Firewall Forward Finishes and Markings- Part Deux

Dave is right about the day to day changes.

GM made running changes on paints, hardware, and the use of different manufacturers.

Add in that the workforce had a really high turnover rate due to the fact that the assembly line jobs were really hard, especially in the body shop.

So a car built on Monday could be different from one built later in the week.

The skill of the workers varied a lot...some tried harder than others.

And, NO ONE thought about what would happen 40+ years into the future about someone restoring these cars.

 

Looks like Fremont did different than Flint. Flint cars had body paint codes not interior that I ever have seen. Good reference photos.

 

Glad to see this thread still alive and being added to.

 

Ditto! very important...

 

Ive searched and cannot find the answer what color should my steering shaft be??

 

Black

 

Dan, I have seen black and some type of gray metallic plating.

 

Mine did not appear to have black paint on it.

 

Anyone know the correct finish on the P.S. brackets?

 

On a 70, the aluminum was natural and the other 2 brackets were like cadmium grey or grey phosphate.

 

I think the master cylinder and disc brake calipers should be black. How are people restoring the upper control arms - Is the cross shaft getting painted black or left natural ? Saw that the sway bar brackets should be silver - Is this correct ?

Thanks

 

Duane will dock you points in concourse if you do sway bar brackets silver. They were a zinc or even bare but we're supposed to get sprayed black along with the bar and other parts after assembly. Of course the sprayer could have missed things. Upper control arm shafts probably were bare cast iron, tough to see with flap in place anyway.

 

Currently restoring my 70. Was reading this thread. When I have restored Olds and Camaro, I have used a gun bluing technique to duplicate the heat treated steel look of the center link. It seems to be a bluish black color. Have seen lots of controversy on how the sway bar was done with other makes - I have painted mine black as well as the sway bar brackets. When I have removed the old rubbers from the brackets, they seemed to be black on the inside.

 

Well, that's the tricky thing about restos. You would think that BPOC would all be the same, but they aren't. Like Chevy used black painted fuel tank straps for some years while Buicks are like galvanized. Then you look in a magazine and see insulation on the straps, so you figure it should be there...and it was never on any GM musclecar aps I've ever seen. If you think about it, it's dumb, too. There's like 150 lbs of weight on them, they're not going to squeak. As far as I know at least Buick + Olds had black center links. In fact, B + O dictated in the assembly manual to spray those things black. I know you see them in cast or phosphate, but...I don't think they were like that on B + O's. Far as I know, the sway brackets were black. But, I've seen the factory pic that Dave saw where they were natural or zinc plated. The search for perfection is a crazy thing!

 

My gas tank straps were the galvanized and still had the GM tags on them. Gas tank had never been out of the car. I think the sway bar also should be black.

 

Have a few more items if anyone is interested. Had my car appraised last week for insurance and he asked me about some stuff, didn't have the answers so ended up doing some research and figured I would post it up here, feel free to add if you have more info. I did not see these on the list. It concerns the cruise setup on my 71. I also have spare parts off a 72 skylark plus of course big cars (73) and they all seem to match. I can supply pics of parts with original plating etc on them, or perhaps others can confirm/debate:

1) Cruise control transducer mounting bracket is gold plated.
2) Cruise control transducer appears silver, with a pearl effect on it so you're on your own here unless someone has more info. It does have a mild gold tinge so not sure on this thing...???
3) Cruise control transducer filter cover is gold plated
4) Cruise control vacuum diaphragm bracket is gold plated
5) Cruise control vacuum diaphragm: backside is definitely gold plated, front half of pot cannot confirm (don't think they would use two diff platings on that part but no sign of gold on front half of pot).
6) Cruise control vacuum pot attach nuts silver plated (possibly natural?)

And the thread keeps rolling, thanks Ken (love your car BTW)...

later
Tim

 

Thank you very much
Makes it a lot easier with the wealth of knowledge!!!!

 

Hey, it may be an old thread but it still has good information!

 

If anyone is interested, I have converted this list to an Excel file which can be easily sorted, filtered, and searched.

If you would like a copy, send me a PM with your email address, and I will forward the file.

Best Regards,
Michael