70 L78 Nova painting details ?
 

Looking for some help on paint details for a 1970 Nova L-78.
Forest Green, 04A, Willow Run car sold new in Manitoba Canada.


Car had seen a few repaints and repairs over the years so details were sketchy when torn down.


-Should the top of the body cowl (under the removeable cowl vent) be body color or black? (appeared to be mostly black with some obvious repaint green overspray). Sides of cowl area were clearly painted green to front edge of firewall and up to body seam (under the fender, back to the roof pillars).
Pic of 69? Camaro attached from another thread has body color cowl. If body color how far would it extend up to?/into? the base of the windshield ?


-Door latches ? Screws ? (Appeared to be installed and painted with no masking).


-Trunk Latch? Screws? (Appeared to be installed and painted with no masking).


-What was the procedure for installing the windshield base molding ? It does not seem possible to install the end (wrap around pillar) trim clips with the fenders on the car. Did the factory install the fenders after paint ? Am I missing something here ?


Thanks for your help guys !
Gary

Sorry attached wrong picture

Camaro cowl picture

Bump... Anyone ??

My 70 willow run was body color. But it's a black car, so THAT'S
not much help (It is gloss paint though). I'll check the rest. If I recollect right, the body's were painted in the fisher body building (separate from the Chevrolet plant at Willow) and the hood, fenders were painted at Chevrolet (the interior color was shot at fisher, but the glove box/ash tray doors were shot at Chevrolet).

http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml gives the relevant details.

Willow had their own way of doing it, and the info I just stated was from interviews done with former Willow line workers (that were executives at the time of the plant closing (and the interviews) Willow only made Corvairs, Novas (the bulk of them) and trucks.

Did you read that article? It says the same thing, but in a lot more detail. GM plants were arranged with the same process, with minor differences. That article is intended to be broadly applicable.
And JohnZ worked at Willow Run for a number of years.

Wayne Bushey and Schoney have seen SO MANY Novas over the years, I'm sure, collectively, they could tell what they've seen. They have both touched MANY original cars

From most of the info, I am pretty certain that the top of the cowl area should be body color. The car had obvious signs of a backyard firewall /cowl repaint so I'll conclude from that that the areas that did not appear to be originally green were most probably stripped at some point. There were some old pink lacquer primer spots under gloss black re-spray but no bondo or metal damage once stripped off.


Thanks for the help guys
Any input on the windshield base trim ? Looks like it has to be installed after paint but before fenders to enable the end clips to slide up around the base of the windshield posts (screws in door jamb area).


I know I've murdered a few of those end trim clips over the years replacing windshields.
Gary