57 vette powerglide finish

[Mike M.]

flat black or unpainted? your opinions appreciated. thanks, mike

[John M.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

I vote for flat black. When I restored my unrestored 60, it showed substanital black paint on the case, so I painted it all flat black. I never took a single point hit on it all the way through Duntov.

Regards, John McGraw

[Mike M.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

thanks john. did the shift and kickdown levers and rods appear to be unpainted natural cold steel? mike

[Mike E.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

Mikie--
This time of year in Wisconsin, everything appears as cold steel!!!

[Mike M.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

even the monkey's brass pair?

[John M.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

Mike,

This was an issue at almost every single judging. The JG says that both the bracket and linkage were cad plated complete. Mine did not appear to have ANY remnants of plating on it, when it pulled it off, and I did not plate it. I took a deduct for this at judging, but I declined to pull it off and plate it.
This is one of those things that I think the JG is wrong about, but you can't fight every single issue. I have 2 complete linkage setups on the shelf right now, and neither of them show any evidence of plating ever being on them.

Of course, the 57 uses a different setup for the kickdown linkage than the later cars did, so it may have had the same finish.

Regards, John McGraw

[Mike M.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

john: can you post a picture of the kickdown linkage. what i've got, and am faitly certain is original to the early vette, doesn't look like the one in the assembly manual. i agree on non-cad finishes. mike

[John M.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

Mike,

I am no expert on 56-57 cars, but I believe that they used a bellcrank mounted to the intake manifold. On 58-60 cars, the bellcrank was bolted to the bellhousing bolts. Take a look at page 160 in Nolan's book for the 57, and page 266 for the 58-62 style bellcrank.

Regards, John McGraw

[Roy B.]

Re: 57 vette powerglide finish

natural cold steel on the trans linkage