1957 what does the body color cover?

[twstnshout]

My project 57 was a raven black car originally. I’m changing the color to flame red. Every place on my car is or was black, engine compartment, trunk, interior stripped of seats etc, the under carriage inside the fenders and the rims everything is black or was. Anyway where these early year tbirds indeed painted everywhere the body color? I’ve read the factory assembly process it doesn’t really show. I’ve looked at some over the top restorations and obviously the engine compartments are body color. The several corvettes I’ve done aren’t body color everywhere, black engine compartments, trunks for c1years body color underside unpainted,interior fenders black. I want to put the body color where belongs.
Thanks for any insight

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[jack-in-sac]

The bodies were painted and installed on the chassis as it moved down the assembly line. The resulting one piece bodies (after leading in the seams) are one color as per the firewall tag.

 

[55blacktie]

Yep. The only exception I've found during the restoration of my 55 is the back of the dash, which is Primer Red. Only the face of 57 OEM wheels were painted body color; the rest of the wheel should be black. Considering your car is Raven Black, the face of the wheels should be black as well.

I've seen a number of auction cars that sold for a good price, even though the engine compartment was not painted body color. It might not matter to some, but it's not correct.

 

[twstnshout]

How would they have painted the undersides and interior fenders? It seems the body’s were dragged along on a dolly

 

[doug7740]

Here is an article that will explain the journey our Thunderbirds took during the production process.

doug7740
1955 Thunderbird Blue

 

[paul5456]

The only thing that was not painted body color was the inner splash shield near the radiator. It was black