I noticed in pictures of well restored 69 B body cars that the lower control arms, and a few other suspension items are not black, but a silver in color. Can anyone provide me with a paint color or code for these specific parts? Maybe there's another thread about this that didn't come up in my search.

In other words what parts are black, and what parts are not black, and if not black, what color are they?

Thanks!

-Dan

From the factory the only part PAINTED BLACK on the front suspension of your car was the K Frame !

And the shocks and torsion bars.

Yea ok...them too ...but THAT'S it....

No painting - either bare metal, bare metal with cosmoline or plated - depending on the part.

I'm getting ready to paint all of these parts, and I'd like to do the best job at looking somewhat factory in appearance. If something was left in bare metal, I'll likely use a protective paint that resembles bare metal etc.

These pics are from a 1970 B body resto. I have no idea how "original" it appears, but it sure does look nice.





Any comments on the above pics? Specifically what looks correct, and what doesn't? Again, I'm just trying to decide which colors to use on these parts.

Thanks.

-dan

this is what I did

Upper control arms can be either black or bare. Depending on the vendor used at the time.

Sway bar: natural or black?

Pretty sure it is black

I'm at the same point in the process (69 Coronet R/T) as you and have many of the same questions.

So far my plan is

LCA's = quasimoline
http://www.restorick.com/proddetail.asp?prod=PntQuasimoline

K member = Eastwoods Extreme chassis black or 2K ceramic chassis black. anyone with opinions on these products? is it worth getting an HVLP as this could be used for lots of other parts (i.e., are the paint products that much better that it will pay off in the long run? realistically if a few pieces nee to be sent out to be sprayed likely would pay for the unit pretty quickly.)? should this be gloss????????? my thought is gloss for the k member.

Pitman arm, idler arm, center link, tie rod ends and adjusters, and spindles = all shades of gray like Seymour's cast blast, eastwood detail gray, eastwoods zinc phosphate. what would you use to top (clear) coat these? and which other parts would you clear coat?

sway bar and strut bars = shades of gray.....this post is saying black for the sway bar though....need to confirm which is correct. anyone know for sure? now leaning towards black. what about the mounting brackets for the bar....

drums/backing = eastwoods brake Gray. Interested in the red circles in the above pictures on the drums. Resto Rick sells this paint, but haven't seen these circles a lot. what cars received them?

upper control arms? I am uncertain. was leaning towards a "natural" look, but was uncertain what this would be. do you need something more silver than one of the cast gray products?

what about steering boxes? where manual boxes natural (cast gray) and power boxes black? Heard this, but doesn't make sense why the power ones would be painted.

Hope i helped and hope some of the responses to my question will help also.

The sway bar, drag link, and steering knuckles are forgings, so the natural surface finish is a bit different than the stamped steel parts such as upper and lower control arms.

With the sway bar, drag link, and steering knuckles, clean them up with your wire wheel on the bench grinder. Rub wheel bearing grease on to them and wipe off as much excess grease as possible. This will produce a very new looking natural finish and have a protective layer too. If there is excessive rust, sand blast or glass bead blast prior to using the wire wheel.