[68ragtop]

I am a little surprised there are not many threads on how the rear axle/differential housing & suspension is painted. From everything I have read it's because the cars varied from plant to plant & even then varied at the plants. From what I understand, the chassis were assembled with bare steel parts, then quickly once over painted while upside-down. some painted heavy, some barely painted at all. So if this is true, then what do you guys feel is the best way to cleanly restore these parts if you are getting away from the factory correct overspray original style of chassis paint? In other words over restored (like so many cars end up) I originally painted my frame, control arms & diff housing semi gloss black, But I have seen picts of cars with the diffs being left a natural steel color too. I like them both ways & I am guessing both are acceptable to most Pontiac enthusiasts. I am gong though my chassis for a second time, to finish some of the details I skipped over the first time.

I also saw some picts of a fellow member here at PY that painted the tubes black & left the center housing natural cast looking. I would think the options are natural steel, all black, or natural steel with black sprayed over most of it. The latter while not being the prettiest, is probably the most correct, but I don;t seem to find that through my searching of images.

any thoughts, or preferences? I am getting close to painting there parts for the second time in my restoration & I think I am going to go all black, but am tempted with the detailed look of bare steel & cast on the housing

Also, were the control arms installed bare steel front & back? I recall some front control arms being partially dipped on some of the 70's cars. not sure if they did that on out 68-69's ?

Seemed worth starting a thread to get detailed thoughts.

[SONIC 4 U]

This may help


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[68ragtop]

Sonic, did you go Cast gray on the housing & the tubes? Is the rear cover black?
Sorry, a little hard to see in the photo's, or my monitor sucks.....

[68ragtop]

The black diff picture is my car before I took it apart a few weeks back. Wrong finish on the fasteners, I know....

The silver rear is from a 69 limelight green car that was featured in Hot rod magazine & went to the nationals in a concurs class.
I can't tell if it has cast gray on the center housing or not, but I am guessing it does?

Notice the springs are also natural? I have also seen natural springs on black diffs.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by 68ragtop

I am a little surprised there are not many threads on how the rear axle/differential housing & suspension is painted. From everything I have read it's because the cars varied from plant to plant & even then varied at the plants. From what I understand, the chassis were assembled with bare steel parts, then quickly once over painted while upside-down. some painted heavy, some barely painted at all. So if this is true, then what do you guys feel is the best way to cleanly restore these parts if you are getting away from the factory correct overspray original style of chassis paint? In other words over restored (like so many cars end up) I originally painted my frame, control arms & diff housing semi gloss black, But I have seen picts of cars with the diffs being left a natural steel color too. I like them both ways & I am guessing both are acceptable to most Pontiac enthusiasts. I am gong though my chassis for a second time, to finish some of the details I skipped over the first time.

I also saw some picts of a fellow member here at PY that painted the tubes black & left the center housing natural cast looking. I would think the options are natural steel, all black, or natural steel with black sprayed over most of it. The latter while not being the prettiest, is probably the most correct, but I don;t seem to find that through my searching of images.

any thoughts, or preferences? I am getting close to painting there parts for the second time in my restoration & I think I am going to go all black, but am tempted with the detailed look of bare steel & cast on the housing

How did you find yours before you restored it? Because it seem to vary a bit from plant and time of build.

Most of them that were still original that I've seen (including my Formula) had some form of black paint that was half heartedly sprayed on the entire housing.
I do know the F-body plaint, Norwood in particular, would only mask the Yoke. The rest of the rear was sprayed with backing plates and drums in place, all sprayed black, sometimes light coverage, and even the e-brake cables got some paint on them. The only thing not installed at that time were the brake lines. Quite a few 69's documented like this.
That doesn't speak for the A-body plants but I'd bet they had some dusting of black on the rear, not neatly done like so many restorations today.

Have you found any unrestored examples of A-bodies from your plant and build time frame that might help?

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

How did you find yours before you restored ?

Krylon spray bomb black over rust.

I guess I am not too concerned with being exact correct for my car as I am already getting outside the scope of it being original, No overspray, adding tilt wheel & power windows & a few other small things. All 68 correct, but not necessarily correct to the build sheet for my car. (Pontiac MI car btw) I was just on the fence on how I wanted to finish the diff housing this time & it got me searching for a couple hours yesterday. Then I found everything from silver to look like bare steel, to solid black. I also have energy suspension bushings, so they are gold cad which doesn't look right either. Thinking about possibly putting rubber mounts in now.

[Formulajones]

A quick session in the cabinet blaster with glass bead will remove that gold cad on the energy suspension bushings, without spending money on another set.

