The 1960 - 1966 Chevrolet & GMC Pickups Factory Correct Restoration Thread

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Originally Posted by LT1 Burb

Re: The 1960 - 1966 Chevrolet & GMC Pickups Message Board
Is there any way to get a restoration or thread going so that people can post pics and use it for a reference for doing factory correct resto's. It would be nice to see up close pics of what color the scews are for the interior door panels for instance. Somewhere where a question can be asked an a pic posted. There really isn't one specific thread where my 400 questions can be answered, and I am sure other guys are in the same boat, thanks.

Here it is! I'll start it!

[pdxhall]

Thanks 1Bad. Subscribed.

[Bears63]

Excellent idea for a thread, 1Bad. I can even contribute a little to something I have personally seen asked. I have heard someone ask in the past about painting of the chassis and such. My '63 C20 Longbed Stepside was a valuable find in that it sat in a barn for many, many years, and as such retained some interesting tidbits. It still had a LOT of the original undercoating inside the rear fenders and in spots on the frame. The stuff is coming loose, so I peeled a couple spots back and took some pictures. Here is the frame primer:



This second picture is from the bedside. The wheel wells were heavily undercoated and beneath that was black primer. Notice the blue tint? That is overspray from when the truck was painted, so this definitely tells us the truck was undercoated after getting painted. It also gives an idea of how much overspray, which actually is important in concours restorations.


I hope this info is of value to someone, I sure found it interesting.

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

No Problem.
And there is alot of guys on here have alot of usefull info, pictures and schematics that can help out. Pretty sure theres some threads out there so if ya find one you can post the links to them. Also someone metioned the FAQ side. The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network > Info Center > FAQ > FAQ Truck Tech
60-66
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/f...play.php?f=219

1960-1966 Chevy/GMC Pickup Truck Specs & Engine/Trans/Axle ID's
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=327764

1960-66 Chevy/GMC Truck Frame Diagram
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=325736

[theastronaut]

Here's are some details I've run across when restoring a '65 C10 Long/Fleet with a 292 and 3 speed. Some of these may not be applicable for all 60-66 trucks; just noting what I found during the restoration of the '65.

The bellhousing had an overspray pattern on it and you can see the Alpine Green color that is correct for a 292. It seems that the engines and bellhousings were painted assembled and no form of masking was used.



Replicated during restoration:



The interior heater diverter box had a textured paint from the factory. Rustoleum makes a paint the duplicates it well. The deluxe knob on the heater is incorrect, I added it to match the dash knobs.





On the heater assembly, the factory sealed the seams with a flexible, non hardening seam sealer. I used white strip caulk from Ace Hardware to replicate it when reassembling the heater unit.



Aluminum bodied carburetors can be recolored using PPG DX503 Auminum Conditioner.



Wooden bed floors, bolt heads, and the wear strips were painted black from the factory. The grain of the wood was visible through the paint, but should have slightly more gloss than the '65 I restored. The plated bolts in the pic are incorrect.





If you have to replace any sheetmetal that was spot welded it, you can grind your welds down flat and use a 1/2" round carbide burr to dimple the sheetmetal to replicate the factory spot welds.



The interior did not have gloss paint. I used Spies Hecker basecoat without spraying clear over it. The color is Nissan "Sunlit Sand", code "EVO", matched to an unfaded spot on the back of the steering wheel. We did have it tinted slightly browner to match better. I asked a few guys and ended up thinning the basecoat 50%, then added 15% hardener to that volume of paint. It came out just right- slight sheen and wet enough so the metallic laid out just right.





The door panel screws should be zinc/nickel/cadium? plated instead of painted.






Here's a couple details from my '66 C10.


Chalk markings on the front of the bed header panel.



Original paint color from the 250 inline six engine. A good code to mix this from is from a Mack truck, code 14704, "jet turquoise". We left part of the white and black out when mixing the paint, then added them back in until we got it close. We may have ended up adding more black than the code called for. I may still tint it a little darker to match better, but that code will give you a good starting point. Different lighting conditions throw the color off between these two pics, and it has much more of a green tint in person.






Hope these help! I'm glad a thread like this was started as I'm really into seeing anything restored back to 100% factory specs!

