Topic: 1967 mustang 390GT fastback Metuchen car - Fender finish question

[chrislanebrown]

Hello Everyone,

I had a question about a 67 fastback GT S code I am restoring. It was a Metuchen car so aside from the floors being oxide red what color should the underside of the front fenders be after paint? I heard that Metuchen cars had fenders delivered with oxide primer on the underside of them. Did they paint them black or the color of the car or leave them in oxide primer?

Thanks for the feedback,

Chris

[J_Speegle]

First welcome to the site. Hope you find the support and information helpful in your restoration projects.

I haven't assembled and posted an article on 67 NJ cars but much of the process is very similar to the 67 San Jose one posted so I invite you to read that in the Library and ask questions from there so we can discuss differences between the two plant's practices. As to the finish of the fenders. From our understanding they arrived at the car assembly plant from the stamping plant in a red oxide primer sealer to protect them from surface rusting and to provide a base for the coats that would follow

Then they were painted with a light gray primer surfacer if there was no damage from the trip that needed to be corrected. Panels needing too much work were often routed into the service replacement side and shipped out to dealerships who would sell them to local body shops according to workers

The fenders and other front sheet metal panels were painted off the car as shown in the pictures posted in the assembly line picture section of this site

During the paint process the edges, wheel opening lip, rear edge and headlight and front valance mating surfaces were painted with body color. This could produce a little or allot of overspray traveling onto the rear (backside) surfaces or directly onto protruding features on those areas. So you can find areas of decent coverage and a dusting to fairly nice coverage of most of the back surfaces except for the shadow areas depending on how much time and effort that painter took at the moment

[chrislanebrown]

Thanks for your insight. I painted them oxide red and they will get some overspray as you mentioned.

Chris