OEM Radiator Petcock Detail

Thanks!

hi mike

i had done some reaearch on this awhile ago, and from the untouched and or hardly touched survivors ive researched the petcocks werent painted

when i saw this thread i was getting ready to head out of town and didnt have time to post right away.

also, going by what dave w posted, that if they had the petcocks on the assembly line, the petcocks couldnt have been painted + why were they then on the assembly line.

i could try to apply logic to support my findings and state that the petcocks werent installed due to the possibility of them getting broken during shipping and handling, but i dont know that for sure as i wasnt there and its just a theory.

after reading bobs posts it made me think maybe i had not researched properly, so i called frank badalson, he has been smart enough to have been researching and documenting survivors for many years and has always been very helpful with detail issues.

frank has 2 survivors at his shop now, an T/A and a 70 coronet iirc, he checked both of those and some pictures he had of other survivors and all of the petcocks were natural and on manual trans cars the block off plugs were all natural.

i ran by him what bob had posted and he said that even though bob is trying to apply logic that you cant always do that and doing so will get you in trouble sometimes when applying that to methods that were done back then.

he also said that so many components from mfg's had plastic plugs in threaded holes. then the plastic plugs were removed and an end user put their own fitting or whatever in there.

he mentioned the dana rears for an example, he said all of the threaded holes had those plastic plugs, but the one at the nine oclock position never got used, the plug stayed and got painted black because it did not get used. thats not theory, its fact.

i asked frank if he would jump on the thread and post.
he said he wouldnt because of the BS that incurs if you disagree with certain board members and therefore get attacked because of it. so its not worth it.

thats a real shame, because frank does have an awful lot to offer.

anyway, ive attached some pics of a 3000 mile e-body survivor that i happen to have pics of that area of the car

another

quote: [i asked frank if he would jump on the thread and post.
he said he wouldnt because of the BS that incurs if you disagree with certain board members and therefore get attacked because of it. so its not worth it.]

I can relate...

Tony,
I actually did'n use logic(you know me), I got that information from the man who was the manager of Blackstone (18398,20446,61018) back in the 60's and 70's. I'm going to contact him to see if he remembers this conversation with me. May take a while to get a hold of him but I will post when I find out.

Bob

Hi Bob

Thanks for chiming back in

thats great that you have access to somebody like that.

please ask him to be clear on petcocks + fittings not plugs in the holes, i understand that it was 40 years ago now + may be hard to recall at this point.

not to bring this up just because it supports the theory that the petcocks + plugs were natural, but why would the petcocks be on the assembly line if they were already installed

maybe Dave W can come back with some more details

thanks again
tony

Paul + Rick

you guys are very knowledgible and i love when we have informative discussions about the cars + parts.

hopefully everyone appreciates what you have to offer and realizes that even if we dont agree on something, that we can still discuss it without attacking or taking it to a personal level. for god sakes, its only old cars were talking about here and we are all on the same side.

we are all here trying to learn and educate,
and unless an old assembly line worker or old part vendor chimes in with pictures or documents from back in the day its just left up to us archeologists to figure out

Hi Mr. T,
I know I'm not the "Dave W" you were asking for (He is probably still healing form the beating his brother gave him for publicly admitting that he that was stealing from his employer/Chrysler ) but I thought I could add a little light on the subject. The original drain plug on my Valiant was painted as a unit. As with many areas concerning Chrysler assembly and parts, I don't think that there will be a line in the sand regarding this subject matter. One thing to remember is that Chrysler didn't manufacture the large majority of parts they used to build their cars. They were basically a General Contractor that located and collected the subsidized components that it took to construct their vehicles. Concerning the radiators, you would almost have to conclude that someone in the engineering department had the common sense to have assembly line parts manufactured as "complete" units. Take a wiring harnesses for instance! Can you imagine the mayhem it would have been if the assembly line workers would have been responsible for putting the wires in their connecting plugs or for having to wrap the wires together in order to "complete" the harness? The same logic was probably used for radiators. Since they were manufactured by a subsidized firm (commissioned by Chrysler) you would have to assume that they were built as complete as possible. They most likely had those small pieces already in place. Each work station had roughly 60-90 seconds to complete their task. It wouldn't make much sense for a small component (that could easily be installed by the original manufacturer) to be left out and the line worker be responsible for putting it in place.

Like most manufacturing facilities, these drain plugs were probably "stocked" at or near the "radiator assembly station" just in case one was damaged during installation and needed to be quickly replaced. It wouldn't make sense for the assembly line to be shut down because a "petcock" was damaged during assembly. In the end I think you will conclude that both ways are actually correct.

Well said Tony... My '68 Hemi roadrunner petcock came unpainted but like everything mopar, never say never.

Still got them old NOS '69 roadrunner wheel disc I sold you ages ago.. as one mopar magazine put it "for a song"? I don't remember you singing to me??

Ask me what I paid for them..

This is from a 800 mile car, as described by the seller

all 3 plugs are natural + still have the original clamps and hoses

ebay listing of radiator

I shouldn't post this but I'm gonna. Tony and I were talking about this at the Indy show and both kinda thought most would be bare. SOOOO, I went on a journey today of my radiators. I sorted them to make sure they were original, and ones I had personally removed from cars. So I came up with 18 originals and, are you sitting down? 9 were painted black and the other 9 were bare, with slight oxidation on some of them-indicating they probably always were bare, or the worst paint ever! I tried to find a pattern of years or bodies but it was totally random.

So I learned today that I'm confused on this subject as well....