C2: paint advice for '66 rear spindle supports

[Gary B.]

I know that the consensus is that '66 rear spindle supports were painted semi-gloss black, which I'm about to do. My question is, what surfaces should not have paint? I'm assuming that the vertical parallel sides of the two lower ears should not have paint since they were probably machined after painting. But what other surfaces shouldn't have paint? How about the parallel flat areas on the inboard and outboard sides of the support, through which the 4 trailing arm bolts pass? Should these be bare? What about the two small flats at the very bottom of the lower ears?

Thanks,

Gary

[Joe L.]

Re: C2: paint advice for '66 rear spindle supports

Gary-----

When they were painted, the spindle supports were component painted prior to machining, just like brake calipers. So, all of the machined surfaces should show no evidence of paint. The paint that once existed in those areas ended up on chips on the machining room floor. The non-machined surfaces should be painted. Of course, don't forget that these parts were undoubtedly NOT carefully painted which likely resulted in many "holidays".

[Joe L.]

Addendum

By the way, I have an NOS set of the 64-74 spindle supports which have 1967 dates on them [none for sale]. Neither of these has any paint, whatsoever, on them. When manufactured at the same time, the SERVICE supports shouldn't have been manufactured any differently than the PRODUCTION supports. The facility that manufactured them simply sent some spindle supports to the Gear and Axle plant for assembly into PRODUCTION trailing arm assemblies and sent others to GMSPO for packaging and sale as SERVICE parts.

[Gary B.]

Paint vs. non-paint

Joe,

I'm aware that some people also believe that '66 supports were not painted and chose to go that route when restoring their supports. However, given the option of paint and the judges and TIM&JG acceptance, as well as my dislike for rust, I'm going to paint mine.

For the most part I can tell what surfaces were machined, but I'm not 100% certain about the 3/8" x 7/8" flat at the very bottom of the lower ears. This flat is oriented about 30 degrees from the horizontal when the supports are installed in the car. Do you know if this was a machined surface? Or cast?

Thanks,

Gary

[Joe L.]

Re: Paint vs. non-paint

Gary-----

Yes, when it could have been done either way, ALWAYS choose the option that it was painted. I was just pointing out an observation on the pieces that I have. I was not trying to imply that all of the these spindle supports were un-painted.

The lower surfaces that you described were machined.

[Gary B.]

Thanks Joe. *NM*