[maxepr]

69 firebird master color? natural? or flat black with natural on the machined pad?.... Power disc brakes...

[steveK]

cast iron gray

[chrisp]

Natural , spray a clear satin paint on it to keep if looking like new .

[MikeNoun]

1969 Firebird master cylinders were black.

There's nothing wrong with leaving it natural cast gray (mine's that way), but they were originally black.

Pic from one of Dave A's show winning 69 Firebirds.

[steveK]

Mike, I have to differ with you in that the original 309 "Squatty Boy" were not all black. I have the original from my TA never was black as well as all the 69 cars I have were not black.

[MikeNoun]

Steve, well, I never say never, but here's the evidence.

I've researched this through original road test pics. While these pics are b&w, there's one other item in those pictures that's natural cast color; the alternator. You can see quite clearly that the master cylinder is much darker than the alternator, almost matching the inner fender shade, while the alternator is much whiter.

This is also very apparent when you see original road test pics of GTO engine compartments, which used natural cast colored master cylinders. In all those photos, the GTO master cylinder closely matches the alternator.

I can vouch for Dave's two 69 Firebirds. They were painstakingly restored using all NOS parts, nothing repop. He spent years accumulating NOS parts, and his cars have been featured in HPP and HMM. His Birds have won top honors at national Pontiac shows.

Year One had detailed pics of their show winning 69 RAIV Bird in their catalog, and the m/c is black.

I believe Pontiac had their master cylinders painted black to eliminate any possibility of a line worker installing the wrong master cylinder. The Firebird's were unique on the assembly line, and had different internals than the Camaro.

[maxepr]

Mine is a T/A I was also told the master was black by a T/A guy in MI....Thanks Ron I do like the natural look myself....

[steveK]

I went back thru my ol archives and I looked at an all original RA4 TA, and yes looks black to me but as I stated I have several that had the light rust coating no apparent black paint on at all. I will dig deeper into it.

[MikeNoun]

Steve, what you may be seeing is a rebuilt GM master cylinder. As the 1970's wore on, parts stores were getting in cores by the boatload. Back then, it wasn't uncommon for a parts store to have a refurbished master cylinder within 3-5 years of that model's production. Upon reconditioning, the first thing they did was bead blast the housing, which of course removed the paint. And of course there was no reason for the parts refurbishers to repaint the master cylinder.

From what I've seen, only original master cylinders were black.

In the case of Dave's cars (and a few of these other show stopping restos), they've located NOS master cylinders, or had their cores refurbished for points judging.

My master cylinder is natural too. It's a repop, and it looked so nice when I took it out of the box, I didn't have the heart to spray it black. I simply cleared it and called it a day.

[68bird400HO]

I agree that the master cylinders were black. However, I disagree that it was a firebird only thing. I have seen original, untouched, low mile A-bodies with black MCs. They were painted to prevent rust, not to code them for a particular car. I think the black the factory used was a pretty thin coat and after 40+ years, these things rusted regardless. So if you MC is rusty, you may have to look really close to find any remnants of the black.

One detail item on these is that the surfaces where the lines screw in was machined after the MC was painted black, as these surfaces were bare. You can sort of see that in the picture of Dave's car.

[MikeNoun]

Correct, and thank you! I didn't want to go into the whole A-body thing, because I wasn't quite sure about the earlier GTO's, or the single reservoir units, but they were black on the 1st Gen Birds.

Here's an original 1969 GTO RAIV pic, and you can see quite clearly the master cylinder was black.

[Bet Winner]

Here's a restored one.

[A Schab]

Could the color difference between the alternator and the master cylinder in the black and white photos be because ones aluminum and the other is cast iron?

[Bet Winner]

Originally Posted by A Schab

Could the color difference between the alternator and the master cylinder in the black and white photos be because ones aluminum and the other is cast iron?

They would look different if comparing an unpainted master to an alternator, but that master in the old pic looks black to me.

Some may have come unpainted w/different factories, but that is hard to prove w/o a very early picture of a unpainted master.

[Kurt S]

The Delco masters were all painted black. Open up an original Corvair hood (sealed cause it's the trunk), they are black.
It was a very cheap paint on a non-prepped part, so the paint lasts about 3 months or until the first time it gets hit with a hose. It's a rare original car that still has some flecks of black paint on the master. Even on a Corvair, the paint is mostly gone.

[steveK]

Funny they would paint them black when you are essentially filling them with paint remover!!