Firewall color

[Guest windjamer]

I saw an AMC car with the firewall painted the same as the car,pink.:eek: The owner says its original. What outher makes if any had the firewall painted the color of the car???

[DizzyDale]

Hey Dick,Early V-8 Fords.diz

[61-63]

Pontiacs until half way through the '63 model year.

[Guest windjamer]

I started working on them in 67 when I came out of the army. I put 40 years in the same shop and dont remember any that where not black.Maby working on them every day I didnt pay attention to the firewall, I do remember working on a new olds? with red inner fenders.

[ted sweet]

i know all mid 60s and up mopars have body color engine bays.

[Jim Bollman]

All Crosleys.

[real61ss]

Chevrolet switched from body color to low gloss black firewalls during the 1963 model run. The factories started switching to black in mid Janurary of '63 and most plants made the switch by early March. Prior to this the firewalls were body color...

Same is true with the Delco batteries, the fill caps were yellow until mid Janurary '63, about this time the caps were changed to black.

[Guest windjamer]

Thanks folks, guess I just wasnt paying attention. I will look a lot closer at the next AACA meet. I dont doubt your right I just cant picture it in my head. Comes with old age.

[61-63]

Chevrolet switched from body color to low gloss black firewalls during the 1963 model run. The factories started switching to black in mid Janurary of '63 and most plants made the switch by early March. Prior to this the firewalls were body color...

Same is true with the Delco batteries, the fill caps were yellow until mid Janurary '63, about this time the caps were changed to black.

Now that is interesting about the battery caps. Didn't know that. It was probably the same for Pontiacs as both Chevys and Pontiacs were assembled in many plants. The firewalls undoubtedly changed to black also at the same time for both brands.

[Oldsfan]

Actually, I don't think they assembled Chevys and Pontiacs in the same plants, did they? There were many B-O-P plants around the country, but I think Chevrolet kept their own plants. There was one in Janesville and one in Baltimore and probably others.

Oh, my '62 Olds has a painted firewall, too.

Paul

[61-63]

Well I guess that shows what I know about assembly plants. I mostly know early 60s Pontiacs and own or have owned ones assembled In South Gate, Ca., Kansas City, Doraville, Ga., and Pontiac, Mi.. There were others as I have the shop manuals listing them but can't quote them all. Baltimore was one however. I just assumed they assembled Chevys in those plants too but??

I also own a '65 GTO assembled in the Fremont, Ca. plant and I am pretty sure I have seen pictures of that plants line with Malibus as well as GTOs on it in '64. Those were "A" body cars of course where the big cars were "B" bodies.

It was interesting to me to hear that Chevys as well as Pontiacs went to black rather than body color firewalls during the '63 model year. I wonder if Buicks and Oldsmobiles did that also?

[real61ss]

"that is interesting about the battery caps. Didn't know that. It was probably the same for Pontiacs"

Actually Pontiac made the switch to the blackcaps a few months before Chevrolet. In a memo dated July 16, 1962 Chief Designer Bill Mitchell requested that the yellow caps be replaced with black caps. He stated that he felt the yellow caps were distracting from the beauty of the Pontiac motor.

[Guest 70 Electra]

Chevrolet switched from body color to low gloss black firewalls during the 1963 model run. The factories started switching to black in mid Janurary of '63 and most plants made the switch by early March. Prior to this the firewalls were body color...

I know that Canadian-built Chevrolets had body color firewalls in 1965-66, even though the US counterparts had black firewall.

Also, 59-60 Buicks have body-color firewall. By mid-sixites it had changed to black.

[61-63]

Actually, I don't think they assembled Chevys and Pontiacs in the same plants, did they? There were many B-O-P plants around the country, but I think Chevrolet kept their own plants. There was one in Janesville and one in Baltimore and probably others.

Oh, my '62 Olds has a painted firewall, too.

Paul

A little research shows that Chevtolet and Pontiac did share the Baltimore and Kansas City assembly plants in the early 60s, unless there were two plants in each of those cities one assembling Chevys and one Pontiacs. Later in the 60s when the "B" bodies began to be sold in large numbers they shared several more. And then Chevy shared assembly plants with other GM makes too at least according to the limited research I did. There was not a consistent pattern as to which makes were made where and it would be interesting to know why they did that?

