Black paint @ Door Rocker

[Tonka Man]

Is it typical of all First Gen Monte's to have the rocker and the rear part of the front fender painted black under the trip pieces?  See below from my 71.  It looks like maybe a matt black or something.  Is this true on every Monte no matter the color (with the exception of black)?

[jft69z]

Yes, it should be black there.

[Canuck]

Yes, the rockers should be black.

[Glen]

Funny this topic came up as I was just looking at the 5 page sales ad/description of my ‘70 as penned by the dude who owned it before the guy I bought her from.

He specifically referenced the car NOT having black sills/rockers as related/verified by his body/paint guy, although acknowledging that most cars DID. Here’s the except from his description:

Note: Some Monte Carlos came with "blacked out" rocker panels and you'll notice that my rockers are not blacked out. According to the body man and painter that worked on the car, this Monte did not originally have the blacked out rockers and the car is correctly painted without the black.

The ‘71 DOES have the black paint. 

[Dtret]

That’s what happens when you buy clones. 

[overdrive]

I don't believe Chevrolet factory painters had the option of not following the protocol. They had to paint the rocker panels and the lower fenders behind the tire in order to match the paint color pattern that's on the aluminum trim at the front and rear of the car. Not matching the trim colors stands out. The cars went through inspections before leaving the plant. An inspector would hold the car back to be corrected, if the car reached that point and it wasn't painted according to the specs. A car that doesn't have the rockers painted to specs is easily spotted. 

I think a later body man didn't want to go through the trouble of painting the rocker panels black, or he was simply wrong in his assessment of what was done at the factory. 

The silver front bumper filler panel is another part that was factory painted one color. The reason they were all silver was to blend into the bumper and grille, and not stand out. Engineers designed the cars and paint schemes to be eye appealing.

Dan

[Scott S.]

If memory serves, the black on the rocker panel was a rust resistant paint that was sprayed on all G.M. undercarriages. 

If the car was repainted, ie. dealer alterations, etc. they may have sprayed over in body colour.  

Or so I'd heard.....

 

[alain boileau]

🙂Rockers should be satin black on all 70 to 72 Monte Carlo

Restored two original cars that were never touched rockers were satin black finish

Alain🙂

[Tonka Man]

Sounds good.  That is what I'll do when I repaint!

[Dtret]

13 minutes ago, Tonka Man said:

Sounds good.  That is what I'll do when I repaint!

Word of advice. Take very good pictures of where the black meets the paint so you get everything to line up on the seams the don’t have chrome. Ok, a sentence of advice. 

[jft69z]

38 minutes ago, Tonka Man said:

Sounds good.  That is what I'll do when I repaint!

The black paint line on the body tends line up right in the center of the blacked out part of the aluminum trim pieces. It also does not get painted in the very front part of the fender (before front tire), and the very rear part of quarter panel (behind rear tire).

[Glen]

12 hours ago, overdrive said:

A car that doesn't have the rockers painted to specs is easily spotted.

I’ll agree with this statement.  

That said, a black car or darker color vehicle (as in my Shadow Gray) would be more likely to get past a less-than-vigilant inspector.  Perhaps something along the lines of the infamous “Monday Job” or “Friday Job”.  Then again, why would a painter just arbitrarily NOT spray any given cars rockers?  Perhaps a malfunctioning gun?  Had a sneezing fit as my car passed by?

At the end of the day I guess anything was possible, especially when considering “quality control” of 50+ years ago vs. the same today. A perfect example on my specific car is having a build sheet from a car 3 VIN numbers different recovered from the passenger seat back.  Black buckets in both cars but was this seat grabbed off the pallet or conveyor belt in the wrong order by the assemblyman?  Build sheets not stuffed into the corresponding seat?  Who knows exactly. 

Either way, it ain’t the end of the world… unless you’re looking for a concourse presentation. 

[Jared Richey]

Kevin Wiles says his car didn't have them painted black but his car is the Burgundy (Black Cherry code 78)

The funny thing is the front end was installed at the end of the line so I bet the fenders were if the body was not. 

[Glen]

5 minutes ago, Jared Richey said:

Kevin Wiles says his car didn't have them painted black but his car is the Burgundy (Black Cherry code 78)

The funny thing is the front end was installed at the end of the line so I bet the fenders were if the body was not. 

So this kinda lends credence to the darker colors being easier to overlook if in fact the rockers were NOT hit with black paint when they were supposed to be.  Let’s delve a bit deeper… my ‘70 was Van Nuys built.  Perhaps we’ll be able to narrow down this anomaly to a specific plant. 

[Jared Richey]

His was Flint.

[Glen]

1 minute ago, Jared Richey said:

His was Flint.

Well, there goes that theory😂.  

Maybe hiring slackers was universal with GM, and not specific to any one plant.

Kinda like where I work.  There’s bums, bustouts, miscreants, do-nothings, lollygaggers and dog a*^es at every location and level.  Present company excluded, of course 😂

[Canuck]

I have also heard that some darker colour Montes didn’t get the black rocker treatment but was not very common.

Make sure you paint the black high enough in front and behind the door so that it covers the gap between the upper and lower trim pieces. It should be black in that thin gap.

[stangeba]

My 71 black Monte Carlo was built in Canada in May, does have the lower gloss black paint on the lower part of the vehicle.

