Floorpan Red Oxide Primer?

[IMBVSUR?]

I cannot remember which year, or make, however I remember watching the bodies being dipped. Either way, great video, thanks for posting it.

 

[Brian64SS]

The book with the assembly line pics doesn't show the dipping for '64. But I can't believe all the small round holes with plugs were for any other purpose. The ones in the ends of the rocker panels and behind the rear wheels would have to be for draining something before getting plugged. They wouldn't have gone through the trouble of punching holes and plugging them for nothing. Would they have dipped the body in a prep cleaner that would have had to drain out before dip-priming or spray-priming? I have to believe it varied by plant, workload, availability of the primer, shift, supervisor, line workers.... My 4-door has the primer under the tops of the quarter panels inside the trunk where it would have been hard to spray it. I'll look in the SS this weekend.

 

[bobs409]

Under my quarters must have been left natural.

 

[bobs409]

I think the holes with the rubber/plastic plugs might have been to spray undercoat or rust preventative in. ??

 

[real61ss]

They didn't start dipping the bodies until much later. The holes are simply drain holes that were used when the new unpainted bodies were washed down and flushed with solvent prior to priming.

 

[real61ss]

This thread has bothered me for some time now and I really think it needs to be corrected. There are still a few people out there that want to restore their cars as correctly as possible and some of them come to this website looking for information and they believe what they read. Because of that we need to get this straight. Those drain holes were there to allow the chemicals that were used to wash the mill oils, weld flashing, grinding debris etc. out of the body prior to a hot iron phosphate that helped the primer to adhear being applied. The bodies were hung from chains and run through booths where they were deluged from all directions with powerful solvents and finally rinsed with high pressure water. All of this fluid exited through those drain holes. They were rinsed with de-ionzed water and sent to an oven to be dryed, the next step was the primer booth where the bodies were SPRAYED. They were NOT dipped or bathed, they were sprayed. If you question this look up under the dash and you will find nothing but surface rust, perhaps some small amounts of overspray but no primer or paint. There was a large hole in the center of the dash on the 61 & 62 models so forget the air bubble theory. If this isn't enough look under the rear package tray, again there is nothing but surface rust, and again, the package trays had several large holes so no air bubbles here either. Look inside the rockers, cut the rockers open if they need to be replaced and as the photos of Bob's car prove ,there is nothing but surface rust, no primer, no paint. I hope I did not step on any toes but this needed to be said for those who care. In later years they may have changed to dipping the bodies but not during the 58-64 time frame.

 

[Ishiftem]

My 63 is a Janesville car. It was not dipped. Like Tommy said, the underside of the dash is bare steel. It is a very low mileage car and there is not even light surface rust on a lot of areas. Just bare steel. Shine a light through the holes in the floor pan braces and nothing but bare steel inside. These areas would have primer if they were dipped. That is how the whole car is. If it isn't an area that is accessible with a spray gun, it's light surface rust or bare steel.

 

[64ss409]

My 64 is also a Janesville car with bare steel in the same places as Dan describes. I can't find the photos of my 62 floor board, but both green and red oxide are present with some bare steel where the convertible top cylinders are located.

 

[Jim Sullivan]

My '63 is a Baltimore car and it was definitely not dipped.

 

[real61ss]

Enough of this, I'm sorry but I don't have the patience or time to continue with this. What you are showing is the inside of a quarter panel with red oxide primer OVER TOP OF SOUND DEADNER, that didn't happen at the factor, primer was applied to the clean bare metal

 

[blkblk63ss]

My comments are based on 20 years as an automotive engineer for GM. I spent half of the time engineering vehicles in Detroit and half troubleshooting and engineering vehicles in several plants. Looking at my 61 it is obvious the bodies were dipped. Primer is present on all interior surfaces including under the package tray and inside the upper quarters. Primer is also present extensively on the underbody. Looking inside the hinge pillars is another giveaway. I have seen thousands of bodies through all states of manufacturing and states of paint and am familiar with the many processes. Any form of spray application would not produce the coverage in the areas that are coated. My 61 was most definitely dipped in primer. The air entrapment is not a theory but a real problem that is till a factor today. Keep in mind poor cleaning of the surface could also lead to poor coverage of the primer leading to bare spots.
The one thing I learned in my career was your preconceptions of how things were manufactured by looking at the part was always wrong. If you saw the process first hand and in person, you never saw what you expected. I visited hundreds of part suppliers to review processes and resolve problems and always walked away having learned something. The coolest part was I got to spend lots of time in old Impala plants like Baltimore and Janesville. We were building trucks at the time but walking on the wood block floors at Janesville I am sure a few 61's passed over the same blocks.

Did you actually see the dipping process as you say you worked there?????Not saying either one of you gentlemen are right or wrong , just asking.

 

[Brian64SS]

Production of these cars in '63 and '64 was over a million/year. The schedules they had to maintain to build them so fast would explain why priming unseen places would be a corner to cut. Look at how the amount of primer varied between almost none on some cars and practically complete on at least a few. Also can't see how people say "always" and "never" ("NO cars were ever dipped"). But not worth getting riled up over. This stuff is supposed to be fun.

 

[rstreet]

My 1961 has not received a body off frame restoration is a May 61 StLouis car and was most certainly not dipped as bare metal is very obvious under the dash. My 62 has received substantial restoration and is also a St Louis car. This week I will try to determine if the under dash paint was applied later to it
Robert

 

[1961 Bubble Boy]

I did some research and I am wrong. At least as late as 1967 the primers were hand sprayed. Whoever did my car was a artist perfectionist since the coverage inside my doors and quarters looks just like a dip operation. He must have had an uncle who sold paint.
Sorry for all the confusion and grief.
Real61ss is correct about the primer application.

 

[real61ss]

I thank you sir and I apologize for getting frustrated. I should do a better job of controlling my patience. Again, thank you

 

[bobs409]

I'd like to know who did (didn't) do mine.

 

[1961 Bubble Boy]

Not sure if you are familiar with these, but vehicle information kits are loaded with info including some details on the 9 step painting process. Look under the generic Chevrolet category to see our era cars.

https://gmheritagecenter.com/gm-heritage-archive/vehicle-information-kits.html

 

[skipxt4]

Too bad, the problems of the world, can't be solved this graciously.

 

[blkblk63ss]

I gave Tommy a hard time about his Bias Ply tire's some time back , but i have to say that that is the best choice for the car as it represent's the car in it's time.So i have to apologize too!after seeing it aonMason Dixon drag picture's.

 

[62impala409]

I did some research and I am wrong. At least as late as 1967 the primers were hand sprayed. Whoever did my car was a artist perfectionist since the coverage inside my doors and quarters looks just like a dip operation. He must have had an uncle who sold paint.
Sorry for all the confusion and grief.
Real61ss is correct about the primer application.

I think the same guy painted my primer. After this thread got going, I grabbed a light and checked under my dash on my Janesville Impala. Almost a 100% coverage, but you could see the spray pattern going over the channels and clips with a little bare metal behind them. Must have been a very careful painter.