C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

[Keith R.]

Found an original C1 jack that needs repainting. I understand that the threaded shaft was unpainted so I'll have to remove it from the jack prior to paint but how about the bearing? Was it painted or unpainted? Also, were all the bearings made by the Irwin Bearing Company or were other bearing manufacturers used?

[Bob B.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Keith,

If you found an original jack, then you should be telling us what the paint scheme is! Is your shaft painted? Is your bearing painted? It the piece between the bearing and the main body of the jack painted? It makes the most sense that it was painted as an assembly, but that is a best guess. Unless your jack is a complete piece of rust, then there should be enough paint left to tell you and us the answers we all want to know.

Unfortunately, as a novice, I painted my original before I took pictures of everything, but the jack also should have been painted in some position that would have left bare metal behind where the various pieces hid what is behind them. I assume that this would be in the completely down position. There is no way the factory would have painted it and then jacked it up into another position to get spots hidden the first time.

There were several other manufacturers of the bearing, but I have never seen a bearing blank except on a repro. What is the manufacturer on the bearing on your jack?

If your jack is really original, then you should look over it VERY carefully BEFORE sandblasting and painting, and let the rest of us know the answers to your questions and the questions of the rest of us.

And if you have any paint left, PICTURES would be much appreciated!

Bob

[John R.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Keith and Bob, for what it is worth my C1 jack's Irwin bearing is painted, except the back side that has the Irwin stamp. Where the bearing touches the other jack surfaces (both front and back) show no indicaton of paint. Jack appears to have bare metal or primer in areas indicating the jack was painted in the up position. Bottom of threaded shaft is not painted, but top and side appear to have paint on them. Assumption here is that when painted in the up position paint only hit the top and sides of the theaded shaft, not the bottom. I see you stated shaft should not be painted, so not sure if mine has been or not been subject to a repaint at some point? Thought I would post anyway. Hope it helps. I am curious about what others may say?

[Gary C.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Guys,

IIRC Chevrolet drawing specified "dip painting" for C1 jacks, which is the least cost paint method for a part.

Gary
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[Mike E.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Keith and Bob, for what it is worth my C1 jack's Irwin bearing is painted, except the back side that has the Irwin stamp. Where the bearing touches the other jack surfaces (both front and back) show no indicaton of paint. Jack appears to have bare metal or primer in areas indicating the jack was painted in the up position. Bottom of threaded shaft is not painted, but top and side appear to have paint on them. Assumption here is that when painted in the up position paint only hit the top and sides of the theaded shaft, not the bottom. I see you stated shaft should not be painted, so not sure if mine has been or not been subject to a repaint at some point? Thought I would post anyway. Hope it helps. I am curious about what others may say?

I have never seen primer on an original C1 jack. I think you are drawing conclusions off a reworked unit.

[Keith R.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Bob, I took your advice and looked the jack over very carefully, took photos and then removed the pin holding the threaded shaft in place so that I could remove the shaft completely from the jack assembly. Paint on this old jack is pretty sparse but clearly evident in spots although it doesn't appear to have been dip painted. What is strange is that the saddle has remnants of red paint on it along with a portion of the upper arms it attaches to but the red paint does not appear on the lower areas of the jack. The threaded part of the shaft is clearly not painted however I can't tell if the smooth section was painted or not. I thought I saw some minuscule amounts. Once I removed the shaft from the jack body, I expected to see some paint on the portion of the smooth section where it fits through the fixed yoke of the jack body but there was none there. The cap on the end of the shaft that the spoon end of the jack tool fits into definitely has black paint. I'm not sure whether the cap was painted black and then fitted onto the threaded shaft or whether it was dip painted as an assembly up to the threaded section. I would think that if the jack were dip painted, that it was painted without the threaded shaft installed, then the shaft and bearing installed after the jack paint had cured. To my way of thinking, you wouldn't want to get paint on the threads of the shaft nor inside the bearing. There was no paint on this particular bearing which is a 3066-10 bearing from the Hoover Ball & Bearing Co.

[John R.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Mike, no drawing of conclusions, just reporting what I observed on the jack and stating that it may or may not have been subject to a repaint.

[Gary C.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Guys,

Recall NAPA offered the same jack, except for the paint during the 60's.

Gary
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[John T.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

It is interesting that Keith found some red paint since the NAPA jack that Gary referred to was red.

John

[Troy P.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Agree, probably a NAPA that has been repainted.

These jacks are the hardest thing to paint on the entire car IMHO. You have to keep moving it up and down to expose all the area of each link to get even paint coverage. It is easy to see why they were dipped at the factory.

My suspicion is the screw was not installed when it was dipped but the end of the screw without threads was also dipped. Then assembled such that the bearing and pin were not painted. Just my thinking.


BTW suggest using solvent to get the old grease out and then repacking the bearing before assembly. You can squeeze grease in there with your finger.

[Keith R.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Thanks Troy. I'm thinking that it is perhaps a NAPA or Western Autp jack that had been repainted however its rather puzzling that there is no red paint on the lower sections of the jack - just the saddle and a bit of the upper arms it attaches to.

My supposition is the same as yours. It would make sense to dip paint the shaft up to the threaded section and then install it after the jack paint has cured with the bearing and pin put in place at that point. Supposing this to be true, the pin and bearing would be unpainted.

I can't find an Irwin bearing but I located a Hoover 3066 bearing on e-Bay so I'll probably go ahead and replace the old one with a new one. An old Restorer article describes using a Nice 606V bearing that is also available on e-Bay.

[Troy P.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Do you really need a new bearing? Old one is just an appearance problem?

[Keith R.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Really just a cosmetic thing. The old bearing seems fine but its got some dings from age. Given what I paid for this jack, I may as well spend another 15 - 20 bucks to have it look as new as possible.

[Tom P.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Can anyone confirm that this same jack was factory installed in 50s 1/2ton pickups?
I was given one 40-50yrs ago by a man that said it came with his 53 pickup that he bought new.

[Gary C.]

Re: C1 jack bearing - painted or unpainted?

Tom,

Corvette jack part #3706350 is listed as for a Corvette only.

Some of the AACA guys might know?

Gary
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