fire wall color 63 riv

[Guest Robert Ricci]

does anyone if the fire wall of tha a 1963 riviera should be body color or black? I have seen both! Bob

[Jim Cannon]

Bob, this is a very good question... the right answer is "both". Like many other things on the '63 Riv, there were changes part way through the production year. They started out with firewalls being painted body color. My car was built in Nov 1962 and it is body color.

I have seen an original, untouched '63 with only about 17,000 miles on it (had original factory plugs in it and tires on all 4 wheels) with FB 32871 has the firewall painted satin black.

I do not have a definitive date when they changed to black. Your FB number is close enough to the one I have seen black to be pretty confident yours should be black, too.

You really need to try to find some original firewall surface that has been covered since new and is untouched to see what the original color was on your car. Find something that is bolted to the firewall, carefully remove it and look underneath.

[RivNut]

Bob,

As I mentioned in your PM, I'd take a look at some of my pictures from previous ROA events. I found exactly what Jim told you - both. If you're not in a big hurry for the info, I can look at the cars that show up in Harrisburg and make note of the firewall color and the FB numbers. Post your FB number and perhaps some other readers may chime in. As I said, my car is black so I don't know which category it falls under. My FB number is 18733.

I have a picture from a '63 dealer promo that shows a silver firewall on a silver car. The majority of the pictures I have taken show cars with black firewalls.

Ed