what year did dealerships quit painting new cars to change color?

NO! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID:

"the dealer refused the car and GM told them they had to accept it and repair the roof, they refused. They went back and forth for over twenty years the car was still in the back until the dealership closed."

GM would have never told them they had to accept the damaged vehicle. If you want to tell BIG STORIES then I would suggest you pick a forum where the readers are uninformed.

Some people should learn that you don't make a public statement and then claim you said something different.

McGurk

 

I never said they went back and forth for twenty years, I said the car stayed there till they closed.Chevrolet told them they had to accept it,it was left there.End of story. Now move on.Where did I say I said something different my story has been the same the whole time. What would I gain from this story I didn't work there I didn't order the car,it doesn't make me look like a hero.It happened get over it.

 

I'm going to tell you one more time. If dealership #1 sat on the Corvair then it was their choice to do so. If dealership #2 repaired the Chevelle then it was their choice to do so. In neither case did GM force them to accept the damaged vehicles. The implication of your story was unambiguous: GM was selling wrecks through Chevrolet dealerships.

It never happened. Now move on!

McGurk

 

Here is how it worked back then, car hits bridge, driver drops car, Chevrolet sends someone out, trucking company sends someone out,they get paid from the insurance company. In this case Chevrolet sent a roof to Rice and said fix it, Tom Rice said no. Car sat there for over 20 years till it closed.Don't tell me dealers didn't repair wrecked cars in the 70's and 80's they were sued over it, and laws were passed describing how much damage was allowable.The Chevelle was repaired my friend chose not to take it.I can't make it any simpler for you so I won't.It happened ,and if you really believe no cars were wrecked and repaired by dealers back then you've got bigger issues. Now I'm done

 

I have taken cars apart that had repair tags in doors, fenders and trunks stating they were repaired at the factory, damaged even before they made it to the dealer. GM was a good one for repairing damaged cars and making dealers taking them ( with a deep discount). Ford was better at taking cars back and crushing them. I worked at both dealers in the late 70's-80's

 

Smart decision. You were burying yourself in the BS.

McGurk

 

Were they actually damaged, (as in dropped off a truck) or did they have parts that didn't meet quality control standards. Replacing a part with scratched paint is different than rebuilding a totaled car.
If a sleazy dealer bought a damaged car from the shippers insurance company, rebuilt it and sold it as new, this is because they are a sleazy dealership, not because a car company or insurance company forced them to. My guess is the dealer with the corvair was trying to do this, but couldn't get a clear title so he had to eat the corvair. (thus the arguing with GM)

 

What are you talking about if they wanted to fix it they could have, this was long before titles in NYS, and salvage titles.Wow it never ceases to amaze me how people can put there own spin on stuff. Chevrolet told them to fix it not that the dealer wanted to, he REFUSED.Yea GM would replace a quarter panel for scratched paint.

 

Some of the cars with repair tags had some serious dent repair. Not totals, but I would have thought they should have put on new parts instead of a 1/2 inch of plastic. The car had never left the factory at that point.

I worked on a Suburban that fell off the ramps. Front bumper was up 2" and fenders kinked. A dent or two was ok for a fix on a new car, but a bent frame? Yes, now things like that must be disclosed to the buyer.

 

In Wisconsin we've had titles back at least in the early 50s, I still bet there is more to the story than you know.

 

NY didn't have titles till 73,and there would be no problem registering a wrecked car as new back then it was done.Now there may very well be more to the story I wasn't there my father's business partner was and told the story.It was a simple story at the time and really didn't matter in the course of things.That being said that's the way the car was left I don't know or do I care if Rice Chevrolet paid for it,if the trucking company paid for the damage,if Chevrolet ate it.It didn't matter at the time.I know the person who told me had nothing to gain by making up the story nor do I.This was back in 69 the last year of the Corvair,at the end of 69 it would no longer be a new car no matter what,so it sat there.

 

I checked in the new vehicles at a Chevy dealer for a couple years in the 80s and they repaired all the damage I found except for a Metro that got severe hail damage somewhere on the trip to the dealer,it got totaled and donated to a local community college auto body school if I remember correctly. The Metro had the severest damage of all the cars that came in while I was there.

 

What's not true? I worked at a Chevy dealership that painted a brand new primered Vette that a customer had ordered that way in 1980.

 

Kinda getting off of the original thread topic here a bit with this one, but here's my 2 cents. Being the son of a retired Chevrolet zone rep and having worked in dealerships for 24 years and Auto Warehousing Company for 2 years myself, I've seen this stuff first hand. Auto Warehousing works with the manufacturers expediting and final processing new cars as well as some final assembly. Chevrolet's policy as far as liability goes back to whoever touched it last was responsible but GM had the ultimate decision if a car was to be scrapped or not. Repair policy goes back to limited cosmetic and absolutely no structure damage. The tradeoff between scrapping a car and a potential multi-million dollar lawsuit if the car is involved in an injury resulting accident post structural repair is a no brainer. Anything structural deemed a total loss gets scrapped or donated to a school. Back when vehicles were tied down in rail cars by chain, damage was more common when a train would "hump" when slack was taken out the rail car links. Tie downs in rail cars now consist of various types of tire chocks, depending on the rail car type. Transport truck drivers still have to be careful when moving the decks on their trailers as cars and trucks can be twisted or damaged while simply positioning. Cars still get damaged weekly whether by rail, truck transport or yard collisions. Cars still get scrapped and cars get fixed, but never without disclosure. I've heard crazy stories over the years and seen some first hand.

