1963 Early

[Robin Corter]

[Joe R.]

Re: 1963 Early

Robin,

I am sure glad you have asked that question! The gentleman is correct and let me tell you why. Background first! During my college years, I worked for United States Steel in Gary Indiana on an annealing furnace. Expensive or hardened steel was annealed for long periods of time in the furnaces. Annealing relieves that stress in steel by heating and cooling it under controlled circumstances. When they left the furnace (sometimes 24 hours later) the steel had a gray skin caused by the oxidation of the steel and impurities during the annealing process. Springs, tortion bars (sway bars) and others parts such as axles were treated in this manner. Now here's the good part. The gray skin on these annealed parts have been mistaken for gray paint by many judges and people inspecting these parts. If they had taken the time to inspect the parts correctly they would find the gray paint is about 0.035" thick and very hard. The best example of this is on the sway bars in the front of mid year Corvettes.
Thank you for the opportunity to explain (gray paint) on annealed Corvette parts.

JR

[John H.]

Re: 1963 Early

If you're looking for minimum deduction in judging, go with the TM&JG finish description, although it's wrong. '63 rear springs were NOT painted - get the full story on design and manufacture of Corvette transverse rear springs in Franz Estereicher's Tech Session at the 2004 National Convention in Windsor next July - he made them.