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I have a pair of OLDSMOBILE embossed rocker covers that I believe have never been on a running engine and no sign of ever have been bolted to an engine. Dry surface rust on the inside, no sign of any oil ever . They have a weird coating on them, some sort of primer maybe, can't imagine someone would paint them this odd greenish-blue. Reminds me of a nail-head Buick.
Any way, I am considering bead blasting them and painting them the original Olds color. Would these have been gold? Which supplier would be considered the correct color?
I can tell you they are 73-74 valve covers. I don't know for sure if they were available on the 455, but they were definitely gold on those years 350s. I have several sets. They clean up nice and look good on the engine. Nice original pieces you have.
These were used on all Olds engines for 73-74. None would have come that color, so they have been repainted. Originals would have been painted after being bolted to an engine.
I don't know if they have been re-painted then, since the valve covers are not painted until they are mounted on the engine. I see no sign of them ever mounted on an engine or ever run on an engine. There is no sign of oil or residue inside baffles or underside. I wonder if this is some type of sealer, there is no gold paint under this coating. Doesn't mean they could not have been stripped, I know, but I believe them to be nos. I am going to clean them up with the bead blaster and just seal them in case someday they can be painted on a block to color match.
They would look good on my 330 if I ever get around to detailing it. I don't think I could ever make it run better, but it could sure look better under the hood.
I can't imagine that they would paint over bare steel, and ones on the shelf would have to have some sort of rust protection.
I make no claims here, just curiosity.
The hoard of parts (Olds-Cadillac) that I scored from an estate not too long ago came from dealerships in the '70's and from northeast swap meets. The man's collection had a huge stash of parts from the early 50's - early 70's and moved here to God's country (Tennessee) to retire. He built some prime examples of vintage Olds-Caddies using many nos parts in his retirement.
The man contracted Covid in the height of the pandemic and passed due to complications, is the story that I heard. He donated his pride & joy, a beautiful 1953 Olds ninety-eight convertible to the museum in Lansing sometime before his passing.
Those look very good still. Mine has considerable amount of surface rust on the inside, so I will remove it and the green to preserve the best I can using media or electrolysis.
Wow, that is interesting. A new one on me for sure. I might contact them just to get an idea of what it might cost, but I'm sure the process plus shipping both ways would be more than I would want to invest in these.
Look like 1974, as I had heard the tooling was getting dull on the E at the end and that's why they quit embossing them. Those seem to have the low resolution E
