Topic: Body blackout on 69s

[BillEBobb]

The headlight buckets of my '69 San Jose convertible were, very obviously, brush painted with what appears to be a very thin black paint. Were the pinch welds sometimes done by hand, or were they always sprayed?

An acquaintance of mine says that 1 point was deducted by a national show judge because he hadn't continued painting the pinch weld behind the back tires all the way to the valance.  Was this area normally painted?  My impression was that only the pinch weld between the tires was painted.

Bill

[J_Speegle]

San Jose used both spray and brush for the head light black out. There is a possibility that the brush was used when an inspector found one that got missed in an earlier station.

As for the pinch weld - Fords drawings and instructions were to black out the pinch weld from the front wheel well to the rear valance. IMHO if the car is a restored car and the owner does not have documentation (photos) of that particular car being original built differently then the choice would be to replace it replicating the way that 99.9% were  built and as Ford wanted them to be built.

Have seen a couple of cars (mostly NJ) that had the rear wheelwell to valance without the black out (find them often this way after a touch up of exterior paint)  on original cars but they are few in number.

These observations are based only on what I've seen and what has been shared with me which total somewhere in the  tens of thousands of cars from all years and all plants

Hope this helps

[BillEBobb]

Once again, thank you Jeff for sharing your vast experience! Hopefully next year, you and Laurie will be able to make our show!

Bill

[G Wood]

Can some one explain or show a picture of the headlight blackout refered to above. My car has been painted and I am uncertain of the area being refered to.

I appreicate the help.

Garth

[Sluggo]

Can some one explain or show a picture of the headlight blackout refered to above. My car has been painted and I am uncertain of the area being refered to.

I appreicate the help.

Garth

They are most likely referring to the fact that the inner headlight wells were blacked out on the fender extensions to not allow body color to show under the grille. (first pic)
http://www.stangfix.com/testforum/gallery/1/1_09_06_09_8_52_53_3.JPG
Before inner blackout.
http://www.stangfix.com/testforum/gallery/1/1_06_06_09_8_12_37_0.jpg


Bosses also had the outer headlight bucket blacked out. Easier to see in the second pic prior to blacking out the inside buckets. Jeff or someone else may be able to verify, but I think these were done independent of each other.  The outers being done when the car had the blackout applied to the hood, deck and taillight panel.

[J_Speegle]

Can some one explain or show a picture of the headlight blackout referred to above. My car has been painted and I am uncertain of the area being referred to.

As Sluggo showed its the inner headlight area we are discussing. These area was suppose to be blacked out either by spraying the area black or brushing the area with black paint (IMHO the brush was used at some plants when the other painter missed one ) but I can't be certain if this was a all year or a running change at Dearborn in 69

Examples of this practice have even been found on dark and black cars


The application, of course differed between plants and different workers. A similar process was used in 70 also.

Here are a couple of 69 Dearborn as examples



As you can see the black spray extended to the rear surfaces of the headlight bucket also.  Believe the the paint originally covered the area next to the headlight better but years and the elements likely reduced it allot

[Sluggo]

Mine were definitely sprayed. Very heavy on the front as compared to Jeff's pics and not so much on the back sides.
Obviously I did it different than it was originally. Do not use mine as a "correct" example 



The car was originally Black jade. 

[BillEBobb]

Mine were definitely sprayed. Very heavy on the front as compared to Jeff's pics and not so much on the back sides.
Obviously I did it different than it was originally. Do not use mine as a "correct" example 



The car was originally Black jade.

Sluggo,

Mine were hand brushed (obviously so) and the entire opening was blackened not just the back portion as indicated in Jeff's photo.

[J_Speegle]

Mine were hand brushed (obviously so) and the entire opening was blackened not just the back portion as indicated in Jeff's photo.

When they were brushed (at certain plants and time) only the important fronts were done as you have found