OK is anyone out there making a guide to paint markings to restore a GS ? I see all the nice restos that JW and others are doing . The parts I got off my car have not yeilded a mark so far . I was hopeing that Duane or someone has this info and its available to a novice like myself . I know he has the date code book and there are other guides out there but I would love to get my Stage1 Suncoupe to this level of resto .
I think JW has a sticky showing Jim's chassis with the paint markings . I know its here somewhere because I have drooled all on my keyboard looking and hoping mine will soon look near that .
Here is a word of advice, Do not under any circumstance "ass-ume" that cars, from different years, or cars that came from different assembly plants, have the same paint dabs/markings because you would be wrong. Some of the markings you will see are not plant specific while others are, so you need to be careful before getting out your paint brushes. Also, here is another free piece of advice, there are examples out there that have not followed the above rules, so unless you see and document a particular dab/marking from an original car, that was built at your plant, during your year, then I would not use it. It is better to not have anything, then have the wrong markings, as not all cars came with all the markings. Duane
OK Thanks , I did not realize that . I will be more careful giving advice . I guess I will have to look at my car much closer . Since all my undercarriage was painted black what will be the easiest way to remove the black and find the markings ? Help please .
Mike, In the past I have used mineral spirits to clean up parts and found paint dabs. The mineral spirits will take off the grease and loose paint, but often will leave the thicker paint dabs. You can also find some of this info in the assembly manuals. They sometimes list the markings, and colors used. There is an ancient thread about all this somewhere on this bb, where guys were discussing what they found on their cars. Duane
Thanks Duane , I am doing a 72 and since I figured that a 70 might be different I am not using the GSX as a guide . Has anyone ever used Inline Tubes sticker and tag pack ? They say its for a 72 GS models . I know there are usually markings on the springs, sway bar , drive shaft , ect I just wondered how people come up with a mark when the mark is not visible on a part . ALso colors odf parts . I am having my frame powder coated in semi flat and the rear housing, control arms, sway bars , and a frames done is gloss. I also am planning to paint some yellow paint on my bodu bushings as I could see this upon dissassembly John
I have heard (but do not have first-hand experience) that those sticker packs are "one size fits all" and not well-researched. I wouldn't buy or install something like that without researching every single code to make sure it's correct for my car.
John, I have been making the sticker sets for 68-72 Skylark/GS/GSX for years. You can see examples of them on all the cars Dave Kleiner has restored. The stickers vary depending on the body style/options/plant/year your car is, so once I know the options, I put together the correct set for your car. On the 1970 "F41" equipped cars, I also need to know when the car was built so I can include the correct shock decals. My sets include stickers for the shocks, springs, swaybars, frame, and power booster/master cylinder. Duane
Just to clarify: I didn't mean to imply that Duane's sticker sets were incorrect. I didn't even know he was making them. :TU: I was talking about that other company.
Brian posts, "I didn't mean to imply that Duane's sticker sets were incorrect." I never thought that for a minute, just wanted to let people know I have them available. You will find them on most of the "Concours" restos, including I believe Jim Lore's GSX. John, To further answer your question "I just wondered how people come up with a mark when the mark is not visible on a part", well the assembly manuals have a lot of the info, and will often list the colors/size of the letters, etc that were used by the assembly workers to "ID" the parts. You also need to make sure you use the right year manual. Case in point, if you used the wrong year manual you would never know that they used stickers to ID the spindles in 72. Sometimes the manuals only state "documentation required". When you see this, it means the inspectors would put some type of paint dab/slash of paint on the part to designate it was completed correctly. They often did this to show that front end parts were torqued/tightened correctly. This is where people get into trouble with paint marks, because not all the inspectors did things the same way. So you get differences between plants/ years etc. Duane
John, the body mount cushions only had the yellow paint on them. The 4 mounts under the firewall on a GS only had violet color coded mounts and still used the yellow cushions. My original mounts had just a trace of violet left on them.
Duane, I found the paint markings on Jim Lore's car interesting because they appeared to be made with a 1" wide brush. Most marks I've seen on other cars were done with paint pens. Is it common for the Buick marks to be so big?
the marks on lores cars are what i found on his orignial parts after carefull cleaning. as duane said, different plants and different workers marked things differently. they were just building cars, so some have marks some dont,depends on what kind of mood the worker was in that day. there just is no absolutes in this. take time cleaning your original parts and see what you find. i keep finding new marks all the time,found a couple new ones the other day as a matter of fact. i wash every oe part and check it for marks before i restore it,or throw it away. good luck!! i find alot of fun in these kind of things.
Thanks Duane . Another wonderful part about this board . The people in the know are willing to help those not in the know about the little things that really make a great restoration
Ric Do you suppose we are going to post some pics of the original marks before we are going to persuade this jury?
John, Inline tube no longer has the master to make the 72 GS stickers. I tried to order them. Joe Sheperd has them on his 72 GSX clone. They look OK when new but were just printed with an inkjet on Avery label material. Also kind of generic. They were better than nothing, but I'm sure Duane's are top quality. Steve
Once again very informative . I will get Duanes set . My car is a non f41 72 stage 1 form flint . The spriongs on ther front and rear had no marks that I could make out . I actually have my mounts form the SDncoupe so I hope to try to match the violet color . HWat about the front core support , a re they blue by chance . I have a couple of NOS blue ones .
John I cannot vouch for 72 100% but I believe the blue ones are later model mounts just superceded for earlier use. Originals used in the GS and skylark were coded black so I guess no paint. The same black mounts with same part number were used at the core support and in the 4 rear areas under the trunk. These black mounts were also used under the firewall except on GS-455 apps. which used the violet under the firewall. The mount under the doors was also coded black however it had a unique part number and was wider I believe. #1383301 BLACK (most areas with bolt except under firewall on GS 455) #1385569 VIOLET (under firewall on GS455) #1383298 BLACK (under doors) #1377367 (insulator)YELLOW all areas with bolt These numbers are correct for 70-71 according to the assembly manuals. I believe 72 probably the same.
