Original Color of Inner Wheel Wells and Core Support?

I have a 79 C/10 and I am doing a complete restoration, not a "restomod". My question is this--from the factory, was the core support and inner front fender wells flat black or gloss black???????

I think they were actually a satin black, light sheen.

Yeah and there are so many variances of satin/semi/low gloss that you will want to spray some test panels before picking a product and/or mix ratio.

Black; not gloss.

There were some very few trucks out of Janesville that were gray, but hardly worth mentioning.

K

EASTWOOD CO. sell chassis black which is the color you need.

UUIman said:

EASTWOOD CO. sell chassis black which is the color you need.

Click to expand...

Have you personally tested that to the original black finish for this application?

GM Chassis black, kind of expensive at over $130 gallon considering its ready to spray non catalyzed 1K paint. Dad did lots of show winning GM car restorations and this was his go to

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LMMXJ7G/

I used this and it is almost identical to the GM chassis paint but is 2K Urethane and should hold up better to solvents Etc. They're about the same cost when you calculate this is 1.25 gallon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M4L5SPU/


ETA: If you are going over bare steel I recommend laying a thin base coat of black epoxy first. I went through several gallons of epoxy on my build between frame, components and body. It's mixed 1:1 and you need to buy catalyst separate but a gallon of each is under $140 combined.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-up234g
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-UP231G

Thanks for all the great input!

Factory was more of a low-gloss/satin black, not full gloss. Definitely not dead flat either—somewhere in between.

You can also use a flattner, but you will need a gram scale, did that to my Nova. There are mixing instructions for different gloss, more flattner= less gloss. This also uses a clear coat. Local paint supply. CalSgt is a trusted source, like most on here. Your choice will depend on just how picky you will get with the resto....if you're go to that much trouble, may need testing against some original. Close enough for my Nova. I have also used the summit epoxy primer, make sure you get the right Catalyst, as summit steered me wrong and it took a long time to dry. Also use light primers for light colors, red, yellow, white lt blue, but use the dark gray for darker greens, black, etc, you get the drift. My light gray primer took six coats of Emarold green to cover, where dark gray was the desired color to use, but missed that when I was looking at the paint instructions.

I just had my truck restored. I did the mechanical but a body restoration shop did the body work. He used an expensive paint for everything. Underhood he added flattener. He did say he has restored many GM show cars and had a formula he worked out. He weighed everything. It looked good to me. I do not plan to show it but just wanted it real nice as it means a lot to me because it was my Dad's.

I spilled brake fluid on the black paint and it did not hurt it. I do know the stuff was very expensive.

When we did my former boss’ K30 dually, everything was done in Delthane/House of Kolor over DP90 black primer.
Satin black chassis, axles, firewall, fender wells, core support and the underside of the hood.
Body panels were media blasted at a local powdercoater that did all our motorcycle frames. Primed with DP90, base coat with heavy pewter flake, mid coat of cobalt blue candy, top coated with 3 coats of high gloss clear. Hand striped and lettered, slilver leaf outline, buried in enough coats of clear to finish out glass smooth. He put close to $60,000 dollars into a $1500 truck… 1990s money/prices, advertisement for the shop.

When it comes time to paint Lisa’s lowrider 85 C10 swb? I’m using full system matched TSS products. Epoxy primer, catalyzed base/candy/clears, flakes/pearls, even the filler/glaze will be system compatible.