Firewall and wiper cavity paint?

[Brandon Metzger]

Hello all. Two quick questions.

1. Is the firewall painted? It looks like they are but with mine I can rarely go by what is currently on the car. If the firewall is painted where can I obtain the correct Paint, what items were on the wall when it was painted, and it looks like the paint stops at the point where the firewall curves to become the underbody--correct?

2. My wiper cavity is currently painted with overspray from the half a_ _ painter that repainted the car. It is not to difficult to remove and expose the original black.... Some areas are more difficult than others. Should I remove the old and let the original show or should I remove the easy stuff and repaint? If I repaint is it the same shade of black as the firewall?

Ok...I'm sorry more than two questions.......maybe they aren't so quick either.

Regards,
Brandon

I hope all of you with road worthy Vettes are enjoying the sunny days. Please think of us poor saps who are stuck in the middle of our frame off restorations.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Firewall and wiper cavity paint?

Brandon,

(1) Firewall was painted during the black-out process after body paint and before any assembly. Your observation on approximately where the black-out paint ends is correct, but don't worry too much about precision in this process.

(2) The plenum would have been blacked out at the same time as the fire wall. In fact, there is no break in the blackout across the firewall top edge between the engine compartment and the plenum...the firewall top edge was masked at the ends near the fenders to keep blackout off the fenders. The masking in these areas would be cardboard or something, hand-held or laid on surface to be painted, and would leave a "fuzzy" break line unlike masking tape.

Ideally, I would prefer to remove all the door linkage and wiper linkage out of the plenum and clean it out well before painting the black again. HOWEVER...You may find this approach impractical and dangerous: The wiper door linkage is easily broken and first-timers will usually end up breaking their door linkage getting it out. The door linkage is expensive to replace, and its usually better to "let that sleeping dog lay". This area typically doesn't get real close examination during the judging process anyway...if it's clean and painted with the proper semi-gloss black paint, it doubtful the judge will get down close to look for paint "shadows". Just try to avoid "shadows" as much as possible.