In stripping the crud from my 72's front suspension parts, I have noticed that the low-gloss black "paint" they sparingly had on them seemed like a thin asphalt material. It is much harder than dried grease and is faily consistent in thickness.
It is softer than real paint and stripped easily with wire brushes and somewhat disolved with solvents.

I found this same stuff on the frame after I gently scraped through the dried sand and crap.

Is this black stuff actually the paint? Reminds me a little of a very thin undercoating.

 

When I worked at a GM plant in 1972, they sprayed a thin black paint on the frames when the suspension was completed. It was a light dusting.

Maybe your car was undercoated?

 

lots of parts were dipped. they floated a layer of "paint" on a vat of water or other fluid.

 

My car does have some thin undercoat looking stuff on it, but this stuff i am referring to can be found in placed the undercoat would not have got to.

The inboard side of the backing plates has some of this 'paint' and I know they were not dipped, as the front had none.

Anyone know what the spayed on stuff is/was like? Recon it used to be hard like regular paint but softened with age and exposure to oils?

 

Hey Rob,

The paint on my A-arms (or what was left of it), i could take it off easily with a wire brush, so i'm guessing it wasn't baked on or anything in first place (valve covers are a totally other story...)

 

Come on guys...55 second cycle time on the line.....

How much TLC did these cars get? NONE

Build and ship as fast as they could.

The small parts were dipped, and the big stuff was sprayed...minimally and quickly.

 

As for repainting the suspension parts, I will go with how I see them in the chassis manual. Control arms look nice and black and the spindles and backing plates look natural with some black spray on them. The pictures there and the instructions in the assy manual back up the "on-the-car-fogging".
I will not paint them sloppily like the factory though, as i do not want the rust again.
I might, for grins, slop some black on the spindles and backing plates after the cast iron paint dries!