1969 Rally Sport Door Blackout

[Dave69x33]

This past weekend I decided to dig out of storage my original RS headlight door back plates to check their condition. It was about 26+ years ago I restored my Camaro. After reviewing the plates, I remembered why I purchased reproduction replacements.  One of the captured nuts was frail and popped off the plate.  I left the plates overnight in lacquer thinner to clean them and remove the old paint. I used a Dremel and ground the hot set rivets to remove one of the captured nuts from the reproduction unit and transferred it to my original back plate.  I used a small bit of solder to hold the nut in place.  NOTE: I found it odd that there were two different style captured nuts attached to my back plates. Fortunately the repro nut was the same design as the missing nut.

I pulled the masking tape edge upward as shown on the RS headlight door covers and carefully sprayed several light coats of black at about a perpendicular angle the cover, to try and copy the blackout spray pattern as shown in other folks' pictures of their unrestored head door covers.  I had some Eastwood Under Hood Black spray paint left over and used it.  It is close in the percent gloss black as the original blackout. Kylon Semi-Flat Black would also be a very close match.  I used isopropyl alcohol to remove a bit of overspray from the long ear tab so that the blackout did not extended too far outside the face of the main RS grille. Personally, I did not want the sloppy look like the Pace Car pic I showed earlier in this discussion thread.

I had a few leftover 9419751 nuts that match up with those KevinW shared with us (rather than use the bright silver zink plated nuts), and ordered a set of the 9425501 screws from Heartbeat City.     

One more detail fixed on my 26+ year restoration!

[Dave69x33]

Here are a few pics of the RS headlight door covers...

[KevinW]

Looking good Dave!

[68camaroz28]

Great information and pics.....
Now I will be looking at every survivor and restoration lol.

[enio45]

nice work!

[Edgemontvillage]

I located a photo of the headlight door from my former black survivor 69 RS/Z. You can see through the grill that the headlight door cover corners where not painted silver to match the grill. 

[Dave69x33]

Thanks Lloyd.

KevinW, can you post a picture of the backside of your RS headlight door covers?  Are they black dipped primer?

[KevinW]

Dave, Yes the backs are black (I assume dip primed, hard to tell, I do not see any drips).  I looked closely at the edge paint coverage.  It appears the paint was applied from the top only.  All edges facing up have the color, all edges facing down are still black.  The sides fade from better coverage on the upper portion fading and showing more black towards the bottom.  This is consistent on both sides.  The sections that were clamped in the fixture do not have any body color on the edges.

Which means the paint fixture must have clamped the inside (screw hole portions) with the covers in their intended mounted positions, then painted with a single swipe with gun angled down. IMO the fixture must be lower than arm height to get the paint coverage that I see. (I tried to get a pic)

[Dave69x33]

Interesting, thanks Kevin.

I believe it’s safe to assume the tabs on the RS door covers were not painted Argent silver to match a ‘69 RS car with an Argent silver main grille. This would have been a tedious and time consuming process to perform on the select random RS black Camaros processing down the assembly line with Argent silver grilles.  We probably need a few more data points to prove this theory.

We can revisit the assembly process report to see when the main grilles were painted (I don’t recall) and try to form some correlation when the RS door covers were painted body color.

[Edgemontvillage]

The headlight door covers on my project have been blackout updated (and headlight doors aligned), thanks to Eddie M and all who contributed to the thread.

[Dave69x33]

Lloyd,

You car is looking very nice.

Question: Are the screws that attach your grill stiffener chrome or black oxide finish? Per the ‘69 Camaro Legends Judge manual, the screws were black oxide. That seams odd but would like to confirm this on a survivor and/or unrestored car.

Thanks,
Dave

[enio45]

looks perfect!!

[Edgemontvillage]

Lloyd,

You car is looking very nice.

Question: Are the screws that attach your grill stiffener chrome or black oxide finish? Per the ‘69 Camaro Legends Judge manual, the screws were black oxide. That seams odd but would like to confirm this on a survivor and/or unrestored car.
Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave, the grill stiffener screws should be manganese-phosphate (black), GM generally didn't use black oxide. I've reviewed several survivor cars (RS and non-RS) including my former 10 10 RS/Z (you can see the stiffener screw in the photo in Post #35) and the original retaining screws are always m-p (black).

[Dave69x33]

Thanks Lloyd!

Did you get the screw thru AMK Products or a different supplier?

Do happen to have the item number for the screws?

[Edgemontvillage]

Thanks Lloyd!

Did you get the screw thru AMK Products or a different supplier?

Do happen to have the item number for the screws?

Dave, I don't recall where I got the screws but the parts suppliers all sell them clear (silver) zinc plated (from what I've seen). If you do your own phosphating the screws will need to be treated in hydrochloric or muriatic acid to dissolve the plating before they can be phosphated.