C1 engine compartment

[Pat #25912]

The JG says the heater plenum on the firewall of my '59 should be "unpainted natural fiberglass finish". Well somebody has painted mine black like the firewall and I would like to correct that. Eastwoods doesn't have a spray can of "unpainted natural fiberglass finish" yet and I have no idea of what the end result should look like. Can somebody please suggest how I might correct this?
Thanks again. Pat

[Mike M.]

Re: C1 engine compartment

remove the duct or plenum from firewall, saturate the critter with laquer thinner and keep it wet till the dastardly paint is soft enough to remove with a papertowel. ya don't want to use steel wool or any other abrasives which will loose the semi-shiney patina that the duct should and did possess when it was installed at the st louis plant. good luck, mike

[Gary Bishop]

Re: C1 engine compartment

On my `62 it was painted also. I put it in a 5 gal pail of a water-TSP mixture and let sit for a week. Pulled it out and it was clean of paint and left the dark grey fiberglass looking great.

[Chris H.]

Re: C1 engine compartment

Mine was black looking with the whitish fibers showing so do not try and get it to a natural fiberglas like the underbocy.

[Gary Bishop]

You have a better description. *NM*

[Mike E.]

Re: C1 engine compartment

I've been loooking at these for 30 years--convinced that they had several diffent suppliers--some had considerably more light-colored fibrous "hairs" showing than others--but definitely were unpainted, and had evidence of light fibers.