63 F.I./JG question

[Michael H.]

Helping a friend with the restoration of a 63 fueler and there's some question about the plating on the 45* PCV valve fitting that screws into the side of the F.I. plenum. Does the JG mention a plating for this fitting? I told him it was zinc or cad, but possible some may have been natural brass. Need info from owners of orig cars or FI units. Thanks.

By the way, the research department at BYPC Inc has officially renamed these platings zincad to eliminate having to type both words when the exact plating is not known.

[Mike McKown]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

I have an original. It looks like blackened brass. Same color as the PVC screwed into it.

[Michael H.]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

Mike,

Could this be old tarnished cad? I have several old FI fittings and some still look zincad while areas of others look darker.

Same seems to be the case with the 90* vacuum advance line fitting on the air meter. New, these were zincad but turn black after decades of exposure. I'll try to post a pic if I can find it.

[Michael H.]

Scan Of A New 63 Valve/Fitting

This is a shot of a brand new FI 63 taken at the St. Louis plant. Definitely zincad on the 45* fitting. (also shows the correct black 590 PCV valve, not a silver 590C)

[Michael H.]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

Here's a good example of what happens to zincad plating on a typical brass fitting. This is a pic of a weeks old 63. The 90* fitting on the vacuum advance line is silver/zincad. Next pic will show this same fittting 40 years later.

[Michael H.]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

Vacuum advance fitting decades later. It appears dark grey, almost black. I don't think any 63 FI cars ever left the assy plant with black PCV valve fittings. Possible some may have been natural brass but likely all were zincad.

[G B.]

My experience

I've gotten a few very early '63 units with unplated brass PCV elbows. However, about 95% of the original PCV elbows that I've seen on 7375 units had been chemically blackened. You can't chemically blacken plain brass, it has to be cad plated first.

I've never seen an unrestored '63 unit with a silver colored plating on the PCV elbow, and I've never seen cad plating turn darker than gray with age.

[Loren L.]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

Three good photos in Noland's book on pages 134/5.

[G B.]

"Pilot Line" units

Loren, all three of those photos show sand cast Pilot Line 7375 units. I believe the lower photo on page 134 might be '63 VIN #2.

Those sand cast 7375 units are almost too freaky to describe. I've only got three of them, but there are probably dozens more of them in private hands today. I believe they had unplated brass PCV elbows.

Look at the photo on page 140 for a typical production '63 blackened elbow.

Jerry

[Mike McKown]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

My 90 degree advance fitting looks like your picture. My pvc fitting looks like it is blackened as Jerry describes. My knowledge of plating characteristics is close to zero.

[Michael H.]

Re: My experience

I just received a great pic of what is absolutely without question, the most untouched ultra low mileage 63 FI car on the planet. Pic was taken decades ago and the car is as genuine as they get. Guess what color the fitting is! Yup, zincad. Even the silver threads show in the pic.

As I remember, the car is in the 8000-9000 ser# range. I'll get permission to post the pic in a little while.

More pic's coming soon.

[Michael H.]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

which picture? The new car or the 40 year old fitting?

My plating knowledge is near zero also Mike. I only know that I vividly remember these fittings as silver when the cars were new. I suppose it is possible that there was a mix of silver and black fittings on the St. Louis assy line at some point in production though.

At the very minimum, I would have to guess that's at least possible for these to be either way, silver or black.

The 90* vac adv fitting was supplied by Rochester while the PCV valve 45* fitting was supplied by GM at St. Louis. Anything is possible.

[Dave Morris]

Re: 63 F.I./JG question

Gentlemen, Interesting topic. I always thought the natural brass was correct for the very early units and then they were blackened. I believe, but can't be 100%, that my unit #51 has the original brass elbow and pvc valve.
Look at the first paragraph on page 139 of Noland's book. If I am reading him correctly, he seems to be going a different direction than anyone has so far.

[John D.]

Re: My experience

Michael, I have seen numerous blackend fittings on the '63's but grant you they are suspicious. Zinc darkends to grey black with age. Cad seems to hold up better. Tin on the other hand really get ugly. It would be a wonderful thing if you, Jerry, and others could document this fitting because it's definitely a problem child on restos. I tried blacking brass with chemicals from the gun smiths but they came out poor at best. Then I tried cad plating and blackening the cad but they came out smeared and unpresentable. My plater said he could not blacken them. I used to use bare brass on the early models and still do. Then Blackened on the later models and still do. But hopefully you can convince the right people to go zinc cad all the way. Understand that there is little difference between the two platings if you use the right plater. Jerry jump right in and save me. John

[Michael H.]

Most Incredible Original On The Planet....

Here's a pic of what has to be the most incredible untouched original 63 FI in existance. Car is just the way it left St. Louis in early 1963. If I remember correctly, it has only 5000 or 7000 original miles and has been kept covered indoors since new. The original PCV valve 45* fitting is absolutely plated silver, not black. Even the threads that are visible on the male end are silver. This doesn't prove that every one was silver but it certainly does prove that at least some were. Pic was taken about 20 years ago and I'm sure many of you know this car and it's unblemished reputation/history.

Later, I'll try to post some pic's from Hot Rod magazines of new 63's that have the same zincad color fitting. There's lots of em....

I have a lot of original fittings from years ago when I rebuilt/restored FI units. Some still look silver while others have turned to various different levels of dark over the years. (decades)

My point is, don't deduct for a silver plated fitting if you see/judge one at the next event.