C-3 How to paint headlight assembly?

[Mark A.]

I am rebuilding the headlight assembly on my 69 coupe. I have dissassembled and cleaned all hardware and am ready to prime the support assembly and bezel. The bezel appears to originally have been sprayed with green dicromate primer. The support assembly seems to have been painted with black primer. I want to try to duplicate the original finishes. The coverage on the parts seemed to be pretty poor, with some of the exterior paint oversprayed on the assemblies. What would be the proper sequence of priming and painting these parts? Should I prepaint them, or paint them with the car? Thanks, Mark

[Terry M.]

Re: C-3 How to paint headlight assembly?

I concur that the bezel is primed in green dichromate it was then painted body color at the same time as the rest of the body while held in a jig, along with the windshield wiper door and grille as well as the rear vent grilles, off the car. My belief is that no other primer, other than that thin dichromate, was used on these pieces. On a well aged original paint car one can see the metal finish under the paint on these pieces. I have seen original headlight bezels with dichromate showing on the sides. Paint coverage was sometimes less than perfect.

I can't tell you about the support assemblies, others will have to help there.