Under body colours

[PDR521]

Hi I have stripped my car down to the bare chassis and had it sandblasted so it is time to think about painting.

I believe the correct colour for the chassis is semi-gloss black but what about the other components.

At present the Dynaflow is painted silver and I doubt that is correct, it looks like the torque tube might have been the same colour as the engine and I have no idea about the springs etc.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards
Peter

[58limited]

BillS would be a good source for this information. If he doesn't see your post and respond, you might try sending him a PM (personal message): click on members at the top, click his name, then click on send PM.

[BillS]

Peter,
Did you get the reply I sent yesterday on this.
Bill

[BillS]

Peter,
I moved this out of the private message to the postings for all to see. This way others may have some comments on this that could help
Bill

I can not give you an easy answer to what colors and paint should be on everything. The paint colors and if the part was painted, depend upon the supplier, assembly plant, and when the parts were done. This becomes worse as you get into the 60s on up. However some items are fairly standard at the time.

The frames were painted with a chassis black and did have a satin black look when new. They dulled down quickly when exposed to the air after a short time and became flat. Chassis black was not a very good paint as was intended to stop rust for a year or more and it looked like it was put on with a trowel instead of a spray. If you use a very good paint in a satin finish such as Eastwoods Chassis black or have black mixed and dull it down to satin it will look and be as close as you can come to the original finish as the car left the factory. As to the other components:
Usually control arms and spring are black. chassis black. Depending upon the supplier they sometimes have a better finish than chassis black and maybe a little glossier. Nearly all of the chassis parts should not be a gloss or high gloss paint. The torque tubes were usually black and had two or three color bands painted near the transmission end and were about 1/2 inch wide. These were an inspection color, they were a red and green band, red near the transmission followed by the green and I have seen some other color after that, but the red and green have appeared on all the cars I have done.

As to the tie rods and and steering parts. This is harder to predict as some of these were unpainted and did rust. You can paint them and still be correct. When I cleaned the parts of the all the grease I was able to tell if there was any paint on them. If you leave them unpainted you can spray a clear coat to keep them from rusting. The tie rod tube could be painted or not. Brake backing plates are hard to tell. I have seem some cad or zinc plated and no paint. And I have seen them painted black. The backing plates on our Roadmaster and Limited are zinc plated.

The transmission should not have any paint on them. They are left as natural steel or aluminum. Usually re builders will paint them to look good, this is not correct. Hope some of this will help
Bill

[morje58]

Hi

When cleaning my Brake backing plates on my super i saw that the where GOLD zink platet

I sand blastet them and it was there I saw it. no painting at all

Just like the power Brake Booster is gold zink platet also

Visit

http://picasaweb.google.com/morje58

You can se my Braking plates there.

Morten
DENMARK

[BillS]

The brake backing plates were not painted on any of the 1958 Buicks I have worked with. I have seem them gold or clear plated ( bright zinc) This probable depended upon the assembly plant and suppliers. The only backing plates that have been painted have been on restored cars (probably not correct). You could feel safe in having them plated. There is no documentation from Buick on this so tho only way to tell what was done is to do what you did, look at the areas that were bolted together and see what is under these areas.