Steering box black out on 65

[Rob M.]

[Bill W.]

Re: Steering box black out on 65

I have never seen a black painted box. I have seen the cast iron much darker than the light grey "cast blast "color....Bill

[Rob M.]

Steering box black out on 65

The Judging Guide says that the box can be natural or black with varying degrees ov coverage. I am looking for information on that last part (to avoid the use of cast blast or rust).
Thanks,

[Patrick H.]

Re: Steering box black out on 65

Our 66 had a black box, and it appeared entirely painted. Granted, by the time I saw it, the box was 35 years old and the rag joint was off.

Most of the steering boxes I have seen on original cars have been natural cast iron in color. I would suggest that either the entire box was painted as a unit, or it was not painted at all.

Just my $0.02.

Patrick

[Joe R.]

Re: Steering box black out on 65

Patrick,

You have the best explanation I've seen. The steering box may or may not be painted and here's why.

Before the body drop the man with the blackout gun was told to paint anything that was not painted. This was verified by an interview with him at the old St. Louis assembly plant before it was closed.

Picture this: Entire frame coming down the assembly line very slowly. You are told to paint anything that was not painted. Do you do that exactly the same every time? Not a chance! This does explain why the front stab. bar, drive shaft and short shafts are only half painted with runs going around the back side. You bet it explains that!

It also explains why that no steering box can be painted black with inspection marks over the black. They would have been covered by the blackout.

Regards,

JR

[Michael H.]

Re: Steering box black out on 65

The "Final Chassis Blackout" is probably one of the least understood segments of the entire chassis build at the St. Louis plant. There are several good reasons for this. As Joe explained, there was a difference in application from one painter to another but also there was quite a difference between the years 1963 to 1967. In 63-64, there wasn't much on the entire chassis and suspension that wasn't completely coated at final blackout. This included almost the entire exhaust system, top and bottom, the complete drive and half shafts and steering gear etc. (yes, the paint dabs on the drive shaft were UNDER the chassis black)In 1965, with the introduction of disc brakes, the blackout process changed quite a bit because the overspray from the high pressure gun would have gotten a substantial amount of material on the brake rotors and that wasn't acceptable. The front spindle/knuckle assemblies were no longer coated and the drive and half shafts only received a light overspray instead of the full load, and generally just on one side as opposed to the fully painted 63-64. The bottom sides of the mufflers were still a target and that accounts for the coating on both sides of the spare tire carrier.

Another reason why most cars from this era have no coating on the steering gear is the method in which most people cleaned their engines at that time. The quarter car wash ($2.00 now)was still just arriving on the scene which turned out to be the best method for cleaning your engine but prior to that, "Gunk" was the accepted cleaning material and it swiftly removed chassis black from everything. (ask me how I know) I well remember how it cleaned every bit of the mysterious black coating off of several components of my new 64 coupe. I vividly remember seeing the steering gear paint stripes after the "Gunk" bath. The black was gone!

I know there's quite a bit of discussion going on now about just exactly what was and was not coated, especially in the 63-64 cars, but generally almost everything was coated in those years, including the COMPLETE front steering knuckle assembly with backing plate and drum, the COMPLETE rear control arm and brake assembly with drum and both drive and half shafts. I still have the original prop shaft out of a 1963 #19746 which was an all original zero rust car and when I used lacquer thinner on the rear, I found the balance alignment paint dab UNDER the blackout.

I can understand why most restorers don't want to prepare a 63-64 chassis this way. When completed, it looks like a used car dealer schmoozed a car for quick resale with a spray can but if done properly, there are still enough different shades and textures of black to look professionally restored. It's a lot easier on 65-67 but there was still quite a bit of this chassis black on everything.

Michael