[RickM]

Scott, That very well could be. What I found in an industry journal appears to support your correction. Learn something everyday. I'm still curious about what I saw......

Here are some snippets from the article:


"In order to fight the rust caused by the salt spread on winter roads as from the beginning of the 50s, and which were virtually melting away all anti-rust efforts done so far, the automotive industry started in 1955 experimenting with the use of zinc and galvanized sheet to protect the most exposed body parts, the floor and the rocker panels. The first European constructor to adopt zinc protection was Landrover, some 25 years before the entirely galvanized body launched by Porsche* in 1975.


"Wanted. A sheet that is Galvanized one side".
This header from the November 1960 edition of "Steel" illustrates the frustration of the car companies in those days as the markets were unable to provide them with the so-called one-side galvanized sheet they urgently needed: one coated side for anti-corrosion protection and one non-coated side suitable for acknowledged painting methods. This demand finally generated, between 1965 and 1975, new technologies for coating in the steel industry, in terms of both wide-strip galvanizing and pneumatic liquid zinc control, the Jet Wiper* process.

The Jet wiper process, a pneumatic system for controlling the application of liquid zinc to the sheet, allowed the galvanizing companies to enter the market of coated sheet for automotive applications. This process, also known as ‘Air Knives’, invented in the US in 1964, gave regular and smooth zinc coatings of a much better surface quality than those produced with the former coating rolls.

"LIKE "PORSCHE"
After a series of yearlong trials launched in 1967 in order to identify the material of the best quality/price performance in automotive anti-corrosion, Porsche finally opted for galvanized sheet. In 1975, it launched production in series of the 911 with an entirely galvanized body, featuring a seven-year anti-corrosion guarantee.

Zinc had already been present in cars in 1928, in foil shape, but not as galvanized sheet. As a coating metal, it first appeared in carbody immersion processes applied in the fifties and sixties. Its real breakthrough came with the spectacular rise of galvanized sheet as from the eighties on, first as electro-galvanized, then as hot-dip galvanized."


Edited for format and readability