Factory Grabber paint question.....

I've started removing the side trim from my car and - shock - it was PRIMER underneath as well, they must have mounted it with plastic wrap left on, shot the car, then peeled off the covering afterwards.

Both my Comets have primer poking out in all kinds of places. At least as I rebuild I'm applying more paint and primer to the hidden areas than the factory did.

I bought blue sport mirrors from a Mav. and spray painted them with a rattle can before mounting on my Comet. Unscrew the base from behind the mirror to separate them and DON'T REMOVE THE WIRE CABLE with the gasket - wrap and tape it in a plastic bag while you're painting it. I also shot the screw heads and made the inside of the mirror housing look nice although from the factory there was barely any paint inside. Don't crank the screws too tight - pot metal. Crack. SOB.

 

Unless you know that the car is original paint (like mine was) I don't think anyone can assume that they were painted body color under the spoiler just because theirs was, these car are over 30 years old, and in most cases would have been repainted at one time, and just because it's painted now, doesn't mean that's the way it came from the factory.?.?.
As for what was done at St.Thomas (my green car was Kansas) I have seen pictures of Mavericks on the assembly line being painted with the spoilers on the cars (installed after e-coat), fenders and hoods were painted separately, grabber hoods had the insert color done on a carousel (i talked to a guy that did the decals, and the paint)

 

Good points, Dave. I'm thinking my trunk lid is original paint, because the car it came off of looked original, down to the faded stripes. Another one of those crazy differences in the way different Ford plants assembly lines worked..

 

Of the 3 spoilers that I can recall pulling...

1 70 Green
1 71 Blue
1 73 Beige

The first 2 were original paint under the spoiler.
The 73 was primer now that I remember pulling it off. Forgot about that one.

 

Lets not forget the fact that paint and panels got damaged at the factory from time to time,hence the need for salvage/repair.If a trunk lid had holes that were off center(Yes a jig was used to drill them) then perhaps another of the same color was pulled from another one on the line(allready fully painted)for whatever reason and then drilled and the spoiler installed you would now have one with paint "under the spoiler"
As for paint with primer under the trim.Same thing Paint/panel damage upon assembly resulting in repair on the line then assembly... then final paint for the repaired panels.Or some new guy at the plant jumped the gun with the trim install
Assembly plants had a seperate area for fixing damaged paint"after assembly"But hey stranger things have happened.Let the chalk mark crowd worry about that stuff.When our cars are commanding 60 grand at Barrett Jackson then we can split hairs.