Talk:Body in white

Untitled
Looking for more information on BIW!

[email address deleted by User:Ukexpat] – ukexpat (talk) 14:50, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

"In-White"
I don't know who might read this, but just in case anyone happens to care; "in white" or "in the white" is a metal working term meaning "unfinished". Not unfinished as in incomplete, but unfinished as in not having a finishing treatment/coating yet. It may or may not include heat treatment. Usually it means prime and paint or plating or a conversion process like Parkerizing. Car bodies get finishing operations like zinc-phos, e-coat, and powder/clear coat. Anyway, when the body is finished, except for the final coating, it is said to be in-the-white or a body-in-white. The in-white term is used in other metal working as well. If a gunsmith makes a rifle action, it must be assembled and and tested for functional operation. This must be done to ensure the mechanism is operational before heat-treatment, because afterwards, it is too hard to work the material. Once it is operational, the component may be sent out for finishing operations, and assembled on return. Again operation must be checked, but now the assembly is no longer said to be in-the-white. It is now in "final" form. So, you see, it's as simple as that, the metalwork complete, but unfinished is "in-white", and when it has been finished, it is no longer "in-the-white".

Hope that helps, Dave, >20 years as a manufacturing engineer.

It did help. Thank youLonginus876 (talk) 11:33, 6 October 2017 (UTC)

"Body in red"
Are there any reference sources for that term, explaining the red colour? Ing Nbg (talk) 11:46, 21 December 2019 (UTC)