1969 Rally Sport Door Blackout

[Edgemontvillage]

I'm fitting the RS headlight doors and grill on my 1969 RS Z project and a friend (..we'll call him Eddie M (enio45)) mentioned that on at least 2 Rally Sport equipped cars he's worked on, the inside corners of the headlight door covers where they are screwed to the backing plate, had been brush painted black to blend with the black plastic grill. If not painted black (or silver on black cars), the corners will show body color through the grill when the headlight doors are closed. Looking through my photo library and searching on-line I haven't been able to find an example of an original paint 69 Rally Sport optioned car (including Pace Cars) to confirm this blackout treatment. If you have an original paint Rally Sport optioned 69 would you please post if you have the door cover blackout. Thanks.   

Inside Corners of Headlight Door Cover that would have received black out treatment.


Grill See-through showing (Hugger Orange) Body Color 

[firstgenaddict]

Lloyd,
Here are a couple of photos of the 26k mile 69 RS SS conv I found for Dave and I believe one of Charlies friends owns now.
Look at the lower mount tab on the first photo... IT DOES APPEAR TO BE BLACKED OUT.

[KevinW]

I pulled these off an RS back in the early 80s, they are very patiently waiting for me to restore the car they were saved for. Interesting the black appears to be the base coat (same as underside) and the color coat is just a light coat that did not extend all the way to the corners.  IMO They do not look like brush paint applied after color coat.

[enio45]

I have not looked , but is there anything in the assembly manual about applying the black out on certain color cars?

The above pic is how i remember one of the cars, the other "looked like" to be brush applied - but it has been a few years and no pics. 

[firstgenaddict]

I am sure the frames were dip painted black as the pacer had black runs in it's headlamp covers.

One thing for sure... Masking the corners would be a lot less trouble than brushing on black out.

EDDIE... BTW, thanks for informing Lloyd about this detail!

[x66 714]

My friend's 01B Los Angeles car doesn't have that done to it. Maybe it was a time thing or a plant thing or a little of both....Joe

[william]

The RS covers received body color on the Chevrolet side. Had the corners required masking, it would have been noted in the AIM as was the lower grill panel.

Would have been a simple matter for the Process Engineer to configure the racking to prevent paint coverage in those areas.

[Dave69x33]

Interesting!

Question: If the blackout on the inner RS headlight cover "tabs" was hand brush painted, would it have been done after the RS headlight bucket subassemblies were installed and before the grille was installed, similar to the way Edgemontvillage shows in his first view?  Otherwise the bright silver Phillips screw heads would be noticeable (and distracting) thru the grille openings.

Ironically, all but one of all the survivor '69 Camaros I have studied so far have been non RS cars. I have pics of an unrestored '69 Pace Car. I will study those pics this evening to look for evidence of the blackout treatment. 

The pictures of the covers that KevinW posted appear to have the red color sprayed to a point as if the tabs were placed in a loose fitting mask to hold the covers when they were sprayed with the color. There is not a defined line from a blackout brush.

[firstgenaddict]

IT could have been how they were hung OR maybe Stood Up in a slotted fixture during painting.
It is difficult to spray them when hanging as they want to act like a gate in the wind.

[enio45]

Interesting would be to see a 10-10 car as they had the silver grill - so that means the doors would have silver painted on the edges - reverse of what we see in the above pics. 

I wish i can find pics of Richard Mayskum's 10-10 RS Z (i had pics) to see what his doors vs grill would look like.

[Dave69x33]

I found the pictures of the survivor, Norwood 03D build, '69 Pace Car that I mentioned earlier.  I included for reference a view of the trim tag along with the blackout on an RS headlight door cover.

As firstgenaddict suggested, it appears the covers were placed in a slotted fixture for color painting.  When you study the pictures, you see evidence of a straight line on the tabs between the color and blackout.

Would like to see pictures of the original screws used to attach the cover to the frame to see if they were silver CAD plated or gray/black phosphate plated.

 

[firstgenaddict]

When looking at the burgundy covers posted above it dawned on me that they were probably stood up in a fixture for painting. (The fixture would also negate the need for a production note)

IF not mistaken the machine screws are either black zinc or phosphate.

IMHO There really shouldn't be silver on the tabs of a black car...  every other hole through either color grille displays a black background. Thus black in the negative space is what is expected.

[KevinW]

Here is the fine thread machine screw that held the burgundy cover on

[69Z28-RS]

One more example of an original RS louver cover (from my '69 Z29-
RS) with black out area ...

[firstgenaddict]

Interesting would be to see a 10-10 car as they had the silver grill - so that means the doors would have silver painted on the edges - reverse of what we see in the above pics. 

I wish i can find pics of Richard Mayskum's 10-10 RS Z (i had pics) to see what his doors vs grill would look like.

What would seal it up is if the tabs on the black doors showed evidence of the "masking" from the painting fixture. a fuzzy line on the black door in approx the same place.