[kieth]

Instead of having to mix your own paint I have found that Autocolor Library has the original Ditzler paint codes for all the 64, 65, 66 trucks. PPG bought Ditzler out and in their OMNI series of regular enamal paint they have the formulas for the original colors. On the Interior paints it is mixed with a lot of reducer in it to flatten the color, i.e if you would normally add reducer 1:1 for Medium Fawn Metalic a exterior color, the interior color medium fawn metalic has so much reducer in it that you only add 1/8th or 1/16th the reducer when you get ready to shoot it .
All of the exterior colors are available in OMNI single stage and also in Base Coat Clear Coat.

www.autocolorlibrary.com Kieth

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by kieth

Instead of having to mix your own paint I have found that Autocolor Library has the original Ditzler paint codes for all the 64, 65, 66 trucks. PPG bought Ditzler out and in their OMNI series of regular enamal paint they have the formulas for the original colors. On the Interior paints it is mixed with a lot of reducer in it to flatten the color, i.e if you would normally add reducer 1:1 for Medium Fawn Metalic a exterior color, the interior color medium fawn metalic has so much reducer in it that you only add 1/8th or 1/16th the reducer when you get ready to shoot it .
All of the exterior colors are available in OMNI single stage and also in Base Coat Clear Coat.

www.autocolorlibrary.com Kieth

I've known about Autocolor Library for awhile, but they didn't have the engine colors. We have a local paint shop that is great at matching colors in almost any paint line without having a code to go by as long as you have a sample. I couldn't imagine spraying over-reduced Omni; that stuff is already weak to begin with. If you ever have the chance to watch them mix Omni, notice the ratio of pigment/toners to clear binders they use, its doesn't have anywhere near the pigments in it that higher quality paint does- thus it takes more coats to cover than a better paint. I used Spies Hecker basecoat so that the metalic would be more visible and could adjust the amount of hardener/reducer to achieve the sheen I was going for. Metalic single stage urethane or enamel doesn't have the same look as the original lacquer paint did back when these trucks were new. I've tried single stage metalic urethane with flattener added and the flattener really screwed with the metallic; made it cloudy looking. I hadn't been painting long when I restored the '65 and using basecoat without the clear was best way I knew how to replicate the original lacquer look. I would like to try slighly overthinned urethane clear with flattener added to see how that looks over fawn basecoat.

[kieth]

Well I do not know about problems with OMNI, my dash looks great, the metalic does show but it is not as shiny as the base coat clear coat we used on the grill shell.....and we used OMNI base coat clear coat on the outside of my gmc......it looks pretty good. So just trying to help others out. Kieth

[theastronaut]

I'm not saying Omni is a bad paint; just that in certain applications there are better paints. I've used plenty of single stage solid color Omni on wheels and small parts that has sprayed out and held up just fine. As little toners/pigments Omni has, spraying it over-reduced to flatten the gloss would take alot of coats to get good color coverage. The Spies Hecker and PPG DBC base coats I've used cover pretty well with the first coat, and the second coat covers completly.

[Revoh]

I don't know that I can add too much.

This is the original bed in my '63. The floor used to all be black, but obviously, the black has all faded away.


The headlight bezels on a '63 with a painted grill should have a black ring around the inside. No one ever seems to put that back, though. There's black paint behind the grill, too.


I don't know what you can get off of this, but it's pretty original in here. Someone added an aftermarket windshield washer bottle along the way. There are actually some faint chalk marks on the firewall, but you can't see them in this picture.


These are the original wheels with the original paint on my '63. They used these hubcaps from '61-'63. Usually, they were painted white like the grill. They don't make them aftermarket, so guys'll often put the '64-up type caps on the older models.


I guess that's not all that helpful, but those are a couple of the bigger things that don't seem to get put back on a lot of the restored trucks. I like theastronaut's thing about the interior color, too. Seems like interior panels and headliners are often painted body color on restored trucks, but I do usually think the stock fawn beige look goes a long way in making it look correct.

[oem4me]

Originally Posted by Revoh

The headlight bezels on a '63 with a painted grill should have a black ring around the inside. No one ever seems to put that back, though.

You are absolutely right on that detail being missed nearly every time. I grabbed a factory promo shot from another thread that clearly shows the black trimmed headlight bezel on a painted grill. Interestingly, it is hard to tell if the aluminum grilled trucks had that detail. Hmm, maybe not. ?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Revoh

There's black paint behind the grill, too.

