'66 outer heater box PAL nuts finish?

[Gary B.]

Can anyone tell me the correct finish for the 6 or 7 PAL nuts that secure the outer heater box to the engine side of teh firewall on a '66? Were they natural, plain steel? Or black phosphate? Or cad/zinc? And did they get any coverage when firewall blackout was done? Or were they not there until after blackout?

Thanks,

Gary

[Stephen L.]

Re: '66 outer heater box PAL nuts finish?

Black Phosphate works for me... a dark gray..... The heater box was installed AFTER blackout so there is no blackout paint on the nuts or box. The studs WERE in place before blackout so they are painted.

[Stephen L.]

Re: '66 outer heater box PAL nuts CORRECTION

OOPS, the studs are part of the inner box so they were painted with that, not the blackout process...

[Gary B.]

Inner heater box

Steve,

You are correct that the studs are part of the inner heater box. Was that not in place either at the time of engine firewall blackout?

Gary

[Stephen L.]

Re: Inner heater box

No. The heater etc was installed after the paint shop in the trim assy area.
When the body went thru paint, visualize only a shell. Most things that were riveted in place were done previous to the paint booth....Clips, brackets etc. If it was bolted or glued on or whatever.. it happened after the paint booth.

The dash components were all installed after the paint booth.

The one item that bothered me was the riveting of the dash "wings" in the door opening. This happened in the trim shop after the paint booth. Today's logic would say that you can't spray paint outside of the booth for environmental/health reasons thus the painted "wings" would have been done off line and the rivets would all be black or natural, but back then that was not a concern, so the wings were masked and painted later,after installation.....

[Rob A.]

Re: '66 outer heater box PAL nuts finish?

Gary,

The nuts securing the heater box cover on my '66 have a dark phosphate finish. They appear to have never been removed.

[Gary B.]

Thanks guys. *NM*

[Gary B.]

Inner heater box PAL studs

Steve,

But the inner heater box is not painted, so does that mean the studs are not painted?

Gary

[Stephen L.]

Re: Inner heater box PAL studs

You are correct, the inner box is not painted. I don't have my box out so you'll need to tell me if the studs and the flat metal piece are black or natural or cad plated. The rivets holding the flat metal piece are definitely not painted, but I don't know if the stud and flat piece were or not. Here is a photo of mine during restoration. It appears there are traces of black paint on the flat metal edge leading me to believe they were painted prior to riveting onto the box. I had bead blasted the flats and rivets prior to painting......

[Gary B.]

Re: Inner heater box PAL studs

Steve,

The rivets and flat rivet plates look unpainted on my original. The studs threads were very rusty, so I think the studs must have been natural or perhpas black phosphate orginally. The heads of the studs are either black phosphate or natural, based on a hint of blueing. No signs of paint anywhere.

Gary

[John H.]

Re: Inner heater box

The dash "wings" (on units with contrasting interior/exterior colors) were masked and painted in the Final Paint Repair booth, after the car came off the line. Although the assembly rate was seven cars per hour, the Final Paint Repair system was sized for ten per hour; virtually every Corvette passed through Final Paint Repair at least once, whether they needed the "wings" painted or not. The main Paint Shop at St. Louis was about as primitive as they come, right up until they turned the lights off in 1981.