I worked at a Chevrolet dealer for one year in 1973. I remember Corvette paints jobs being pretty bad. One car had to have its hood repainted because the paint was so poorly done. Did fiberglass not take lacquer paint well ? When did Lacquer painting stop on Corvettes ?
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Re: Lacquer paint
Walter,
I believe all Corvettes built in St. Louis (until the plant closed in July 1981) were painted with lacquer.
All Corvettes built in Bowling Green were/are base coat/clear coat.
I'm sure everything in St. Louis was hand sprayed.
Bowling Green is automated, so probably better coverage.
That's the short answer.
Sean -
Re: Lacquer paint
I bought a '78 Silver Anniversary Corvette new. The paint quality was horrible by today's standards, I had to have all the body seems blocked down and repainted. They were all very visible.
It wasn't the lacquer paint fiberglass combination that was the issue, although in general lacquer is more prone to chipping and is not as durable.
I feel it was the St. Louis plant technology was getting long in the tooth and demand for the cars were high and quality control was a bit sketchy. By end of the seventies production had almost doubled from 28000 cars to over 53000/year. Corvette quality was a victim of the car's success.
Here a photo of a '78 Pace car getting the two-tone treatment. Less then ideal conditions for painting.
MikeComment
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Re: Lacquer paint
The paint automation in Bowling Green didn't happen until the late 1980s or early 1990s. I remember one of the first meetings in the plant about the Museum Paul Schnaes (I might have that spelling wrong) took us back to see the newly installed paint robots. At that time they were "finessing" the spots the robots missed with humans. Bill Clupper might remember the date of that meeting better than I do.TerryComment
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Re: Lacquer paint
Did Corvette bodies go through reflow ovens after the topcoat was applied ? The heat of the ovens would allow the lacquer to flatten out making it easier to get a shine...Comment
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Re: Lacquer paint
In 1977 I had my 59 painted by a guy named Rick Tinari who owned a Maaco (I think) franchise and was closing down and moving to Fla. Mine was one of the last cars he painted. The car was completely stripped by me and I used a chemical stripper. The car was in pieces and he basically painted the body, doors, deck, trunk, hood, wheels, dash etc. with lacquer (white/red) which held up very well until about 5 years ago when I had to move the car into a shed and the high heat in the summer caused some crazing and dulling. However. over all, not bad for a $250 paint job.Comment
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Re: Lacquer paint
My 1970 bought new was built in July 1970 and is Donnybrooke Green. Shortly after the paint warranty was gone I started to see crazing of the paint behind the window of my coupe. Took it to a Chevrolet dealer to check it out and they said they could not repair the defect in the paint. It got worse over the years. I finally decided to paint the my 1970 my self in 1991 and stripped the complete car and painted with lacquer my self.
I still have my 1970 and my first Corvette painting of my 1970 still looks very good. I used Dupont lacquer. I filled up with self serve gas Thursday and two separate visits while filling the tank by two by other self serve customers looked at my 1970 and expressed good comments. This has occurred at other times at the self serve pumps. I have no crazing like the factory paint job.Comment
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Re: Lacquer paint
John,
The short answer is no, at least in the Mid-Year days. John Hinckley a few years ago wrote an excellent paper on the Mid-Year assembly process. Here is an excerpt from that document.
Body truck was moved manually with steel poles through steel floor plated transfer areas between holding/prep areas and booths and ovens; only spray booth and oven interiors had floor chain conveyors. All paint materials (primer, sealer, topcoat, thinners and blackout) were supplied by DuPont; they were the single largest GM stockholder at the time.
The fiberglass shell for the optional midyear hardtop on St. Louis bodies was processed through the Paint Shop on a windshield frame mounted rack with the body and was sub-assembled and installed later in the Trim Shop (A.O. Smith bodies arrived with the hardtop already painted, trimmed and installed).
Dry-sand entire body and quick-dry pit-fill as required, blowoff and tack-rag to remove sanding dust Sprayers blow body off again and tack-rag entire body surface Headlight bezels and cowl vent grilles laid on body floor area
Body transferred into 3-job long downdraft spray booth Spray quick-flash lacquer-based red oxide primer coat, flash for one job length, spray lacquer-based gray primer coat (including parts on body floor); two sprayers – one on each side, mirroring each other’s spray action.
Body moved across transfer area by sprayers to one of four floor conveyors into prime bake oven. Gas-fired primer bake oven – 60 minutes at 280*F Body moved across transfer area to Wet-Sand conveyor Wet-sand entire body with 360-grit paper to smooth finish. Parts on body floor not wet-sanded.
After wet-sand, body was moved through transfer area and run through Primer Oven again to dry water.
Body moved through transfer area onto #1 Color Topcoat spray booth conveyor; booth was three job lengths long, floor chain conveyor. Job Number checked against run sheet to determine color; sprayers apply lacquer-based quick-flash sealer coat to entire body and parts on floor; sealer (called “adhesive” by sprayers) helped topcoat adhere to primer coat. After one-job flash, sprayed three coats of topcoat color lacquer, wet-on-wet, including parts on floor. Flash time between sealer and each color coat was 1-2 minutes.
Sprayers moved body through transfer area to one of the two Topcoat Color Bake Oven conveyors; flash time between spray booth and oven was 5-6 minutes.
Body was then baked in a gas-fired oven at 160*F for 20 minutes to set up paint for subsequent repair sanding and handling without causing surface imperfections. After first color bake, body was moved into transfer/prep area where minor surface imperfections were hand-sanded and tacked off prior to re-coat; 427 hood stingers, lock pillars, and areas requiring contrasting interior color painting were masked in this area.
Body was moved from the transfer/prep area to the Repair Spray Booth, where areas to be repaired were top coated and thinner blended, 427 hood stingers were sprayed the specified color, and interior trim color painting was done. After flash time and masking material removal, the body was moved through the transfer area to the Final Bake Oven conveyor.
Final color bake was a gas-fired oven, 45 minutes at 250*F (not hot enough for lacquer reflow, so polishing was required later).
MikeComment
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