Is there a rule of thumb for the bell housing finish? I have a challenger that looks like the aluminum bell housing was painted orange. but I also have a 1970 charger that has the aluminum bell housing that shows no paint. The Charger I have good history on but the challenger is my buddy's and I'm not sure. The challenger is a Hamtramck car.

In general, manual transmission cars had engines which were painted with the bell housing bolted on and accordingly they typically received a fair amount of over spray. They weren't intentionally painted, they were just in the way. Most I've seen had 1/2-3/4 coverage, some had nearly complete coverage, and some had very little, just depended on who was behind the gun that day.

The engines were not assembled or painted at Hamtramck, just to clear that up.

I agree with Scott on that painting, I have seen some cars with very little right at the back of the engine & some with most of the bell painted & all in between.

If restoring, take 'before' photos then put it back the way you found it.

Thanks guys, How about the inspection cover was it on also at time of painting?

yes, cover as well

were the engines painted by hand? i was told by a very knowledgeable restorer that they were painted by paint jets as they went past in a cradle of some sort? i haven`t seen any original paint engines to work things out yet even though i`ll be restoring a 65 273 signet engine soon with factory red on it, and my 69 charger is all original but haven`t got around to that yet. where were they held for the painting process? engine mounts? where else?
all the best
frank.

I agree, all evidence points towards them being painted by hand. If your expert has proof of otherwise Id love to see it. As far as how they were held/mounted, it varied with the engine plant and the engine series, some were fixtured by bolt on tabs as evidenced by bare/unpainted areas that were covered by the mountung tabs as found on the fronts and rears of the original paint heads and blocks Ive observed.

definitely going to look closer at some original paint engines...not too many around this end of the world. the expert i was referring to was a phone call to roger. he also said the front harmonic balancer had a fixture for balancing that clamped onto it and left heavy marks on the paint and the vin was stamped after all this and there shouldn`t be any paint in the stamped numbers themselves. i had a look today at my charger and it looks like the carburetor was not on during painting of the engine-won`t be sure until i take carburetor off but that`s how it looks-is it only the sixpack cars that the carbs were on before paint?
all the best
frank.

Well Roger would certainly be a good source, however from what I've seen so far there are many inconsistancies that would point away from an automated paint process. There were also more than one method used in terms of engine series and plant.

i agree
all the best
frank.

"is it only the sixpack cars that the carbs were on before paint?" What example of original six pack carbs with paint on them makes you think that is the case?

there is never any paint between the carbs on original intakes. either the whole top was masked off or the carbs were masked off before choke and other linkages etc attached.
see pic of original low mile 69 1/2.
all the best
frank.