76 Stencil Placement and Color

[Rick B.]

Working on my 76 for judging and need to place the frame stencil properly. Not sure if anyone has a picture of theirs or one to go by in the placement. Judging manual just says passenger side sometimes hard to see behind front wheel. It does not indicate color, although I saw on another posting to be yellow.

[Stephen B.]

Re: 76 Stencil Placement and Color

rick - I just sold my 1976 corvette - it was a winner - 3 top flights (local, regional and national) the stencils on my frame where on the right side and where white .

[Tom R.]

Re: 76 Stencil Placement and Color

Working on my 76 for judging and need to place the frame stencil properly. Not sure if anyone has a picture of theirs or one to go by in the placement. Judging manual just says passenger side sometimes hard to see behind front wheel. It does not indicate color, although I saw on another posting to be yellow.

Here's an example of a 1977 stencil. The view is right side up.

Assuming you have the stencil, note both the 4.12.77 date code format and that the white paint is not vivid. Many stencils are faint. I suspect, the worker put paint on the roller and painted a number before dipping again. Also note that the 363 portion of the part number is not present...so a lack of preciseness.

Frame Stencil_1977.pdf

[Ron G.]

Re: 76 Stencil Placement and Color

Based on my conversations with A.O. Smith personnel and observing what I believe to be original untouched chassis, that the frame after it was painted with the "Flo - Coat" System, several of them were then put on a pallet upside down and were moved out of the painting area and the stencil was then rolled on. One possible reason why the stencil was faint is because for 1976 frame production they switched from the Dupont 640 Black Primer to a Paraffin type wax coating that was rather soft and the stencil paint may have resonated into the black frame paint. Don't forget the frame paint was still not totally cured. I am very confident that the frames were not dipped, but the aforementioned method of frame paint application, Flo - Coat System consisted of 2 assembly line workers each with a hose that was 2 inches in diameter where the paint was pumped out. As it turned out the Paraffin coating was not as durable as the Dupont 640 Black Primer. The latter type frame coating, the Paraffin wax type finish was used from 1976 thru 1982 production.

[Tom R.]

Re: 76 Stencil Placement and Color

Thanks for sharing Ron. I've looked at a number of late model C3 frame stencils and most are faint. I assumed aging but what you share makes this study quite interesting. The 77 above is probably the most "robust" stencil I've seen but most the typically fails to seep or saturate onto the frame.

Did you mean for this to say:

One possible reason why the stencil was faint is because for 1976 frame production they switched from the Dupont 640 Black Primer to a Paraffin type wax coating that was rather soft and the stencil paint may not have resonated into the black frame paint.

[Rick B.]

Re: 76 Stencil Placement and Color

You don't happen to have a picture you could share of it do you?
If not, no worries and thanks for the feedback. It appears the white color wins out on the polling.

[Rick B.]

Re: 76 Stencil Placement and Color

Most excellent Tom, thanks for the pic and reply.