I am preparing to reassemble my front suspension, but would like to know the correct colors for the various components. I know the a- arms are semi-gloss black. How about the brake splash shields, steering knuckles, and caliper mounting brackets?Thank you.
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Re: 1967 Suspension Colors
Joe-----
The front splash shields were zinc or cadmium plated. I believe that zinc was used on most, if not all. The same is true for the caliper mounting brackets.
The steering knucles were bare (natural) forged steel.In Appreciation of John Hinckley -
Re: 1967 Suspension Colors caliper mts ?
Joe
I thought the caliper mounts were gold cad,or did I goof in thinking the brake booster m/c cap and caliper mounts were the only items gold cad or yellow zinc.
FHComment
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Re: 1967 Suspension Colors caliper mts ?
Frank------
I thought that the dichromate finish for the front caliper brackets didn't come along until about 1968 or 69. However, it could have been earlier. For 1965 and, I think, 1966 I'm pretty sure that they were just zinc plated. Perhaps, 1967 was a "transistion" year for the bracket finish.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Joe
You are right and I checked JM first,it says zinc, then Mr. Tripoli's Chassis restoration guide where it lists all 65-72 dust sheilds and ft caliper mounts as
chromate treated zinc(wrong) as well as the GM blueprints lists zinc chromate dated 64 but revised in 67 and 68 but not sure if that I item was revised.
So if GM didn't receive the parts as designed it took them a while to notice.
So blueprint may mean little on fuelie dis. cap ether
I was reading an article about the wright brothers blueprints to THE FIRST
airplane engine which they revised in 1939,seems this year two companies are building engines from these blueprints for renactments and turns out that if built as discribed ,parts don't fit as ,plans are for three similar but diffenrent engines which their was three,but they did fly and so did GM.Comment
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Re: trust not the writen word
The upper and lower control arms are full gloss black with the bushings, shafts, and end bolts and washers all painted at the same time. I took an original 67 front suspension apart this spring and couldn't really tell what the caliper mount finish was originally. Thought I saw a hint of gold and sent them to Steve Gregori for plating. He also did the backing plates in silver, which I think is a zinc plating.
BLComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
So Bryan - did the caliper mounts then receive the zinc dichromate gold hue treatment? Just curious, I am about to plate my 67 shields with clear zinc (silver) but am wondering if the brackets should be the same or dichromate? My car is a late 67, May built....thx, CraigComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Frank-----
I've also heard that the blueprints for these brackets specified the chromate treatment. Like you mention, though, that could have been added at one of the intermediate revisions. That's why the complete revision history is necessary if one is going to "sort out specific facts" about any part.
It's also possible that the supplier of the brackets omitted the dichromate "bright dip". Perhaps, the parts weren't inspected carefully enough, but, more likely, they got an approval for the deletion which is not shown on the blueprints.
Possibly later, the bracket manufacture was transferred to another supplier and they just made them to print having no knowledge of the previous "off print" approval.
One other thing to keep in mind: the original part numbers for the 65-67 brackets and the 68-82 brackets were NOT the same. The PRODUCTION brackets for 65-67 Corvettes were GM #3864115, left side, and GM #3864116, right side. The 68+ brackets were GM #3928649, left side, and GM #3928650, right side. The latter pair of brackets will SERVICE the 65-67 applications, but they are NOT the brackets used in PRODUCTION. How the brackets differ, I don't know. However, the finish specification could be ONE way that they differ. There must be other differences, though, since I don't think that they'd change the part number for just a change in the finish specification.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
I must add that in the book under finish,he added a note that they where subject
to dispute of their real finish,but after reading the blueprints I ASSUMED it accurate.
I haven't plated anything or cleaned them to look at,but don't think I'll buy 4 gallons of yellow chromate to do two parts,clear zinc just makes it easier for me to do myself.
ThanksComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Frank-----
My edition of Joe Tripoli's book is an earlier one and doesn't have the blueprint for the brackets. What part number is on the blueprint? Is it the 65-67 number set or the 69+ number set?In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Joe
The front caliper adapters#3928649-50 dated 4-14-67 revised 11-15-68 but not listed
also shown is 3864115-6 dated 1-3-64 revised 2-15-65 tolerances and dimension changes
about 20 listed
FHComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Frank-----
Alas, the "plot thickens" and "the pieces start to come together". The drawing sounds like it's for the 68+ caliper brackets which references the earlier brackets (this is common). I know that the 68+ brackets were chromate "bright dipped"; I've never seen a known original that was not. So, the 68-82 brackets are just as the drawing specifies as to finish.
What we don't know is the finish specs for the 65-67 brackets, because we don't have a drawing for those parts. The dichromate bright dip might not have been specified for those, at all. I suspect that it just called for a zinc finish, which is what the parts actually got.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Craig: Yep they were done in gold dichromate, kind of the same color and hue as the booster. Is it 100% St. Louis? I don't know.
BLComment
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Re: trust not the writen word
Thx - after reading the rest of this thread, I am not sure about the dichromate dip after the zinc....thx, CraigComment
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Re: No dichromate on '65
Craig,
Maybe I should stay out of this discussion since my car is a '65, but for information and another data point, my splash shields and caliper mounting plates have enough finish remaining to tell that they were clear zinc (silver). There is no trace of a gold dichromate finish.
Hope this helps,
GeneComment
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