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Thanks Joe,
I'm confused now, the JG wants gray to blue/gray for the standard shocks.
If you believe these should be semi black I can do that, since the shocks are the black AC shocks available at GM today so they will nver be 100% original. Just want to get color close to make judges happy.
If you or anyone have any pictures of a mid 64 showing black I would appreciate it and add to my JG as evidence for a color conflict.
Want to get color correct first time since its a pain to remove and paint again.
I'm not completely sure about this and certainly not sure enough to have you follow my advice if the JG says otherwise. Whether I'm right or wrong is not going to make a bit of difference as far as judging is concerned. You DEFINITELY need to do what the JG says.
However, it's been my understanding for years that 63-64 shocks were painted semi-gloss black and 1965 was kind of a "transition year" in which both the black and blue gray were used. I have been told that some 1965 cars even had a "mixture" (e.g. front shocks blue-gray, rear shocks black). I have never personally verified this for several reasons. First, very few cars are to be found with original shocks and, second, it's never been an issue that has really interested me too much.
There are some undercarriage photos to be found in Noland Adams' Corvette Restoration Guide Volume 2 which might shed a LITTLE light on this issue. In general, it's hard to tell from these photos becuase, in some cases, the liklihood of chassis blackout may "confuse" the issue. Plus, the photos are a bit "grainy" and not of very high detail. However, I'll point to a few (from my SECOND edition):
page 176----pictured is the chassis of a 1963 Z-06. The F-40 rear shocks are clearly gray (or, some color considerably lighter than black). As I mentioned previously, all HD shocks may have been gray;
page 241----pictured is an early 1964 model with what appears to be standard shocks. The rear shocks appear to be black (or, some color a lot darker than the gray seen on the above-referenced shocks). Could it be caused by chassis black-out? Sure, but the shocks in the above-referenced picture on pg 176 don't show even a hint of chassis black out;
page 259----pictured is a 1965 model with what appears to be F-40 shocks. The rear shocks appear to be gray. There is no indication of any chassis black-out on the shocks;
page 324---pictured is a 1966 model with standard shocks. The rear shocks very clearly appear to be gray. There are minor amounts of black-out on the shocks, but not enough to "confuse the issue" that the shocks are clearly gray;
page 387----pictured is a 1967 model. The rear standard shocks very clearly appear to be gray; no black-out obscures this.
It should be noted that there were some changes in the chassis blackout operations over the C2 production years. I believe that earlier C2 (like 1963-64) were more "heavily" blacked-out than later. That MIGHT be why the shocks in the picture on page 241 appear to be black. And, I'll even go so far as to say that the fact that the F-40 shocks on the 1963 Z-06 on page 176 show no black was because a different black-out operation was used (possibly, to avoid getting paint on the exposed shock rod on rear HD shocks). All of these MIGHT be the case. However, what is definitely the case is that the rear shocks of the 1964 appear black AND, whatever their color, much different and darker than the color of the shocks on any of the 65-67 models pictured.
Also, if the shocks on the 64 were originally gray, then, from what I can see, the black-out resulted in their "becoming black"; I see no gray "patches". So, whether they were black when installed on the car, or not, they were black when they left St. Louis.
Standard suspension -- car 014xx; fronts (906's) 203_64 (3rd week of July)
Rears (907's) 160-64 (2nd week of June).
There was an eBay sale last week 4 regular suspension dirty 1964 originals; all with date 341-63 (hard to believe fronts and rears being the same). Went for $1622. Photography was so fuzzy and shocks so dirty that it was hard to determine color, but I thought they looked dark grey.
I have a lot of photos from the GM Media Archives taken in 1963 on the Chassis Line (long before chassis blackout), and they all clearly show black front and rear shocks; I don't have any from '64, but I have more from '65-'67, and they all show gray shocks.
Alan et al,
I'll weigh in here with info from my March 3 or 4, '65 convertible. The original front and rear shocks are all blue-grey; more like grey-blue. To be more specific, they are more grey than blue. Hope this info is helpful.
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