I want to black out the tail panel on my 72 around the lights like on a big block car and was wondering the right way to do it. how far down does the black go? does it go into the trunk jam? is it flat black or semi gloss?

Somewhere I have an old picture from a 1970 magazine that shows the black going into the trunk jamb area at about a 45 degree angle. Since that was on a new car delivered from GM, I'd copy that.
Go with a good semi-gloss or gloss. The original paint was quite shiny. If you find one in the wrecking yard today, it might look like flat black, but after amost 40 years, the rest of the car will look like flat paint too.

Check this old thread of mine.

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64280&highlight=paint

I dont know if any of the pictures are still up but there were several people that posted pics of cars with black panels in there.

I just did mine on my 72 Just make sure you look at the bottom edge of the bumper, and keep the black line above that. You may think you can eye it without putting the bumper on cause theres a recess, that looks like the bumper would cover it, but in fact about a 1/2 inch of that recess shows, so make sure you paint above that.

Mine was sprayed 2 weeks ago. I did a lot of research and believe I got the finish and dimensions pretty close to factory. It is sprayed gloss black. You can check out my link.
http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/269913/an/0/page/1#269913

Here is how it is suppose to look under the bumper and spoiler edges. It goes under the trunk lid along the tail panel seam on each side at 45 degree angle into the rubber gutter, not the whole trunk lip.

I used a semi-black paint and it gives you a smooth look with no shine, and it is not flat either.

http://www.trikfbdyprtsperformance.com/pictures/stitch/homeforassembly/bmhome3.jpg

I found that picture from the April 1970 Road and Track magazine. The old b&w photo doesn't show the shine of the paint, but it does show how Chevy painted the black up into the trunk area.
This photo goes against everything we know about 70 SS Camaros because this car is an SS350 that Chevy delivered to Road and Track for testing, and even with the 350 engine, it had the rear black panel.
http://webhost.btinet.net/~gstegmiller/rd_tk350.jpg

Thanks for the help all. that's my project for the weekend. i'll post up the results.

It looks like the black ends in the trunk on the seam between the 1/4 panels and the rear tail light panel. The silver line on this picture is the factory seam.

http://www.apiem.com/camaro/Pictures/Update_20050825/Small/TailGluedR2.JPG

I found that picture from the April 1970 Road and Track magazine. The old b&w photo doesn't show the shine of the paint, but it does show how Chevy painted the black up into the trunk area.
This photo goes against everything we know about 70 SS Camaros because this car is an SS350 that Chevy delivered to Road and Track for testing, and even with the 350 engine, it had the rear black panel.
http://webhost.btinet.net/~gstegmiller/rd_tk350.jpg

Is it just me or does that look like an amateur spray bomb job? Look at where the paint breaks, not a very clean line.