Revisions to the 68-69 TIM&JG?

[Greg L.]

From time to time I find the odd error in this manual. Most of the time I am made aware of the error from answers that I get to the many questions that I post here so now I have another question.

Does anyone have a list, notes, etc on new findings or corrections that will be added to the next revision to the 68-69 TIM&JG? It would be nice to have a Cole's notes or "cheat sheet" now because I will soon be reassembling my car and would like to make the required changes before it's too late.

In regards to judging, if the item being judged matches the TIM&JG to a tee but the judge know that the item is wrong in that particular case, does the item get full points or will it be docked? An example would be using a "PATENT 2769047" distributer cap on a 69.

Greg Linton
#45455

[Dick W.]

Re: Revisions to the 68-69 TIM&JG?

Greg, at this time all we are doing is collecting comments for changes. Once we get comments we will start the research to see if the comment is correct, an anomoly, or just plain incorrect. The manual revisions are a work in progress. Never get done. As soon as a new manual is printed, the work on the next revision starts. Reba and I have been gathering comments on the '68-'69 for several years now. Probably a year or three from the next revision. No deadline. There are no major changes forseen.

[Jack H.]

Add-on

The titles of the books were changed from 'Judging Manual' to 'Judging Guide' several years ago. Why?

The National Judging Chairman wanted to reinforce the point the books serve only as a guide to supplement the judge's actual knowledge. They are NOT intended to be a 'blue print' for how to restore a Corvette so there will be NO point deductions...

In any work product made by human beings there are always errors of commission and errors of omission. So, there's no guarantee that building a car 'by the book' is going to elminate any/all errors in restoration.

[Terry F.]

68 headlight shields and grille screws....

Here is another 68 thingy. I always gather information on my 68 stuff as time goes buy. I have wondered about the correct screws for the grilles and the headlight shields. Grille screws were black phosphate philips heads with captured washers (no variations that I have seen). As for the headlight shields...my assembly manual shows a plain panhead philips screw black phosphate with NO captured washer. The screw is essentially identical to the grille screws except no captured washer. But, recently I took apart an untouched 68 front end and found the grille screws used in the headlight shield location. Lastly, the center headlight shield should have a plastic screw cover to protect the hands of anyone manually lifting the headlight. That is the only thing I figure it could be used for?? So, the headlight shields could have either of two styles of screws used in them. I have also confirmed this with other 68 owners. Sort of over the top in detail but it is accurate. Take care, Terry

[Greg L.]

Re: 68 headlight shields and grille screws....

Thanks guys.

I just thought that I would check and see if there was anything obvious coming down the pipe that I should be aware of and I guess not so I'll continue as I have been.

Couple questions though... Did any 69s come with vinyl covered T-Tops? I never thought so but mine had remains of black vinyl covering when I bought it way back. Must have looked quite tacky!

The other thing I noticed while sanding my rockers is that under the black paint I see Cortez Silver which is the color of my car. Did some cars come with body color rockers or were the rockers hung during the paint process?

Jack, I got a chuckle when you mentioned about human errors and omissions because I have a few obvious ones! The guy that installing the interior on the drivers side must have been in a hurry or just too damn slow because he missed installing a screw in the door panel that the passenger side has and he also never installed the shoulder belt holder that goes on the top of the seat near the headrest!

I just love it whe people say "they sure don't make em like they used too"!

[Mark #28455]

missing interior stuff

My L89 convert was an original shoulder strap car, but they installed both seats without the guide brackets for the straps. There was a dealer repair program early in the 1969 year where the dealers were instructed to add additional screws to the door panels if they were coming loose. Where is the "extra" screw?
Mark

[Chuck S.]

Re: 68 headlight shields and grille screws....

Only the optional hard top (C07) for the convertible came with the trend-of-the-times vinyl covering...It was option C08. You may have a convertible with a hardtop; if that's the case, it probably did have a factory covering. An upholsterer can install a vinyl covering on pretty much anything, but I expect the coupe's T-top openings would give him a challenge to provide a covering that would be reliable long term.

I'm only speculating here, but is unlikely in my opinion that the rocker moldings would have been hung before paint. It would seem to introduce a lot of work steps that could easily be avoided by having the rocker moldings supplied already painted black with the exposed polished edge, and simply install them on the painted body. GM did not make un-neccesary steps if possible.

