More discoveries

[David H.]

I discovered the frame stencil today along with some yellow paint markings on the tie rod ends. I also found the build number 59 again this time on the front cross member. I was actually hoping to find the original paint color there, but it was not. Build date was 7.28.61 which seems to fit with the rest of the dates on the car. Is the correct stencil readily available for when I re stencil the frame?

[Gary C.]

Re: More discoveries

David, good find on your frame stencil. Recommend taking photos with a tape measure taped to the frame or make a tracing to get the exact frame location, number spacing, period location and justification. Doing both a tracing and photos would be best. Then order your stencil and send a copy of the tracing or photo. Gary....

[Michael M.]

Re: More discoveries

Contact Quanta Products @ 410-658-5700.
Web www.quantaproducts.com
I used them for my 67 stencile, also e-mailed pictures of original to them, came out nice. They also sell kits with info and paint to put those markings back on your driveline.
Good luck

[Richard G.]

Re: More discoveries

David, I've owner my 61 since 1968 and yesterday I went looking for the frame number stencled on frame below drivers seat and there it was! I'm a bit troubled however, because the judging guide manual says the number should end with 81- mine was built June 15 and has 82 like yours. For some reason I thought yours was a 61 as well. I'm sure mine is original but I'll probably lose points for having a ' wrong ' number, when I know it is correct.

[David S.]

Re: More discoveries

Very Cool! Thanks for sharing.

-Dave

[Gary C.]

Re: More discoveries

Richard, the frame stencil number is a manufacturing batch or lot number or at least it was for 1956-57 frames. During the 56-7 JM rewrite we discovered a couple of very early 57's with 56 frames and most of the 56's produced the last two weeks had '57 frames. We were unable to unearth any date details as to when the suffix extensions (such as -81 or -82). It appears that Chevrolet ordered an amount of frames, say 2,000 and the date the frames were constructed by the manufacturer is the stencil date on the frame. When the plant got down to a minimum threshold more frames were ordered and the frame suffix number was sequenced by one. In 57 some of the frame engineering design changes were correlated with a suffix number change. Maybe someone on the TDB has more information or insight on the 61-2 frames. Gary....

[Bob H.]

Re: More discoveries

Attached is the stamp on my 61 built in December of 1960. It ends in 80

[David H.]

Re: More discoveries

I discoverd more yellow paint markings yesterday. On the tie rod ends, and on the rear axle. Any ideas of other places I should look for more markings before it goes to cleaning? Thanks.

[Bob H.]

Re: More discoveries

My 61 has the same markings including blue paint on the tie rod ends themselves. Also, I have a swath of yellow paint around the fill hole on the rear and across the very bottom as well. Yellow paint was not in short supply as I found a dab on each rear shaft housing near the rebound straps and also on the rear back plates by the brake shoes. My 62 also has the marking and also has yellow paint on each axle flange.

Bob

[David H.]

Re: More discoveries

I went looking for the blue paint on the outter tie rod ends yesterday and sure enough, they are still there. Hard to believe on a 48 year old car that the tie rod ends have never been changed.
Also found some green paint on the right front brake backing plate. Wasn't expecting to find that one.
I took a picture of my frame stencil and with my Photoshop software scaled it to the exact size of the original. Will this work in place of doing a tracing of it on trace paper? What about keeping the orginal stencil instead of cleaning it off and duplicating it after cleaning and paint? Does anyone try to preserve the original?

[Gary C.]

Re: More discoveries

David, good idea about the stencil photo resized to scale. Main thing IMHO is that Quanta knows how the decimals and letters are justified and accurate spacing when the new stencil template is cut. Gary....

[John W.]

Re: More discoveries

David,

I would try printing the Photoshop picture on some heavy stock paper. Take an Exacto knife and cut out the numbers very carefully. Now you have a stencil that is an exact duplicate of the original. Since the paint will bleed a little when you spray it your skill in cutting out the numbers will not have to be super precise.

[Bruce B.]

Re: More discoveries

John,
You mentioned spray on the stencil number, I thought it was applied with a roller.