Ok. I'm new here but I have been to many assembly lines and as a kid Dad(rip) took me to Melbourne (fishermans) several times through the late 70's He was with HDT at the time and working under the Boyded Holden banner(a story for another time) Untill VB. The assembly was 4 painters with guns spewing acrylic onto a rolling shell. Acrylic was much cheaper, also much slower. Some cars were painted/repaired 2 & 3 & 4 times. The metallics had no clear as in clear over base, they were gloss off the gun and had a very primitive built in reology system. 4 painters would paint one car at a time and a lot of the time it showed. The black or GMH black as it was called was applied by a separate part of the plant. GMH black was simply all the "slop" paint(left over paint) placed in drums and tinted to black. The tone and gloss of the black was always inconsistent as a result but don't be overly disappointed the variation between the colour of the car itself varried from "batch to batch" to the point where some cars where as an example white on one side and whiter at the front, rear or other side(4 painters) not to mention inconsistent "peel" overall. (I am a Holden person so please don't think I'm putting shit on them) the inner guards and floor pan(GMH black) were painted at a different section of the plant and then assembled to the shell along with other components such as diffs, drive shafts and some suspension components, these components where stamped with a "GMH" stamp the colour of the stamp varried pending what "slop paint" was available however the quality department liked to use red/orange and sometimes yellow or green. If it was stamped it meant quality had checked it and it was good to fit. The paint was applied directly over the etch primer whilst the etch was still wet(wet on wet application) As for motors and overspray on gaskets etc
Etc. They(I believe) would have been motors needing touch ups, like I said they painted these things and repaired these things many many many times prior to trucking to the dealer. Each assembly plant had a repair dept. Not un similar to a smash repair shop. Fixing dents, paint defect's and scratches. The unit was then sent to the dealer(I will elaborate on this some other time) However! The dealer then needed to have the car either prepared for delivery or prepared for display stock, hence the dealer detailed. It was not uncommon for a vehicle to turn up at a dealership and roll off a truck looking very "flat"(lack of gloss) and pitted with stone chips from the transport distance, it was also common for it to have a dent, scratch or both and the dealer would wear the repair, hence the dealer delivery fee( some of the DDF also went back to HDT, another story) The over spray from the fire wall to the transmission tunneling was colour over GMH black, they just "flicked" the colour on down... No chassis yet, they were like a kit car on a huge scale
As an example most "Two toning" was done by the dealer. Untill VB. My Dad took me to a lot of cool places that as a kid I found boring. I wish I could do it over again!