You are now getting into the the archeology part of restoration...if you continue to strip paint, you may find your car has been repainted in it's life. In that case, it would be easier for the painter to spray it all than remove the rocker moldings...he probably masked the polished edge, sprayed the silver, then masked the body above and painted the lower portion of the moldings.

[Chuck S.]

Aha...More Evidence of Repaint!

I just read your last post on your rally wheels. Five or six coats?...Yep, the car has been freshened up a time or two. You can't get a new paint job and leave the wheels looking dull and grungy.

[Greg L.]

Re: missing interior stuff

Mark,

I don't think that I have any additional screws, just one missing...no wise cracks about that one now. See my pic of where I added a screw to the top aft of my drivers door panel.


The passenger side had a screw in this area along with a metal bushing(like a hollow rivet) to support the screw that was swagged into the door panel. The drivers panel didn't have this swagged bushing in it so I guess thats why the person installing the panel didn't put in a screw. Now that I look at it it seems to me that it was the person that installed the bushings that messed up and not the person installing the door panel.

[Greg L.]

Re: Aha...More Evidence of Repaint!

Chuck

I agree that hanging the rockers wouldn't make sense from a production stand point but I think that the rear panel was loosely hung so maybe the rockers were too...I don't know. Anyways here is a pic of my original rocker. The only repair work ever done to it is from me filling the two cutouts that Bubba put into them when he hung side pipes. As you can see in the pic there is no "extra paint", just fiberglass, thin red oxide, cortez silver and black. I would tend to think that if they had in fact been repainted at some time that there would be some evidence of that in the layers of paint that I uncovered.


This pic I thought was just kind of neat because it shows the angle that the sprayer used when the primer was applied.


I don't know what to say about about the vinyl remains on my T-Tops. It just struck me as being odd because of the poor taste but excellent "factory like" workmanship of it. Maybe it's some weird Canadian thing...

The car actually never was repainted until I got it. It still had I would say 75% of the original paint but it had some tacky stripes on it and primer spots with the odd cracking so I had to repaint it. For the most part though it just needed a scuff, prime and repaint. I do have pictures to prove that it was the original paint too but they are on film because, well, what was a digital camera back in 88 anyways? The paint that I had put on was still good this time around but it was starting to flake because of a poor bond to the primer that I put on. In fact I honestly, no word of a lie, blew the vast majority of the paint off with compressed air!! The remainder easily came off with a razor blade revealing the primer that I applied back in 88...under that will still be the original paint so after all this time it will still only have had "one" repaint.

The rims that I was refering too in another post were actually ones that I bought off of ebay last fall and yes they had tons of paint! My originals were gone before I bought the car.

[Chuck S.]

Never Mind Me...

I don't know what the rockers look like on a 69. I thought they were a aluminum rocker molding like 70-72, only painted black except for the polished edge. What you are showing me actually appears to be a fiberglass rocker panel that was attached to the lower edge of the body, and had a polished molding on it's top edge.

From the paint layers I see, it appears the rocker panels actually DID go through paint with the body, or at least A body of the same color. The exhaust panels were painted with a body and then hung on a rack...the car probably wouldn't get the one that went through paint with its body.

The rocker panels may have been hung on the car like the exhaust panel, but it doesn't make any sense to waste body color paint on them if they were only going to be painted black later. Not to mention making the poor painter bend down to spray that rocker panel on the car, but maybe they just took up less space hung on the body.

Other body parts went along through paint with the body, and were painted on a rack...that is another possibility. It would give the painter the option of skipping the body color on the rocker panels...uhmmmm, but if he forgot? Is it possible that the silver under the black is actually heavy overspray?

It also appears from the slight margin around the red primer spots that there might have been another color under the red primer...I would not expect anything under the red primer; only bare fiberglass.

OK, Dickie, what gloss level are the judges looking for on the black rocker panels? Is it the same paint as the blackout operation?...semi-flat to semi-gloss?

[Dick W.]

Re: Never Mind Me...

Chuckie, a medium gloss, such as the '70 and later panels

[Bryan K. Montford]

Re: Revisions to the 68-69 TIM&JG?

Please take a closer look at the 68 sb with a/c configuration.

Thanks,
Bryan