Inner Fender Cover Plate Color

[Daveh]

Hi Guys,

Are these inner fender covers supposed to be body color or black?  Thanks

[anlauto]

always black

[Cuda Cody]

    Black.   

[RUNCHARGER]

I paint them gloss black, not sure if that is right or semi gloss after all these years.

[71GranCoupe]

Below is a quote from another site/poster;

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Most brackets in the engine compartment were made in the Chrysler plants and dip painted in a cheap glossy enamel that faded to what many would call semi gloss. These can be identified by the paint runs that always happened after dip painting.

There is a detailed explanation of dip painting in the book "How to Restore Your Muscle Car" by Donahue, 2nd edition, 2005. Basically a water filled vat is topped with a thin layer of oil base enamel that floats on top, Parts are dipped, then hung up to dry. This method was used by all auto makers in the 60s-70s because it was much easier than spray painting and wasted no paint by overspray. This method works very well with big bulky parts like seat frames/springs.

You can dip paint using a bucket or similar filled with water and topped with 1/8" or so of Rustoleum black enamel, pint size, from WalMart, using wire hooks. The bucket must be large enough and deep enough that the parts never touch any side or bottom, or the paint film will be disturbed.

Some examples are brackets for A/C, alternator, and PS; receiver dryer bracket; motor mount brackets; horn brackets; clutch torque tube; removable transmission cross member; etc.

Components provided by vendors, such as the A/C compressor and the receiver dryer were typically spray painted by others in a semi gloss black.

AND A COMMENT


The vats that the manufacturers had were paint only and were topped off with whatever mix of black was required to do the next job. That is why the gloss level looked different from part to part. The percentage ended up being whatever they had left and whatever they added.

[Cuda Cody]

That seems like it would work well with large batches of the same item that you had to paint over and over.  But us guys that are restoring 1 or 2 cars it would be a lot of extra paint that would cost a bit of money and then not get used.  And what would you do with all the left over paint? 

[71GranCoupe]

That seems like it would work well with large batches of the same item that you had to paint over and over.  But us guys that are restoring 1 or 2 cars it would be a lot of extra paint that would cost a bit of money and then not get used.  And what would you do with all the left over paint? 

For sure on that one Cody. Just what we need is to have a 50 gallon drum of black paint in the way. Just thought it might give others an idea of the original process. 

[Cuda Cody]

It's cool to hear about how they did it back in the day.   

[Daveh]

That was really cool to hear how they did it back in the day but some semi gloss is all that I will need.  Thanks guys. 

[RUNCHARGER]

That's the first time I had heard that but it sure makes sense. I know I try to put runs in everything I paint (well it looks that way anyway).

[Claudia]

I painted my inspection covers semi-gloss black . . . but . . . (here it comes) I also painted my engine bay black.  If I would have painted my engine bay the body color then I would have still painted the inspection covers semi-glass black.