numbers & paint on underside of hood

[Thomas O.]

This is probably insignificant. On my 73 sb on the underside of hood in the center where air cleaner gasket fits are these numbers: Stock#4558 (chalk like) in addition, there are some white chalk numbers indicating apparent antifreeze numbers : -20 and then degree symbol and capital letters B M
A second question there is yellow body color over spray on the top edge of the firewall which looks like it could have come from the cowl/hood grille. Does this mean the hood was sprayed and over spray just came through hood grille meaning there wasn't any masking off? In other words was it normal to have body color overspray on top edge of firewall from factory or has the car been repaired? Maybe obvious but just had to ask . tom

[Chuck S.]

Re: numbers & paint on underside of hood

The "Stock #4558" sounds like a dealer marking. My 70 had factory markings, but they were UNDER the blackout and not on top.

On earlier C3s, the firewall was blacked out after the body was painted, and the top edge of the firewall is black. A mask was positioned at each end of the firewall to divide the body color and black during the blackout process.

I'm not real familiar with 73s, but if you're asking if body color overspray would pass through the fender/hood gap to show on the blacked out firewall edge, my opinion is it's not factory...the blackout would have been applied after the body color and would cover any overspray.

[Chuck S.]

Re: numbers & paint on underside of hood

The "Stock #4558" sounds like a dealer marking. My 70 had factory markings, but they were UNDER the blackout and not on top.

On earlier C3s, the firewall was blacked out after the body was painted, and the top edge of the firewall is black. A mask was positioned at each end of the firewall to divide the body color and black during the blackout process.

I'm not real familiar with 73s, but if you're asking if body color overspray would pass through the fender/hood gap to show on the blacked out firewall edge, my opinion is it's not factory...the blackout would have been applied after the body color and would cover any overspray.