Midyear front sway bar paint runs

[Richard J.]

Hello all... I am restoring a chassis for my 1967 Corvette with factory F41 suspension. (Yes its a real F41 car and I have documentation). My question is; According to the judging manual the sway bar was "mitted". I have been told that the paint applied to the sway bar was quite thick and was applied while the frame was up-side-down during the installation of the chassis components and the runs in the paint would appear to go up and away from the ground when the car was finished. I have also been told that the front sway bar was "mitted" at the same time as the exhaust system and you should see runs going toward the ground not going up. I plan on taking this car all the way through to the nationals in judging and I would like to know which procedure is correct and is there proof of it. Thanks for any help

[Kevin M.]

Re: Midyear front sway bar paint runs

Your on the right track but there is no such thing as mitting it was sprayed during black or had original paint as supplied by the manufacture.

Kevin

[Barbara S.]

Re: Midyear front sway bar paint runs

Kevin. Was that also done on '65 sway bars?
Tony

[Kevin M.]

Re: Midyear front sway bar paint runs

Great picture here of the frame still upside down, looks like the sway bar is in place but a different shade than the frame. One thing I'm not sure of is, the front end assembly was painted by the supplier don't know if it included the sway bar. Blackout was sprayed in all locations no mitting.

Kevin

[Michael H.]

Re: Midyear front sway bar paint runs

The sway bar would have been included in the (somewhat limited for 65 and later) chassis blackout procedure but this was done after the completed chassis was right side up, just before the body was installed. The material was sprayed on selected chassis components.

The components of the front suspension, such as upper and lower control arms, were painted separately at the source of mfg., before they were shipped to the Corvette assembly plant. Hope this helps.

[Barbara S.]

Re: Midyear front sway bar paint runs

Michael. So you are saying that the sway bar was blacked out after the chassis was right side up?

Tony

[Barbara S.]

Follow up question

Also, I'm curious about the paper sticker. I assume that the paper sticker would be in place prior to sway bar black out, so that the paper tag would be painted too?

Thanks again.
Tony

[Michael H.]

Re: Follow up question

Tony,

I've never seen a paper sticker on the sway bar of a 63-67 car. I'm not saying there was no such thing but my guess is that sticker was something that first appeared on later C3 cars. If someone has a picture of an original, I'd be interested in seeing it.

[Michael H.]

Re: Midyear front sway bar paint runs

For 65-67, there was supposed to be a light coat of chassis black on the top/front surface of the sway bar. (not near as heavy as the 63-64 cars) I've seen, and have pic's of, near new cars that do show this coating. I also have a few pic's of new 65-67's that appear to have no coating at all. It's a grey area and I don't know if we'll have a definite answer on this one.

[Edward S.]

Re: Follow up question

I have a 65 L-78 which has from Duntov through Triple Crown awards and have never lost a point on my sway bar which looks like black paint drops which run from thick to thinner as they drip down the bar. I know that 65 front sway bars have a paper sticker - different color and number depending on heavy duty or regular suspension. I use my car alot and at the end of every season I replace the labels on my springs and sway bar, I get them from LICS but I am sure that most of the aftermarket guys have them.

[Frank C.]

Re: Follow up question

Michael

For what ever reasons you were off the TDB, welcome back. I for one missed your tips on C2's. I hope your here to stay.

Thx for your help as always...Frank

[Michael H.]

Re: Follow up question

The drips of chassis black sound right, as long as their headed down and not up.

Is the sticker that you have on the bar an original or a reproduction?

[Michael H.]

Re: Follow up question

Thanks frank. I'll be dropping in occasionally.

[Jack H.]

Plus...

Each section of Noland Adam's Vol 2 restoration book has a GM file photo of the undercarriage of the car, apparently taken from the Milford Proving Ground files. While, you're at a distance, you CAN make out the 'blobs' of black out paint on the front sway bar that are mentioned here...

I had the opportunity to crawl under the front end of a Bloomington Survivor 396 car once and can confirm the drips run from the top down in addition to being rather random in placement + size.

[Mike M.]

65 Sway bar tag

There's nothing in the 65 judging guide about a tag on the sway bar.