Verne Frantz's 63 Impala Anniversary SURVIVOR

[Bill Pritchard]

[ QUOTE ]
Knowing it was right would be more important to me than a $10. trophy.

[/ QUOTE ]

AMEN

[moparts]

I will be glad to quiz dad on anything you guys want to know.
To say dad is computer illiterate would be the understatement of the decade so I will have to be the translator. That way I can also make some of the stories a little more politically correct. Some of the stories will leave pictures in you head that you just can't erase. But as Tom can tell you we have spent many a hours prying information from his 73 year old mind and we are both still fairly sane.
Here is some background info: Dad worked at Fisher Body in St Louis from 1954 until they closed that line and then he transfered to the truck side until they closed the plant for good in the early 80's. For the last 4 or 5 years GM flew him all over the country trouble shooting paint at different factories.
I want to say this before we get started: if it is about the painting of the cars dad can tell you quite alot, but when the cars left that part of the line thats when the info gets less in a hurry.

[Mr70]

Moparts
Does he remember NOT painting cars,but leaving them in Primer for Dealer delivery?
If so,can he tell us what Bodystyles and cars specifically?
Also,if a Car was designated for a Special Paint color code,not a regular Available code,did he hand write that code on that car somewhere?

[moparts]

[ QUOTE ]
Does he remember NOT painting cars,but leaving them in Primer for Dealer delivery?

[/ QUOTE ] He doesn't remember any of the cars that they built ever leaving that way. BUT they only built the big cars at St. Louis. BUT when he went over to the truck line they did send out trucks in primer only to speciality paint shops. So like everything else there is always a lot of BUTS.

[ QUOTE ]
Also,if a Car was designated for a Special Paint color code,not a regular Available code,did he hand write that code on that car somewhere?


[/ QUOTE ] When cars came out of primer there was a guy that his job was to look at the build sheets and mark the trim and paint number on the cowl. The build sheet didn't go through the paint shop, the only way the color and trim was know was by what was marked on the trim tag. The build sheets met back up with the car after out of the paint department. A special paint color that wasn't of the norm would not come out of the 3 or 4 hundred gallon containers that the standard colors were out of. The special colors were mixed and sprayed out of a pot that followed the car down the line. This made sure that special colors would be consistant over the entire car.

[ QUOTE ]
I'd love to know if he might know the meaning of the very faint "17" stamped from the front in the cowl tag just under the paint code

[/ QUOTE ] He said that is a possibility, or could have been a notation to tell what number hose the special paint was in. ( now I did say eariler that special paint was done out of a pot, but (theres that but again) if they were planning to do alot of these cars they would have had a bigger batch of the paint.)

So there is the info I found for the first round. Hope this helps. By the way dad said he would love to see this car in person.

[SS427]

Thanks for the neat infomation. This is the part of the hobby that makes it interesting.

[Verne_Frantz]

Mo,
You don't know how much I'd love to give your Dad that opportunity. It would be more of a priviledge (and education) for me though to have him look it over and relate many details from his production experience. If I was only as lucky as Tom to be so close. I will be in K.C. Sept. 15-18, but sadly, not with the car.

As to that mysterious "17" stamped on the tag, I have many examples of tags with (what I call) misc. numbers stamped on them from the front. I call them "misc" because they don't appear in an area designated for something normal, and they don't mean anything "normal". They're off on one corner or another, and sometimes sideways or at an angle. They range from 1 to as high as about 22 or so. I've been trying to make some correlations but still have not felt that I really know what they represent. At first, I thought they might signify the body jig (or "buck") that was used to hold together the particular pieces of a certain body style for welding. I figured that would be useful info if it was suddenly discovered windshields or trunk lids didn't fit right any more. They could go back to that jig and make the appropriate tweak.

Gee, I wonder if his "shift mark" is on my cowl???? If he put one there, there's no reason why it wouldn't still be there. (and by the way....the car had a great paint job!!)

I'll put together a short list of queries and forward them to you soon. This is the sort of thing that just doesn't happen that often, and I'm pretty tickled over it.

Verne

[moparts]

You guys don't know how happy you made dad. Since he has been having some health problems he hasn't been able to get out and do all the things he normally does. So this is something to keep his mind busy with.

He asked if the 17 looked like it was stamped before or after it was painted? And can you tell if the tag has primer under it or was it installed before primer? When the number was stamped would give an idea what it might be for.

[Mr70]

Thank Your Dad for the answers Mo.
He could probably answer a few more here,and over at ChevyTalk.com too.

[Verne_Frantz]

Mo,

I'M the one who's happy!!!

If only there was a way I could get the car there for him to see in person.

Show him the photo of the tag at the beginning of this thread (Belair posted it later, because of some problem with the pic) and it seems pretty clear that the 17 was stamped before paint. (from the outside). I may be able to pry it up a tiny bit and look under it, but I think if it was unprimered metal under there, I'd be seeing some rust creeping out from the edges. Also, on all the others I've ever seen, there was primer under the tag. About 15 years ago, we spoke to a gentleman who had worked at the Arlington, TX plant who said the installation of the cowl tag was the last thing done to the body before paint.

.....................by the way, Mo, I lost my Dad when he was 73
Tell him I said, "Take Good Care"

Verne.

[moparts]

Thats probally right on the primer under the tag. Dad was trying to remember for sure when they did install the tags. I guess the way he talked that the time of tag installation changed over the years a little.

Best we can tell by looking at the pic. is the 1 and the 7 are two different numbers (not on one stamp)? The only reason I bring that up is if it was a common thing to stamp, they would have a 17 stamp made up. Not that it means anything I was just thinking out loud.