[68gtoMN]

Most originals I have seen were painted from behind across the diff. The "front" portion of the diff had overspray but was not completely finished with chassis black paint. Underneath has paint and some wrap around paint from spray but back sides were painted from behind. I doubt springs were natural

[68ragtop]

So when you see cars restored, what is your preference? Including the springs, arms, etc?
It's interesting to see how many different ways they are done. When I saw the natural looking finish on the 69 I posted above, I was a little surprised that is was a top GTOAA show winner. The level of the restoration is outstanding, I just had never seen all natural parts in the rear before.
here is a link to the car: http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1969-...t-love-affair/

[dataway]

The big clubs put out a specific list, very specific, of exactly what they want to see for judging. I can only assume it's not correct for all cars from all plants etc. But ... they have to settle on something.
Could be, when it comes to Judges, that specific plants were know to assemble them in specific ways that might differ from other plants. Specially with Judges, they are extremely well documented .. kind of a different ball park than the rest of the Pontiac world.

Just checked the GTOAA "concours" judging list .... for the finish on rear axles it says "some chassis paint" in the comments said "Axles partially painted is accepted factory practice"

From what I've heard, I don't know myself, that if an owner presents documentation to explain some aspect of the car that deviates from the norm, the judges will take that into consideration.

I've come to realization that I don't have the time or the money to build a concours car, so I'm shooting for a local show winner type. Since my car is an extremely common GTO ... hardtop, auto, verdora, YS400 etc. Nobody is going to care if it's perfectly correct .... If it was a Judge or had a slew of rare options, it might be different.

[68ragtop]

Thanks for your efforts & thoughts on this.
My car is in the same boat. Other than a Convertible, there were 3-4K built. Nothing special. I am trying to make the build as nice as I can, but it would be picked apart on a concours correctnes level. I already cut the body in several places to give it way better than factory panel gaps, zero overspray, etc. But I still want the car to look correct to the average guy, & of coarse I want it to be what I will be happy with. Not trying to make others happy. But, I also don't want to have regrets later with things I can't seem to decide on now. Just like the suspension bushings for example. I like the look of the gold energy suspension parts, but I know the factory ones where kind of a gray phosphate looking color (never had one in my hand) Those are things I can change easily now, but not so much later, nor would I want to take the car apart again. this restoration is going on the backside of its second decade & when its finally together (hopefully this year) its not coming apart again.

But stuff like the diff & springs I have seen both ways, especially springs in the front. I have two sets of original springs front & back & neither of them have any evidence of paint on them at all. But they came out of Midwestern cars. I do like the idea of putting a natural looking colored spring in the front to set off against the black, but don't really want to do it if it considered completely wrong. On the things that could go either way, I might mix it up a little.

Another thing I see is the sway bars. Most black, many of them cast gray or bare steel silver. So much black under these cars & my floor pans are black also. I do like some things standing out a little as long as they still "look the part"

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by 68gtoMN

Most originals I have seen were painted from behind across the diff. The "front" portion of the diff had overspray but was not completely finished with chassis black paint. Underneath has paint and some wrap around paint from spray but back sides were painted from behind. I doubt springs were natural

I worked in the dealerships when I was young. A lot of them would spray the rearends from the back with a fresh coat of black (visible area) to make the cars look good long enough to sell. Not always, but it was a common practice.

[68ragtop]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

I worked in the dealerships when I was young. A lot of them would spray the rearends from the back with a fresh coat of black (visible area) to make the cars look good long enough to sell. Not always, but it was a common practice.

I heard of stories where the new car dealers would spray bomb some of the chassis parts while they were coming off the car transporter. There was so many bare steel parts on cars back then & even into the 80's & beyond. Heck, brand new cars today have parts rusting underneath in almost no time. For what cars cost today, I think there should be a little more corrosion resistance underneath, but 95% of people could care less about the underside.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by dataway

The big clubs put out a specific list, very specific, of exactly what they want to see for judging. I can only assume it's not correct for all cars from all plants etc. But ... they have to settle on something.
Could be, when it comes to Judges, that specific plants were know to assemble them in specific ways that might differ from other plants. Specially with Judges, they are extremely well documented .. kind of a different ball park than the rest of the Pontiac world.

.

A-body GTO's, were assembled at the same plant as chevelles at Baltimore as one example, so it could technically be safe to assume that a minor practice used on a chevelle in a given build time frame would likely also be seen on a GTO coming through the same plant. Such as paint coverage on a rearend for example.

You're right in assuming it's not the same for all plants. Things differed greatly from one to the next. Take for example mustangs from that era. 3 different plants and all 3 were different. Floor finishes for example, one plant sprayed them black, another red oxide, and the other used batch paint.
The F-body plants were the same way. A Firebird from Norwood would be red oxide, while Van Nuys was spraying them black. Even where and how stickers were placed changed between mustang plants.
You also have issues like production run changes where parts and pieces and/or methods change mid run. 100's of examples of that. Tough to do these cars properly, and even the judges haven't totally grasped it all as there are still new things being discovered.

[68ragtop]

Well, The rear diff is finally redone. (for the second time) I got over the bare metal look & went with black again.
I have to say though, I am not so sure I am liking the way that 60% gloss looks on the cast housing section.