1950's OMC painting method

[bob-d]

After spending days preparing a 1955 Evinrude hood for paint I was wondering how did they do some of the tri-color paint jobs at the factory? Every old production video, literature I have seen shows them forging pistons, motor assembly, etc , but no paint shots.
Anybody know? Read something somewhere about stencils? Would love to know how they worked.
I’m sure they weren’t tape masking with fine line tape!
Thanks,
Bob D

[Buccaneer]

I watched an old video, circa 1930, showing a guy putting “pin stripes” on a Model A
car as it moved down the assembly line.
It would be interesting to know how they did outboards!

Prepare to be boarded!

[Mumbles]

I asked this same question a few years ago and what the general opinion was that they had to use some type of masking tool on the line. The hoods were first sprayed one color and then masked somehow for the accent colors. I sure wish I had at home whatever they used as it’s a lot of work and time masking for three colors.

[billy-j]

It’s a long time ago (1950’s ) but their has to be some people alive yet that worked in these outboard manufacturing plants that could still describe the paint operation and other operations. There should be some way to search them out to tell their story before it’s to late. I work for an automaker. (Ford) in an engine plant we assemble 4 and 6 cylinder engines. The engines are very precision and Ford designs the assembly process so that average workers can quickly be taught to do a precision operation. I would imagine outboard manufacturers were no different. When we restore a outboard we are doing it by hand for one engine at a time so we have to employ whatever works to get the job done. I would surmise that the original painting process employed some kind of stamped metal stencil or possibly plastic molded stencil that fit the hood perfectly and would mask areas of the hood that required different colors allowing a worker to quickly mask , spray and move on to the next engine. Regards Bill,

[bob-d]

Boy I would love to turn back the clock and walk around the factory with my digital camera!
Jim I think your right about the stencils, but dam they must had fit really well. Looking at the original paint lines they were pretty good. I wonder if they told design / engineering to make sure they had a crease or edge for the stencil to butt up against for a clean line? Possibly Garry has something in his archives?
Bob D

[fleetwin]

Yeah, I’m sure they had some sort of stencils to go over the hood…Just wondering how they got such clean paint lines with no runs or rough edges…Oh well, so much to learn…

[frankr]

I visited the Evinrude plant in the mid-1960’s. I didn’t get a good look at how they painted them, but I must say I was very impressed with how easily the guy applied the decals. He had a couple soaking while he applied others. He’d take it out of the soak and slap it on the hood, squeegee it out, peel off the paper and job done in seconds. And we all fuss and mess with them forever, trying to get the bubbles and wrinkles out before it becomes hopeless.. Must be some skill involved there somewhere.

[garry-in-michigan]

They used a form fitting plastic stencil on the classics. The paint gun and motor had opposer charges so the paint was attracted to the metal with very little over spray. Before that they just painted them all semi-gloss aluminum.

[garry-in-michigan]

We HAVE TO fuss and mess because in most cases we are dealing with some very old decals. When you are doing hundreds a day you are using decals mostly hot off the presses. With all that practice you can almost do it in your sleep.

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