C2 Shock Painting

[James W.]

Hello,

I am prepairing to change the color of my new DELCO gas charged shocks from black to the correct gray/blue color for flight judging. I know the body of the front shocks should be painted the gray/blue color, but was the top of the shaft above the threads painted or a natural metal color on an original shock?

Thanks in advance.

James West

[John H.]

Re: C2 Shock Painting

James -

Top of the shaft above the threads was natural.

[Norm C.]

Shock Painting Add on for C3's

1. When repainting the shocks, do you sand down the labels on the new Delco's?

2. What do you use for the "gray-blue" color?

3. Is it the same paint scheme for the C3's?

[John H.]

Re: Shock Painting Add on for C3's

Norm -

Definitely remove any labels or stickers first, then scuff them, and paint (Quanta has a decent "Delco shock paint").

[James W.]

Re: Shock Painting Add on for C3's

Norm,

I remove the delco labels, tape off the shaft and bead blast the shock body with 220 grit, wash down with acetone, prime using an etching primer and paint with the Quanta shock gray paint as John mentioned. Just wanted to be sure of the color at top of the shaft before proceeding.

Not sure about the paint color for C3's.

Regards,

James West

[Joe L.]

Re: Shock Painting Add on for C3's

James-----

First of all, I assume that you're talking about a 65 through 67 C2; the shocks for 1963-64 were originally BLACK.

Second, I don't know that I'd recommend bead blasting the shocks. For one thing, I think that you'd get a different surface finish than original, albeit something that would probably never be detected in judging. However, I don't like the idea of the abrasive material being in the vicinty of the shaft and shaft seal.

I've found that simply removing the labels, lightly scuff-sanding the existing paint, and re-painting with the Quanta-supplied paint works perfectly.

Also, early C3 used the gray-blue paint. However, I believe that at some point in the C3 era they went back to black. Vaguely, I recall that this might have occurred about 1973.

[Gary C.]

Re: C2 Shock Painting

James

IIRC you have a 1963 or 64 corvette. The original shock color was black in 1963 and probably 1964, I do not recall when the color changed exactly occured.

[Dixon Green]

Re: C2 Shock Painting

Judging Guide (4th Ed.) says grey for 64s ("... grey to a grayish blue with varying degrees of gloss). Is this correct?

[Don G.]

Re: C2 Shock Painting

According to judging manuals,C-3 shocks were grayish blue until 1976. The 1977's went to flat black.

[James W.]

Re: Shock Painting Add on for C3's

Joe,

Per the 1963/1964 judging manual they are to be grey in color, they may have been black originally but I'm going by what the book says. The car has been judged previously this way and received no originality deductions for the shock color being grey. Until the judging manual says differently I'll keep them grey for judging.

I've bead blasted and painted many sets of shocks in the past and never damaged the shaft surface in the process, it's all in the preparation prior to blasting. After priming and painting the shocks, the surface finish is identical to what it looked like before, only a different color.

Thanks for the info on the C3 shocks, I again come away from this discussion group with more knowledge, that's what's so great about being on here.

Thanks,

James West

[Joe L.]

Re: Shock Painting Add on for C3's

James-----

I agree that, for judging purposes, you should paint the shocks as decribed in the judging guide. If you happened to have the original shocks on the car and they were black, I would not re-paint them gray to conform to the judging guide, though. Of course, this does not apply in your case, but I want to make the distinction between restoration to judging standards for replacement parts and restoration of known-original parts.

[Michael H.]

Re: Shock Painting Add on for C3's

James,

Just curious, is the grey shock color info coming from the latest edition of the JG? Thanks