GYC - Shaker colors

[Racer57]

Watched the latest episode of Graveyard Cars. (Show is a hellva lot better now ! )   Mark talked about the colors of the shaker bubble. If you had a red Cuda, then you could have a red shaker. Otherwise all other shakers were silver.  Nothing said about black, which as a noob to these things, I was surprised.

[anlauto]

I guess he was talking about 1970 only ?

[screamindriver]

It's a shame they never followed through with their intentions of offering more colors..From what I've heard it was determined the gloss body color had too much sun glare and so the limited choices..

[fc7cuda]

I guess he was talking about 1970 only ?

I didn't see the episode either, black bubble available too.

[750-h2]

The reason I heard for the factory not painting the "Shakers" body colour was that it required too much body work. Apparently there was lots of flaws in the Shakers finish and the textured paint covered the flaws nicely.

[JS29]

It could have been a cost thing as well, argent silver is universal. 

[floorit426]

 

[mccannix]

The only three colors for shaker scoops were red, argent, and black as designated by Chrysler for Fram in Chatham Ontario who were in charge of the shaker assembly design.
On the Fram blueprint are those three colors only:

red scoop assembly.. Chrysler number 3462276, simply referenced "red"

silver scoop assembly.. Chrysler part number 3462273, referenced "astrotone silver"

black scoop assembly.. Chrysler part number 3477473, reference.. "black".

Those are three part numbers you wont see in the parts books.
In the summer of 1969 Fram received the first batch of scoops from the Toronto vendor.
Some were sprayed red in a small booth by an employee.
Some others were sprayed argent by the same employee in the same booth.
I was introduced to this man in the mid 80's on one of my 7 or 8 visits to Fram, and became good friends with him and he relayed all of this and more to me.
There were lots of problems with those colors, or any colors for that matter, adhering mainly because of the scoop composition.
He also told me that at the request of Chrysler, Fram had him paint two orange scoops, that were eventually picked up in person by a couple Detroit 'suits'.

[anlauto]

To clarify ...were black scoops available in 1970 ?

[mccannix]

In my opinion, no,.. they weren't intended to be.

[Topcat]

To clarify ...were black scoops available in 1970 ?

mcmannix Reply:
Random Hemi E-Body of the Week
« Reply #501 on: December 01, 2019, 12:55:47 PM »

Just to ad a bit here, Dan's theory is very plausible and is likely what was intended, and the last statement is also relevant 'cars got assembled with what was on hand " as to possibilities of what happened in those long lost days.

As for the gold mind of information being lost by retired or deceased employees, I agree, but I was fortunate enough to gather information in the mid 80's, in the half dozen times I visited Fram , vendor of shaker assemblies.

I became very good friends with the ' go to guy' there and although it was like pulling teeth, I was told many interesting stories.
He was the very employee who was sent to Hamtramck in 1969 to show line workers how to assemble shaker units on the cars.
Here is some information he provided to me which alludes to the 'use what was available on hand' scenario.
Shaker assemblies fully intact including nameplates were shipped in 1969 in bedsteads of 60 from Fram in Chatham Ontario to Hamtramck.

All were argent with the exception of some red ones, that were separate, destined for Barracudas.
When in fall of 1969 and the Challenger shaker was put on hold, after a period of time, Hamtramck sent several bedsteads of argent scoop assemblies back to Chatham, not knowing when the need would be for them again,.. if ever.
These units were put into Fram inventory.

Challenger shaker option resumed again in the spring of 70 and some of these were used up, but when the 1970 model production run was over, Fram still had a bedstead or more of argent scoop assemblies.
The 1971 model year saw Chrysler implement the change to black scooped assemblies.

Sometime in the spring of 1971 whether it was a shortage or just the vendor decision,  when Hamtramck required shaker assemblies,  Fram decided to use up the existing stock of argent scoop assemblies and sent those off to Michigan.

There may have been some argent assemblies used on earlier 1971 Challengers as well, but argent shakers is well documented by many known owners, ( several board members here ), of 440-6 and Hemi  71 Challenger RT's.

[Racer57]

It is very possible that Mark said 1970, but I didn't catch it.