Just wondering when did GM/Pontiac go from all black engine bay color to body color?

Being also a Mopar fan and owner, Mopar always had their engine bays factory color.

Just cannot remember when it was converted over.

Thanks!

 

My 88 formula does not have a black engine bay...Its the same color as the body.

 

So was my 86 trans am's engine bay....same color as body. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe all 3rd gens have a body colored engine bay, and the second gens were black still. I think that was when the transition was.

 

Previous GM cars had black engine bays simply because the wheel wells, radiator support and subframe were not part of the body and were assembled in one piece before the body was painted. Once the body was painted, they were then mounted together.

 

All thirdgens have body colored engine compartments. The only variation in color that I know if is that some cars had the top of the cowl (where the wipers mount) painted black while others had that body colored. I believe that was dependant on the assembly plant though (these cars were build in Norwood, Ohio and Van Nuys, California). My 84 T/A from Norwood has the black upper cowl.

 

My 84 from Van Nuys has a black cowl, too.

 

The black cowl = Norwood theory has never been proven and I've seen more then a few Van Nuys cars with the black cowl.

 

My RPO sheet shows "VAN" and my cowl area is painted body color (white). Here is a pic.

 

Some cars have the top of the cowl (wiper area) painted black. The classic rumor was that Norwood cars had the top of the cowl painted black, and Van Nuys cars had the top of the cowl painted body color. But, I've seen more then one Van Nuys car with the cowl painted black, where it should be body color if the rule was true. What that tells me is that some cars have the cowl painted body color and others are painted black, and it is not an indicator of where the car was produced.

My 83 Camaro was a Van Nuys car, and the top of the cowl was black. So was my 86 T/A, again Van Nuys with a black cowl. My 87 Iroc is a Norwood car, and it's cowl is black, and all of my 91's were Van Nuys cars (obviously) with the cowl painted body color. My guess would be that somewhere along the way GM got lazy and stopped painting the cowls black. It just makes the vent intake and wipers blend in a bit more, but it's not like you can really see it when the hood is closed anyway.

 

My 87 GTA has a body colored bay & black cowl. And I forget which plant it was built in.

I think 87 was the last year for black cowls too. I want a black bay, which will happen if I ever get a chance to strip everything out.

 

There is very little of the upper cowl showing in that picture, but it looks to be black with a glare to me. Are you talking about the horizontal surface that the plastic vent piece surrounding the wiper arms mounts to, or are you thinking we meant the firewall beneath it?

 

always wondered about the cowl, why it was not just painted body color

 

If I remember correctly, it was found that 1988 was the start of when most cowls were body colored. The reason being that GM was looking to save on costs wherever possible. 1987 was the first year for option packages for the same reason. By 1988, their were fewer models to choose from also.

 

You are correct, my friewall is white and the upper cowl with the windshield wipers are at is black.

 

My engine compartment was painted black from the factory.... so was the rest of the car..

 

I have an 88 iroc with the black upper cowl from the factory that i can tell and its a VAN car. Just throwing that into the theories mix.

 

Hello everyone, just to get this myth of factory specific cars having only black cowls disproven, I will say this from experience. From 1982-1988 all thirdgens had black cowls no matter what sub-model. Starting in 1989 or the 1989 model year, all Cowls were no longer painted black and were now matching the body color; and continued until the end of that generation in 1992. It's one of those facts I use to determine the year of a thirdgen without looking at the vin number. Same thing goes for other little details, such as the new large coolant tanks introduced that year, rear shoulder seat belts, different stereo connectors such as the 21 pin connectors and also different speaker connectors. Don't forget the VATS anti-theft system too. Though that being said, I would like to mention that all the Norwood cars I've seen always have their SPID labels underneath the center console lid, while the Van Nuys cars have theirs inside the console on the side. Hope this clears up everything.

 

No offense, but you are partially wrong with your statement. The 1988 cars saw the transition from black to color, not 1989. We have seen plenty of original 1988 cars that painted cowls.

I have a picture of an 88 convertible with 24k miles that has the body colored cowl and I have another 88 with 12k miles with the black cowl. The black cowl has a VIN in the 59815 and the body colored cowl is 78203. I also have a pic of a car with a body colored cowl with a VIN in the 348xx range. So there doesn't appear to be a specific VIN range that started it since there are body colored before and after the one I listed above.

 

Perhaps so, these cars may have been late production 1988 models already starting to have matching factory body colors. The majority of all 1988 thirdgens I've seen have black cowls, and personally have yet to see one with a body colored matching, cowl. It might have been a very late transition from black to matching the body color. Check out this low 12,000 mile 1988 IROC on Ebay. This car has a black cowl. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevrolet-Camaro-Iroc-Z-Coupe-2-Door-1988-camaro-irocz-/181159580032?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item2a2df3d180&vxp=mtr

 

I have a Norwood TA and the SPID is on the console wall,not on the lid.

 

By the way Scott, being that you have an all original 1987 IROC, do you happen to know where the 2nd Auxiliary cooling fan relay mounts? I've been trying to find out for years, but unfortunately have never seen where it originally mounted. I know the primary fan relay is on the radiator support, but the 2nd relay is a mystery.

 

Perhaps I think it's safe to say that from 1982-88, all thirdgens had black cowls; and from 1988 1/2 or late 1988-1992 had the cowls matching body colors. This is because there are some (majority)1988 thirdgens that had black cowls, while late in production the cowls were no longer painted black. It can be related to the same instance where early 1991 thirdgens had the '86-91 hatch pull down, while halfway throughout the long production, GM decided to update the pull-down ('91-92 version). Its just another inconsistency done by GM. Hope this helps.

 

If you look at my post above, you'll see that I mentioned VIN numbers that prove that there wasn't a production number cutoff. Currently on ebay, there are a few cars that you can look at to see what I'm saying. The cars that I mentioned are ebay cars. Out of 96k cars built, the black cowl car is at 59,815. However, I also posted the VIN of a car with a body colored cowl at 34,800. That's 25k cars before the black painted cowl. It appears that 1988 was a transition year for cost savings. The model lineup shrunk to save on costs also.