1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

[Joe M.]

Judging Guide says flat black; 1958 - 1960 Corvette Restoration Handbook says no.

C1 PG owners, painted or unpainted?

Mine has remnants of flat black paint under engine orange that I am certain is not correct.

[Terry D.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

Joe
If the Judging Guide says flat black then that is how it will be judged. If you think it came unpainted it is up to you to prove to the judges that is how it came, not an easy task. So if it were me and I was trying to get points, I would do what the Judging Manual says until they correct or change it.
Terry

[Gary C.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

Joe, FWIW all the '57 Bowtie powerglide cars we've Judged that were low mileage and in good condition have had remnants of black paint on the powerglide transmission. Gary....

[Joe M.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

Since the PG is still in the car, I masked off everything around the PG with aluminum foil. It clings great without using tape. I did use masking tape and painters paper to cover the mounting plate between engine and PG.

Used a can of John Deere Blitz Black. Turned our nice, but not sure if the Blitz Black will hold up under transmission heat or the envitable ATF leaks; did not think that through before using it.

[Alexander C.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

Joe, FWIW all the '57 Bowtie powerglide cars we've Judged that were low mileage and in good condition have had remnants of black paint on the powerglide transmission. Gary....

I agree, there is tons of black paint on the PG I have, I don't even think I'm going to repaint it before putting it back in.

Has anyone tried to re-create all of the markings yet? Mine has like 3 different grease pen markings I can see pretty clearly on the top with it out of the car...

[Michael H.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

I have to wonder if there are any factory photos of engines with PowerGlides attached? I doubt there are any for Corvette because most were manual transmission but I'll bet there are some from the passenger car assy plants.
One source I can think of is the link that was posted here on the board a while back that led to a gaggle of pictures from the New York passenger assy plant back in about 1958. It's possible that at least one of those pictures may show an engine and PowerGlide transmission.

I don't know/remember for sure if these units were painted but my guess is that they probably were.

[John H.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

I have to wonder if there are any factory photos of engines with PowerGlides attached? One source I can think of is the link that was posted here on the board a while back that led to a gaggle of pictures from the New York passenger assy plant back in about 1958. It's possible that at least one of those pictures may show an engine and PowerGlide transmission.

I don't know/remember for sure if these units were painted but my guess is that they probably were.

Michael -

I have a bunch of those photos from the Tarrytown assembly plant in 1959, and the engine dress line photos show Powerglides as being black (vs. natural cast iron).

[Michael H.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

Michael -

I have a bunch of those photos from the Tarrytown assembly plant in 1959, and the engine dress line photos show Powerglides as being black (vs. natural cast iron).

Thought so. Thanks John.

[Joe M.]

Re: 1960 Powerglide-Flat black or unpainted?

I painted my PG with flat black paint (John Deere Blitz Black, but it is not chemical resistant and the small leaks that have already dribbled down the side of the new paint have already altered the color and I have not added new ATF yet! The first dribble I see is coming out of around a bolt. Maybe I should have added a thread sealer before inserting the bolts. I am going to venture a guess this early and agree with the others that tried to stop the leaks on the PG with no success or little success.

Big mistake on my part not to find a flat black chemical resistant paint after going to the trouble of masking off the underside of the car around the PG. I would still have leaks, but maybe a chemical resistant flat black paint could have held up better.