[Marks71]

11 hours ago, Glen said:

So this kinda lends credence to the darker colors being easier to overlook if in fact the rockers were NOT hit with black paint when they were supposed to be.  Let’s delve a bit deeper… my ‘70 was Van Nuys built.  Perhaps we’ll be able to narrow down this anomaly to a specific plant. 

 

11 hours ago, Glen said:

Well, there goes that theory😂.  

Maybe hiring slackers was universal with GM, and not specific to any one plant.

Kinda like where I work.  There’s bums, bustouts, miscreants, do-nothings, lollygaggers and dog a*^es at every location and level.  Present company excluded, of course 😂

I grew up not far from the Van Nuys plant and many of my friends including my brother worked there. It was located on Van Nuys Blvd., a famous cruising spot in So Cal. Right across the street was a bar called Chevy Ho which many plant employees would frequent during their lunch break. Just a thought.

[Scott S.]

17 hours ago, Glen said:

I’ll agree with this statement.  

That said, a black car or darker color vehicle (as in my Shadow Gray) would be more likely to get past a less-than-vigilant inspector.  Perhaps something along the lines of the infamous “Monday Job” or “Friday Job”.  Then again, why would a painter just arbitrarily NOT spray any given cars rockers?  Perhaps a malfunctioning gun?  Had a sneezing fit as my car passed by?

At the end of the day I guess anything was possible, especially when considering “quality control” of 50+ years ago vs. the same today. A perfect example on my specific car is having a build sheet from a car 3 VIN numbers different recovered from the passenger seat back.  Black buckets in both cars but was this seat grabbed off the pallet or conveyor belt in the wrong order by the assemblyman?  Build sheets not stuffed into the corresponding seat?  Who knows exactly. 

Either way, it ain’t the end of the world… unless you’re looking for a concourse presentation. 

Maybe the original seat had a stain on it and they tossed it in favour of a clean one....

[overdrive]

It's good to know that Bruce's black car got the satin black rocker paint at the factory. They don't get darker than that. I doubt that the quality control inspectors let light colored cars get by without the rockers and fenders painted per the rules, but, who knows for certain? Only someone that has an unrestored Monte with body color rockers. There might be someone in this club that has that car today. I do know that none of the Montes I've ever had, nor the many others that I've seen with original paint were in that group. 

As for the build sheets in the seats, the trim department that was building the seats and putting them in cars weren't required to pay any attention to what sheet ended up in any seat. The sheets were supposed to be thrown away. Many seats, front and rear, were built and never had a build sheet in them. We don't know of any Flint built cars that have been found with a build sheet anywhere in the car. Some workers found it easier to get rid of the sheets by just putting them in the seat after getting the seat type, material type, and the color from the build sheet. Many, including myself, have found multiple sheets for other cars in seats. It's my belief that the workers were building the seats hours, if not days, ahead of the body arriving at the seat installation station of the assembly line, and the seats were set aside, awaiting a body. When the interior in a body was being assembled, the workers at that station had another build sheet for each car. All they needed to do was grab any set of the proper seats that were ready to go and put them in, regardless of what build sheet may or may not have been included by the workers that assembled the seats. 

I know of a guy that found 15 or 20 build sheets in a pile in a car that he stripped and parted out. All of the VINS were different. One of them may have matched the car. 

The '71 Monte from the Leed's plant in Kansas City that my son and I restored for his high school car had two sheets under the back seat. One matching the car, and one for the car built before his. This is not unusual.

I bought my '70 SS454 from Van Nuys in Kansas to restore after seeing it advertised on this website in 2008. It was in original condition. The owner posted that she had searched for a build sheet, but when she pulled the back seat, none was found. She then pulled the backrest covers off the bucket seats and found a sheet for a car that was built about 70 cars ahead of it at Van Nuys. Both cars had the same color vinyl interior. Someone replied to her incorrectly that that was proof that the SS didn't come from the factory with bucket seats. I went to look at the car and quickly and easily found that the interior had never been modified. When I eventually removed the rear seat bottom cover to replace the cover, I found the numbers matching build sheet inside the seat, under the 1" foam rubber pad. It and the cowl tag show that the car never had a bench seat.

There was no effort or reason to try to install a set of seats with a specific build sheet in them in a certain car. The workers did their job correctly. 

Dan

 

 

[jft69z]

I found this picture while moving some files around. It was originally there to help a member figure out where the holes for the trim clips should be located.

It does show where to mask off for painting the rocker black though (the green 3M tape). Notice it's right at the centerline of the trim clip holes, which would put it at the center of the black line on the actual rim pieces as mentioned earlier, and where it extends into the front and rear door jamb. Everything below the tape would be black. 

 

[Tonka Man]

Thanks for all the help everyone.  You are a wealth of knowledge and skill.  I can't believe I have owned one of these cars for 37 years and I never knew about that black beltline.  Of course, I repainted mine in high school and I did a custom job without the trim installed or the side marker lights.

I'm glad I have more of these cars now to tinker on and restore.  I will treat each one differently and I will make sure they get the right treatment!

[overdrive]

My car still had the original paint on it when I bought it. I copied how the satin black had been done originally when I painted it in 2017. It's worth the time it takes to do it. 

Dan