 

Yea it got way off track,and if I was not personally attacked and called a liar it might not have gotten so far off.Untill ABC news started making a big deal ( rightfully so)after that woman was paralyzed when a used car she bought had it's roof tore off because of poor workmanship, when it rolled they would still be doing major surgery to cars. I don't see what is so hard to believe about replacing a roof on a new car back then. Wouldn't happen today but that was almost 45 years ago.

 

Bought a new Ford pickup in 81, had 4 miles on it.Checking it out I discovered. Had the right front fender, hood, grille and front bumper replaced and painted. Seems it somehow got deep into the dealerships rear chain link fence..
Got a great deal on it and drove it for six years, 187 thousand miles..

 

Some car companies authorized partial repaints to 2 tone existing cars. I have seen a dealer bulletin from Kaiser, on how to mask off and paint the roof on left over Henry Js to make them more saleable.

In 1949 Packard offered a special "golden anniversary" option. The special gold paint was metallic gold colored bronze powder in clear lacquer. Most cars with this option were painted on the assembly line but a few were finished cars that were repainted. So, such things were done occasionally but not as a rule.

They would also paint a car a non standard color to special order. I believe the more expensive makes like Cadillac and Chrysler did this, not sure if you could special order a Chev or Ford this way unless it was a fleet order involving more than one vehicle.

Incidentally when I worked in body shops the paint books included fleet colors as specified by different companies like Gulf orange, etc. These colors might be found on any make of truck.

As far as repainting new vehicles by the dealer this would be up to the dealer. If the price was right, and if you paid in advance, you could get a car painted any color you liked.

 

As far as repairing new cars at the factory goes, they all have repair shops to fix defective cars including paint and body damage or defects. If a car gets scratched before it leaves the plant they fix it.

If it suffers major damage they find it cheaper to write it off and make a new one. Sometimes the write offs get donated to charity, such as to a high school auto shop where it will never be allowed on the road.

I knew a body man who worked at General Motors plant in Oshawa doing repairs. He was a first class body man, very maticulous. So they gave him all the hardest jobs and the ones that had to be done right.

He told me the worst wreck he ever fixed was a Cadillac limousine with the whole right side bashed and scraped up. This was in the late 60s. Somehow it got loose on a car hauler and shifted around until the side contacted the side of the truck. All damaged body panels were replaced with new, or repaired. Metal work, then lead fill only. No bondo allowed. Then the car was stripped of trim, repainted complete, and put back together.

As a rule they would never have fixed a car hurt this bad BUT, this car was a special order, with special equipment and non standard cooling air conditioning etc for a customer in the Middle East. In other words, not a standard assembly line job. To make a duplicate would have delayed delivery several months and cost big $$$ bucks. Therefore, it was worthwhile paying someone to fix it where, if it was an ordinary Chev sedan, it would have been cheaper to scrap it.

 

Care to expand on that?

All 3 paragraphs are in fact true.

 

I worked at several Ford dealerships in the late 1970's and we created a lot of two tone paint jobs for customers that wanted a two tone vehicle. There were repaints too. If we didn't have the color that they wanted, it could be painted.

 

The head college painting teacher where i am doing my apprenticeship (in Aus its called 'TAFE') regularly performed FULL resprays and extensive body work repairs to brand new cars which were sold full price to unsuspecting customers.

He said in the 60s and 70s that it was absolute common practice for this to occur. Holden (gm) were by far the worst apparently, with many cars being almost ridden off after falling off trucks, ships, trains or whatever transport options they were delivered by.

 

The first quote is what you posted originally, the second one you deny saying it. YOU did in fact say that GM and the dealer went back and forth for 20 years. Better read what you wrote, might make your argument a little more plausible

 

i worked for Chrysler, Ford, GM, dealers,and they checked the cars as they were dropped off minor damage went straight to the body shop and was repaired. they all did fleet repaints when they couldn't enough of the required equipment and color. also have a friend that wanted a yellow 81 corvette the dealer repainted a black one. there was a transport company down the street that had a big full time body shop that did major and minor repairs and the dealers weren't told. chrysler dealers did a lot of body repairs before the car hit the show room, from thin paint to unfinished body joints .
mechanical repairs were also done before sale. changed a motor in a ford that dropped a valve also was told to change another motor that had a major oil leak the rear main seal had been changed twice, there was no drain hole in the rear main cap just opened it and reassembled when working for Chrysler replaced a cam shaft that hadn't been finish ground and was noisy.

 

What I was saying was the car stayed there for twenty years,they went back and forth on what was to be done with it.I am sure it was resolved finacially in the first year,
they didn't sell Corvairs after 69 so they wouldn't be fixing it would they. I should have chosen my words better, but I was refering to the longevity of the car being there that they went back on forth on. Not as to whether it should be repaired.

 

Except that is NOT what you said, maybe it is what you meant, but we are not mind readers. And then you denied saying it, when it is right there in black and white.

 

I said I agree with you. I should have worded it differently, sometimes when you are doing a couple of things at the same time you get brain farts.

 

here in California 1989-1999 chevy and gmc trucks were lowered shaved of body trim {that was glued on) installed after market wheels and tires and painted sometimes it was subcontracted out