judges. There is absolutely NO doubt on my part, that the dirveshaft was painted and stenciled when it left the factory. Like all my painted parts, I allways use DP90 primer under the paint for durability.

Regards, John McGraw

[Richard E.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

At the 2002 Bloomington "Chasis Workshop", it was indicated that the drive shaft was delivered to the assy line in plain steel, with the yellow P/N stenciled lengthwise. Varying degrees of paint coverage, from 0 to 100%, occurred during the blackout process. I believe John Hinkley was co-presenter and may add to this. Regards...

[John M.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

Dick,
If you look at page 69 of Tripoli's book, you will find a pic of an original 59 driveshaft with the stencil almost completely gone, but the shaft is completely black with the exception of the balancing weights which had tha paint worn off.
I have had several original driveshafts pass through my hands in the last 5 years or so, and everyone of them had black paint under the stencil. This could not have been from blackout since the paint was under the stencil!

Regards, John McGraw

[John H.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

This one is not likely to be settled (if anything can be called "settled") without seeing more known-unmolested original driveshafts. Chevrolet-Buffalo made the shafts, and I spent many years from '64-on watching millions of plain steel Buffalo driveshafts installed in cars in many Chevrolet assembly plants, with no paint on them other than color bands for I.D. I respect John's opinion and observations, but I remain a doubter that Buffalo ever painted any production driveshafts (it's not inconceivable that shafts supplied to service were painted to avoid rust in storage, as was done with many other parts that were supplied unpainted to assembly plants for production). And the beat goes on...

[roy braatz]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

Well I'll jump in to this also, my 57 that I have had for 34 years from the original owner had a black painted drive shaft, My friend in the next town is the original owner of a 55 yellow he is 82 years old and the corvette is literly falling apart but never touched also has a black drive shaft and he still drives it.The copper 55 I got from the original owner also is black.

[John M.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

I would agree with John that this will never be settled. I can only offer my observations. I can only speak with certianty about the 58-62 shafts that I have had in my possesion over the last several years. In regards to how they appeared prior to or after that time frame, I cannot say. The prevailing opinion is that all drive shafts and halfshafts were nautral after 1962, and I have never heard anyone question that assertion, so I would assume that to be fact. I have however heard many,many dissenting opinions regarding C1 shafts, and have witnessed personally several shafts that without a doubt were painted before stenciling. Is it possible that all the shafts that I have owned were service replacements? This is I suppose, possible but highly unlikely and I am not so sure that service replacements would have had the stencil applied. The argument allways gets down to the question of when the paint was applied, at production or at chassis blackout, but the stencil being on top of the paint pretty much for me proves that the shafts were painted at the manufacturer.
The whole issue is probably academic anyway since the shaft would be painted with chassis black paint anyway. After almost 50 years, I doubt that we will see any more unmolested originals that have any remmnants of the paint or stencils left. The last 2 that I aquired only had a couple of numbers and left and the paint on the Ujoint ends of the shafts, and these were Southwest cars!

Regards, John McGraw

[Mike E.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

My two cents as well--I don't believe that all the driveshafts were stenciled--at least in 62. While I lived in San Diego I had half a dozen California 62's, and only one had evidence of stencil. A couple looked like they could have been natural, and a couple looked like they were black a long, long time. Couldn't prove that they were unmolested, however.

[Edward L.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

I recently restored a '62. I bought this car from an individual who owned it since 1968, and I am very confident as to its originality.

The shaft displayed painted from one end to the other. The paint was asphalt based and disolved easily with mineral spirits.

Remnents of the stencil were also there. I can't be sure ( can't remember )as to whether the stencil was under or over the paint. I believe it was under. Of course this could have been the blackout.

Ed

[Dennis C.]

Re: C1DRIVE SHAFT PAINT

In this post, I only address "blackout" paint... I do not believe that the purpose of blackout paint - or its application - could have or would have ever had any involvement with the driveshaft paint - any more than it had any involvement with underbody paint. Blackout is blackout - I believe it was only designed to achieve a "visual peace" to the observer/buyer. It was not an undercoat type procedure.