1969 Clutch dust shield

[Kevin S.]

Hello,
I have a thread started on the correct finish for my 1969 manual transmission bellhousing and I am all set on that.

I decided to start a separate thread for the correct finish on the clutch dust shield that attaches to the lower front of the bellhousing. I am wondering if the dust shield was also "orange oversprayed" like the bellhousing or was the dust shield attached to the bellhousing at a later point during assembly. My dust shield is black (not a drop of orange paint on it). It looks to me like it was powder coated black. I believe this is a GM Service Replacement or an aftermarket dust shield since there is also the presence of a roughly 3" x 5' sticker on the front of the dust shield. I have not located a GM stamped PN anywhere? It also seems like pretty thin metal so I am thinking service replacement or after market part.

Question - were the factory 1969 manual transmission dust shields black, black with orange overspray, natural steel color with no paint, or some other finish?

Thank you in advance for the help.

Kevin

[Patrick H.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

See other thread for response

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Hello,
I have a thread started on the correct finish for my 1969 manual transmission bellhousing and I am all set on that.

I decided to start a separate thread for the correct finish on the clutch dust shield that attaches to the lower front of the bellhousing. I am wondering if the dust shield was also "orange oversprayed" like the bellhousing or was the dust shield attached to the bellhousing at a later point during assembly. My dust shield is black (not a drop of orange paint on it). It looks to me like it was powder coated black. I believe this is a GM Service Replacement or an aftermarket dust shield since there is also the presence of a roughly 3" x 5' sticker on the front of the dust shield. I have not located a GM stamped PN anywhere? It also seems like pretty thin metal so I am thinking service replacement or after market part.

Question - were the factory 1969 manual transmission dust shields black, black with orange overspray, natural steel color with no paint, or some other finish?

Thank you in advance for the help.

Kevin

Kevin-------

This is a GM replacement cover. Originals were not pre-painted black but were natural steel. The front was painted engine orange with the engine assembly. Unpainted areas are common, especially on the portion partially shielded by the oil pan.

This cover also differs from the original in another way: note the 2 clips on the edge of the upper radius. These were designed to clip to the rear flange of the oil pan to prevent the cover from deflecting inward and contacting the crankshaft flange. These were not present on original 1969 covers. They were added at some time after 1969. However, the part number, GM #3843943, was not changed so it will take the original print for the cover or empirical evidence to establish just when this occurred.

While the clips were not present on original 1969 shields, I HIGHLY recommend using this style cover regardless of whether original or not.

[Kevin S.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

read it - thank you Patrick

[Kevin S.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Hello Joe,
Thank you for the information and response on the dust shield. I'll get the black stripped off. I will keep this dust shield on the car to address the deflection issue. This might be one of those exceptions where repo is better, at least from an operation point of view, than OEM. Points are points. It's another thing to be able to just drive the car without having to worry about the crankshaft flange. Once I get the black paint off, I'll get it bolted back on to the bellhousing and will include painting this dust shield when I repaint the engine, including the "orange overspray" pattern that I have a good handle on now thanks to you guys and others that have posting OEM pictures of factory overspray on the bellhousing.

Thank you Joe and Patrick for all of your continued support and help with my '69 restoration.

Kevin

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Hello Joe,
Thank you for the information and response on the dust shield. I'll get the black stripped off. I will keep this dust shield on the car to address the deflection issue. This might be one of those exceptions where repo is better, at least from an operation point of view, than OEM. Points are points. It's another thing to be able to just drive the car without having to worry about the crankshaft flange. Once I get the black paint off, I'll get it bolted back on to the bellhousing and will include painting this dust shield when I repaint the engine, including the "orange overspray" pattern that I have a good handle on now thanks to you guys and others that have posting OEM pictures of factory overspray on the bellhousing.

Thank you Joe and Patrick for all of your continued support and help with my '69 restoration.

Kevin

Kevin------


Your shield is not a repro. I'm sure it's GM. It's just that the configuration you have was not used as early as 1969. Just when its PRODUCTION utilization began, I do not know.

In fact, they'd be no reason for a reproduction of this shield to exist inasmuch as the shield, GM #3843943, remains available from GM to this very day.

[Patrick H.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Hello Joe,
Thank you for the information and response on the dust shield. I'll get the black stripped off.
Kevin

You could just leave the black on as primer and paint orange over top, or just strip the front side.
No one sees the back, and a bit of paint is cheap protection.

[Lawrence S.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

I just always painted over mine and left the black as primer like Patrick said.

[Kevin S.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Hey Lawrence and Patrick,
Good advice. The dust shield is in really great condition and just needs to be painted the correct orange color on the front side. I'll leave the back side black since it's in nearly perfect condition once I got all the clutch dust and grim off of it.

I read Joe's post too. Interesting that GM still makes this dust shield. Nice to know since the repro stuff is sometimes hit or miss for quality and fit and this one fits perfect and has the original SEMS head mark small bolts with integral star washers. There was evidence of orange paint on each of the bolt heads so I will put the orange paint back on the bolt heads.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Kevin

[Keith M.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

So looks like to remove dust cover the starter has to come out?

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

So looks like to remove dust cover the starter has to come out?

Keith------


Yes, it does.

[Keith M.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Keith------


Yes, it does.

Two bolts and out. no brace or any other hardware. Knowing what I have seen on my car so far am surprised there was not just one bolt. lol

here are pix of my dust shield. Needs cleaned up but apparently assembly line part. Looks like someone painted it black at some point. Engine was rebuilt and looks like some orange overspray over the black from that. I grabbed a new GM one just cause I could. Will see how well I can get the orig cleaned up. The edge is not totally straight so their are slight gaps between it and the bell housing.

[Joe L.]

Re: 1969 Clutch dust shield

Two bolts and out. no brace or any other hardware. Knowing what I have seen on my car so far am surprised there was not just one bolt. lol

here are pix of my dust shield. Needs cleaned up but apparently assembly line part. Looks like someone painted it black at some point. Engine was rebuilt and looks like some orange overspray over the black from that. I grabbed a new GM one just cause I could. Will see how well I can get the orig cleaned up. The edge is not totally straight so their are slight gaps between it and the bell housing.

Keith-----


I do not recommend re-using this shield, original or not. For one thing, it's slightly distorted and that distortion could lead to contact with the crankshaft flange. You should use the revised, original shield as shown above.

I suspect that this is not the actual original shield. I don't think that anyone but GM's supplier painted it black. I think it's more likely that it was a later SERVICE shield manufactured before the change to the "clip" type shield.