[elcamino72]

I think there has been some research by the Chevelle guys that canadian built Chevelles had body color firewalls even though their American built counterparts did not.

[poci1957]

A little research shows that Chevtolet and Pontiac did share the Baltimore and Kansas City assembly plants in the early 60s, unless there were two plants in each of those cities one assembling Chevys and one Pontiacs. Later in the 60s when the "B" bodies began to be sold in large numbers they shared several more. And then Chevy shared assembly plants with other GM makes too at least according to the limited research I did. There was not a consistent pattern as to which makes were made where and it would be interesting to know why they did that?

Actually, what happened was that more parts sharing came in through a reorganization of the production system. From the 1930s through the early 1960s Chevy had their own plant network, and Buick Olds & Pontiac each had their own "home" plants and shared 6 or 7 branch plants. In Pontiac's case the Pontiac MI home plant produced only Pontiacs and 40-45% of Pontiac production, and the other shared plants produced 10% each give or take, mixed in with Buick & Olds who had similar numbers. I think there were 2 Kansas City plants, by the way, but I do not know for sure.

By 1965 the intermediate cars were sharing lots of parts, and the new B body cars were going to as well as GM put all the plants under a new division called GM Assembly Division to handle production. This was also part of the company strategy to avoid the threat of a possible anti-trust breakup by the government by weaving production into a tighter web that would be harder to break up. (This never happened but was feared as GM had over 50% of the market at that time and a spun-off Chevrolet would have by itself had 20-25% and been one of Americas largest companies). Just another interesting bit of history, Todd C

[Guest 70 Electra]

Actually, I don't think they assembled Chevys and Pontiacs in the same plants, did they? There were many B-O-P plants around the country, but I think Chevrolet kept their own plants.

Actually MANY of the B-O-P plants built Chevrolets. B-O-P referred to the 'ownership' of the plant, and did not imply that only Buicks, Pontiacs, and Oldsmobiles were built there.

For example, in 1966, there were 13 plants building full-size Chevrolets, and about a third of them were BOP plants. This is what it took to build 1.5million full-size Chevrolets each year!

In a few several cases, there were 2 plants in the same city building full-size Chevrolets: one BOP plant and the other was Chevrolet:

1. Atlanta had a downtown plant, known as Lakeside, which was a Chevrolet-owned plant. But there was a B-O-P plant in north Atlanta suburb of Doraville, which also built '66 full-size Chevrolets (and some combination of BOP brands as well)

2. Los Angeles had a Chevy-owned plant in VanNuys, but the BOP plant in Southgate also built '66 full-size Chevrolets.

Other BOP plants that built 1966 full-size Chevrolets, included Arlington TX, and Wilmington DE.

In case you're curious, the full list of 13 plants that built 1966 Caprice/Impala/BelAir/Biscayne automobiles is:

1. Framingham MA (Chevy plant)

2. Tarrytown NY (Chevy plant)

3. Wilmington DE (BOP)

4. Atlanta-Lakewood (Chevy plant)

5. Atlanta-Doraville (BOP)

6. Lordstown OH (Chevy plant)

7. Norwood OH (Chevy plant)

8. Flint MI (Chevy plant)

9. Janesville WI (Chevy plant)

10. St Louis (Chevy plant)

11. Arlington TX (BOP)

12. Southgate CA (BOP)

13. Van Nuys CA (Chevy plant)

[dbirchmire]

On the early Mustangs, the firewall was black with undercoating applied. Some decide to not recoat with undercoat and that is a deduction in M.C.A.

[Guest cargray]

This is a very good subject, I had assumed all firewalls were body color.. I checked out my stuff and can verify the following is all body color: 35 Hudson, 41 Chrysler, 46 and 47 Hudson, 52 Hudson and 41 Cadillac. The 52 Hudson and 41 cadillac has black inner fender panels, but the firewall is body color. RD