I love that truck! Here's some shots of a repainted grill shell and fenders with the correct pattern. I've been told that the black shouldn't be gloss though.

[clemdaddy]

i'm liking the way we're headed here... subscribed.

[Revoh]

Originally Posted by oem4me

Interestingly, it is hard to tell if the aluminum grilled trucks had that detail. Hmm, maybe not. ?

No, I'm pretty sure they didn't do that on the aluminum grill.

[padresag]

Originally Posted by kieth

Instead of having to mix your own paint I have found that Autocolor Library has the original Ditzler paint codes for all the 64, 65, 66 trucks. PPG bought Ditzler out and in their OMNI series of regular enamal paint they have the formulas for the original colors. On the Interior paints it is mixed with a lot of reducer in it to flatten the color, i.e if you would normally add reducer 1:1 for Medium Fawn Metalic a exterior color, the interior color medium fawn metalic has so much reducer in it that you only add 1/8th or 1/16th the reducer when you get ready to shoot it .
All of the exterior colors are available in OMNI single stage and also in Base Coat Clear Coat.

www.autocolorlibrary.com Kieth

dashes shouldn't be to shiny as to cut down on glare from oncoming lights and the sun. it shines up into the windsheild
ron

[theastronaut]

Correct pattern for 1966 Deluxe seat covers, this is an original cover.



Correct pattern for 1965-1966 Deluxe seat covers (the tan vinyl is not the correct color, should be silvery-gold, but the cloth is correct).




Not the best pic but here's how the factory masked off the white stripe on the cab corners for models with side trim.




The radiator shrouds had metal staples to hold the seals in place.





Seat tracks should be silver zinc/cadium plated, seat frame is low gloss black (not flat), the hinge bolt is a silver plated finish, back rest adjustment screw should be silver plated. Not sure what the seat track to floor bolts were so I painted them a contrasting black. Silver colored plating was probably correct on those.



Underside of the hood was painted black from the factory. I used low gloss but I don't think they had that much sheen originally. Satin would be more correct.






Fleetside models had filler panels under the bumpers. Not sure of the correct finish of the bolts so I used polished stainless. These may have been painted body color?







Original grease pencil marking on the steering column plate, interior side.

[yelmer]

on 1966 only the door panels are med fawn met. with a flatten agent also the dash on 1966 is dark fawn met with a flatten agent and a ruffing agent they are laq. the dash on 66 must turn darker over the years

[aerotruk63]

This is the seat correct material from 1963. I believe 62 was the same but I have no documented proof. The Vinyl is called Hair Cell, it is a series of small dots like a shaved head. The seat frame and foam is original to the truck. I was lucky enough to find the end of a roll of the original fabric to have the seat redone. Not a great shot but to give you an idea of what it should look like from the factory

[aerotruk63]

Only the painted grilles came with the black inset on the headlight bezels in 1963. Silver anodized aluminum grills did not.
You can see the Cameo White and Black inset behind the grille in the factory photos.

There was no hood ornament in 1963 and the grille guard was not available in chrome only painted.

[aerotruk63]

The Deluxe dash came with the glovebox painted flat black and white as an option. The Chevrolet crest did not continue into 1963. I would say the dash is 1960-61?
Seems you could order a Tach and Vacuum in a C10 according to the Salesmans Data Book in 1963
Notice the interior door handle pointed down in the picture, seen this in a few factory shots.

[aerotruk63]

R.P.O. Regular Production Options

[63sbssbbw]

Definitely a '60-'61 dash Aero
The giveaways: cable operated kick panel vents (not pictured are the diagonally slatted vent covers)
And the smaller face radio...unless mines been changed...(The knobs are the same distance apart,just the rectangle face is smaller)(this smaller style was also used on GMC models for '63).
And as you mentioned,the glovebox crest
T

[aerotruk63]

63sbssbbw could we see a picture of your radio? Please!

[aerotruk63]

1963 Paint

[aerotruk63]

HUBCAPS

1960-61 Full wheel disk optional
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=402541






1960 Hubcap Chrome or Painted



1961-1963 Painted or Chromed