'58 Rear Axle & 3rd Member Question

[Harry L.]

We are restoring a '58 fuelie and would like some input as to the correct finish of the 3rd member assembly. Should it be painted as the rest of the assembly, or left unfinished?
The 1958 - 60 Corvette Restoration Handbook shows some photos of the assembly, and the 3rd member appears to be natural.
Also, can anyone verify whether the paint marks on the axle housing were done prior to the process of painting the pumpkin. If that is the case, how would one verify that the paint marks were even there.
Any photos and authentication would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Harry

[Harry L.]

Re: '58 Rear Axle & 3rd Member Question

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks

[Dan H.]

Re: '58 Rear Axle & 3rd Member Question

Harry, my 58 had the whole rear assembly painted cheap tar chassis black, springs and all. The top leaf spring was silver when you used gasoline to remove some of the blackout. Think they shot the whole assembly at same time.
Dan

[Bill M.]

Re: '58 Rear Axle & 3rd Member Question

Here's a picture of the center section on my '59 4.11 posi. There is no evidence of the chassis black left on this rust belt rear axle assembly.

[Dan H.]

Re: '58 Rear Axle & 3rd Member Question

Bill, Harry, the AIM shows the complete rear axle assembly as one unit, including emergency brake cables, brake drums etc. This would have all been shot as an assembly with the tar type paint which wasn't very hardy stuff. Good picture in Noland's book, page 222. I also have some Peterson Publishing photos showing it all black. I know it's not as pretty as separate unpainted components but that's the way they started out.
Dan

[Tom P.]

Re: '58 Rear Axle & 3rd Member Question

Harry,
I have inquired about this issue many times--------------both here where the supposed expert gurus reside, as well as other Corvette AND pass car forums. ZERO authorative answers! I've been building this style rearend for 40+yrs, although, just in the past few years I have become cognizant of, and interested in, the various paint blobs that I've encountered on various rears (55-64 pass car/56-62 Vette rear center sections), both posi and non posi. I've encountered LOTS of yellow paint blobs at different locations on the center case, as well as blue, white, green, etc. No one seems to POSITIVELY know what each color represents, nor which case got a blob of which color.
It does seem to be fairly well acknowledged that during the machining and assembly processes at the rearend plants (Detroit Gear and Axle for Vettes only), paint blobs were applied as the various inspections, assembly and torquing was accomplished. But how, what, who, when seems to be unknown. Black on these early rearends seems to be somewhat predominant, but as to when and how much was applied, again, no one has yet provided any authoritative replies.
Last, it does definitely appear that upon final chassis assembly at the Corvette plant, the ENTIRE chassis was painted black-----------everything. Also, based on what owners have observed on the underside of the cars, this final black paint was not very durable and eventually came off. If you have, and take a close look at, some of the assembly line photos in Noland's book, it is quite obvious that the complete chassis (prior to body drop) of these early cars was solid black. One exception seems to be the front sway bar links which clearly show to have a cad or zinc finish which would indicate they were installed AFTER the application of the chassis black paint.
As a result, what I do now when I rebuild rears for people, is to take pictures of the paint markings after cleaning the surface of the case, then after final assembly I attempt to duplicate (AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE) the original paint markings. Some people like to have the rear returned with a plain finish (with or without paint markings) and some prefer to have the rear returned with a semi-flat black finish.
Below (on a very recent rearend rebuild) are examples of before and after paint markings that I encountered on what I strongly believe are what was applied on a virgin 57 Vette rear center case with base 4bl/PG and a 3.36 non-posi rear (as best as I could tell, this rear had NEVER been touched).












Unlike many other rear center cases, the one above has a red oxide type finish. Here's what I've observed (as well as gleaned from other owners) over the years. The 55-56 and EARLY 57 rears were painted INSIDE and OUTSIDE---------------BEFORE the case was machined----------with some kind of a red oxide paint. After sometime during the 57 model production, this red oxide paint was discontinued. Since this rear came from a 57 Vette built in Nov 56, I returned the red oxide finish to the outside. The red on the inside was in excellent condition, so I only cleaned the inside (besides, it can't be seen anyway). The pinkish color in some of the pictures is misleading and I believe it is because of the flourescent lights at the different times that I took pictures. The forth picture from the top is more representative of the actual color I used.