1960 over spray

[Paul Rose]

I am into the painting part of this job and was wondering how much should be over sprayed. Was the fuel pump and fuel pump push rod cover installed before paint? If so the fuel pump will have over spray on it. I have done a 1964 Chevrolet full size car that had 50k on it and the fuel pump push rod cover was black. It must have been put on after the engine color was sprayed. Also the oil dip stick tube. Is it black with engine color at the base or all engine color? The dip stick aswell, Is it bare steel, black or engine color. If the flywheel cover were installed before the engine was painted the hardware for it should also be painted with overspray on the bell housing.

[John H.]

Re: 1960 over spray

Paul -

The fuel pump mounting plate and the fuel pump were installed at St. Louis, and are not orange; the plate may be either black dip-prime or raw - process was not consistent. The dipstick tube was also St. Louis-installed, and was raw; the dipstick itself was also installed at St. Louis, and is not painted. The flywheel inspection cover was installed at Flint Engine, and will have some orange overspray on it.

[Paul Rose]

Re: 1960 over spray

Thanks for the help! As far as the flywheel cover, when it was installed onto the bell housing was it in black paint and then over sprayed engine color? Or was it painted engine color before it was installed?

[John H.]

Re: 1960 over spray

The flywheel inspection cover was raw when installed at Flint Engine, and was oversprayed with orange. Service parts were supplied in black dip-prime.

[Jack H.]

Basically....

a very reasonable rule of thumb is to use your AIM (assembly instruction manual). If the part's called out for installation as part of the St. Louis final assy, it probably wasn't on the engine at Flint/Tonawanda when Chevy orange was shot!

There are exceptions here/there, but this rule of thumb will get you real close to factory concours.

BTW, I've pulled maybe a dozen 4656 and 4657 fuel pumps off 'untouched' scrap yard cars over the last five years and noticed a common thread. Typically, I see a parting line on the upper portion of the fuel pump body flange that bears reminants of Chevy orange....

This would only happen IF the pump was there and masked. I define an 'untouched' engine as one that has the real McCoy original intake gaskets on it (with 'GM' ID tabs on front/back gaskets--NOT available in reproduction today) showing original Chevy orange overspray....