66 Corvette rear differential finish

[Shane Gee]

What is the correct finish for the rear differential and where can I purchase the paint? Does anyone have the actual paint number or name? Thanks in advance.

[Bryan L.]

Re: 66 Corvette rear differential finish

Shane:

The actual finish for the differential as well as the cover is natural. Be advised that a natural finish will rust almost as quickly as Bill Clinton can tell a lie. There are some products available that you spray on natural metal to slow the rust. Quanta sells a product for that. They have a great website. THere are many types of cast iron paint that looks identical to a freshly cast part. Pep Boys has it, and Eastwood, Quanta, and most every vendor has it. Be aware that if a Top Flight car is your goal that painting parts that were originally not painted will cost you points.

By the way, I painted mine. I live on the Texas Gulf Coast where rust is pretty much inevitable.

HTH,

Bryan

[Patrick H.]

Natural

Shane,

The finish is a natural, as-cast, raw iron finish. Many people will tell you their favorite brand of "cast blast" type product that they would use, but I find many/most to be totally wrong in color and a VERY poor protectant against corrosion.

Personally, for cast iron pieces, I am leaning more and more away from doing anything to them other than cleaning with a good solution such as Simple Green and then spraying them liberally with PreLube 6. Sand or Bead blasting will usually remove the natural "skin" that formed in producing the part, and the more blasted parts I've tried to work with, the more I believe that removing that "skin" does more harm than good. I haven't gotten to the muriatic acid or naval jelly stage of rust removal yet, but I'd love to know if anyone else has found a way to remove the (mild surface) rust without blasting. Of course, if a part is so severely rusted that the "skin" has all rusted already, then blasting will likely be necessary, and you'll likely end up with "cast blast." That still doesn't change my lack of affinity for it, however.

Better yet, can cast pieces be "reskinned" like aluminum ones, e.g. intake manifolds?

Sorry for the long answer. I'd like to see what others have to say.

Patrick

[Bryan L.]

Re: Natural

Patrick;

There is a guy in Maryland who is well known in the Camaro world by the name of Jerry MacNeish. He has written a couple of excellent books regarding first generation Camaros. He reskins aluminum parts and states on his website that he does the same for cast iron parts such as exhaust manifolds. The website is www.z28camaro.com. It would be interesting to see how durable and rust free a set of manifolds could be.

bl

[Patrick H.]

Re: Natural

Bryan,

I've heard of him through John 29964, but didn't know he did cast iron as well. I may be tempted to give him a try on a recent purchase. I would GUARANTEE you that I'd soak them in PreLube 6 upon receipt, as even my blasted manifolds did VERY well with only this as a protectant.

Thanks,

Patrick

[Gary B.]

Jerry MacNeish; reskinning

Several weeks ago I contacted Jerry MacNeish via e-mail to ask about his 'reskinning' of cast iron exhaust manifolds. I didn't ask him what process he used to do the reskinning, but I did ask if he did anything to seal the surface when complete. He said "they are sealed with high temp cast blast." At that point I decided to hold off sending him my exhaust manifolds and reconsider doing them myself. I assume his approach to a cast iron rear differential would be the same, i.e., seal with cast blast. Does anyone know how Jerry does the reskinning process? Is is simply some kind of media blasting? And could one get him to reskin, but not paint with cast blast?

Gary

[Bill W.]

Re: 66 Corvette rear differential finish

Mornin' Shane,

Your differential should be raw cast iron. It may have an inspection mark in chalk or a paint dab on the pinon. Since the diff is so well hidden, GM was not concerned with including it in the list of items to be blacked out. Bill

[Dale Pearman]

SKIN?

The presence of a skin on any cast metal be it greay iron or aluminum is a concept that I can't fathom. Surely there must be a metalurgist among us who can shed some light on this concept.

Was a release agent used in a sand mold? I think not! I always thought the term "reskinning" was a marketing ploy to charge five times what a tumble cleaning job was worth.

Dale.

[Dave K.]

Re: Natural

I'm restoring a 66 roadster and the rear end and other chassis parts were fairly corroded. A friend and fellow NCRS member is a professional Corvette restorer and suggested a media blast to obtain the natural appearance. I've experimented with several clear coats including NAPA clear and Krylon gloss and satin clear paint. The Krylon satin works well and leaves no glossy appearance. Actually the appearance is almost invisible. I read in this forum about others using a gloss clear followed by light scuffing, which I also tried, and which does give a satin appearance. I plan to use the Krylon satin following the light media blast. I want the clear for corrosion protection and since the car won't be taken out in bad weather and will be stored in a heated garage, Krylon, which is a lacquer paint, should work fine.

Dave Kitch