Anyone have an NOS unit or conclusively seen how a OE '70 455 starter was finished? I just got mine back from the rebuilder and the have the end cap, the main starter body and the metal portion of the solenoid in black with the nose housing natural. I vaguely remember the OE ones being completely painted in black except for the part of the nose cone that you cannot see after it is installed.

 

This is the only remotely clear picture I have of the starter on a completely original SB that I pulled apart:




It looks like everything but the nose was painted black, and it then received a generous top coat of gold overspray.

Sorry that I didn't take any pics of it cleaned up, but I think I didn't clean it up - just threw the bits in different piles.

- Eric

 

Thanks, MD. I pretty much suspect from my parts store days back in the 80's selling new Delco starters that contrary to popular opinion, the OE starter was pretty much painted all black except for the nose cone that would not be seen after the the starter is installed. Anyone else?

 

Thanks to the above and some info I got from a very credible source, below is the finish color and coverage I selected for my starter. Per the PIM, the starter, if it was not installed when the engine was painted, was NOT excluded from being painted so MD's picture makes sense. I don't know yet if I will intentionally overspray mine.

 

Make sure there is no paint on the mounting surface or where the boltheads make contact for grounding reasons.

 

And put the ground strap = support strap on.

 

If you really wanted to be freakishly correct...hard to see in the pic, but I think those solenoid screws are wrong.

 

Funny you should mention that. The starter was returned to me with some really stubby large head Phillips screws holding the solenoid on. I looked in the PIM, and found two different drawings that depict what screws are (as far as the PIM). In one drawing, it looks like two slotted screws are used, and in another, it looks like hex head bolts are used. I looked at the screws that came off my OE 68 Hurst starter and it uses the hex head bolts so I took those off that starter and used them on this one.

 

The soleniod bolts don't look right to me either. I think the stubby phillips would be better.

 

Interesting how much detail is involved for a part that almost no one will see. I understand what's going on with it tho, because I went through that with mine. There was enough detail on my OEM that I could use that info for the cleanup and rebuild. Nice work Joe. BTW, what was the source?

 

... don't forget to put some engine paint over spary on it, to be 'factory correct'...

 

Stater motors were installed before engine paint. Starter motor brace was also on before paint. Also ,non w cars, the stat housing and bypass hose was on before paint as well. Bell housings on stick cars were also on before paint.
Even the distributor was in before paint

I love assembly line correct stuff but these cars looked like hell on day one.

 

...and all this time I thought the guys with the rattle can look engines weren't doing it right...

 

Thanks Joe. Based on yours and other comments, will put those tubby Phillips head screws back on. I still however think the nose housing (except for the part that goes inside the Bellhousing) is black. Someone who had a starter and alternator rebuilding biz back in the late 70's, doing some work for GM dealers, contacted me and remembers them being black - which I think if you read MD Mechanic's text says his is also finished as. Also the new New Delco staters I sold were finished like this, but anything is possible.

I will do the overspray thing - lightly. I took detailed pics as to how much overspray there was on the distributor.

On a related note, according to the PIM, only the inbound fuel nipple and the threaded output fitting of the fuel pump are specifically excluded from being painted - anyone ever see an OE one with paint overspray on it, and was it much?

 

The amount of paint coverage/over spray likely varied. I have read (and based on my car) that very little paint was applied on the pan bottoms and sides. The starter would blocked paint from getting on block and pan in that area. I have a factory fuel pump that had paint on the fuel feed line portion of the pump body, a good amount there. I suspect as the coating on the pump oxidized the paint must have come off, as it seems very unlikely the paint only hit that spot and not the rest of the pump body. The side of the block on mine had very little paint coverage. I Can still see the different blotches of paint along the block (inspection paint blotches?) in Orange on the side and I think remember seeing some green or some color there too. So for mine, it had little to no paint applied along the left side of my block…(Lansing built)

 

I have several original fuel pumps with blue paint on them. I will clean a couple of them up tonight and post some pictures. I decided to not do the overspray on my build. I did hit just a very small amount on the front of the intake manifold but I didn't mean to. I decided to leave it that way because I didn't want to redo it. The 16,000 mile 72 W-30 I had, had blue overspray on the front of the intake and I know it was original.

 

For those wondering about the overspray, here's a video I've posted before.
The relevant portion is between 4:34 and 4:41 minutes.


- Eric

 

Eric, my intake had no overspray on the front, but quite a bit in the back. Based upon MD's video, it is no wonder there is widely different patterns of overspray on different engines!

 

Inline has those Phillip bolts repro if you need them shiny!

 

I did not get time to clean a fuel pump but did look at one. It was painted most everywhere. The back side did not get much but most everywhere visable when mounted was covered. Where the assembly manual shows to not paint the areas on the ends of the tubes and the outlet, This one was painted all the way to the end of the inlet and some of the return line. The fuel line had pulled the paint off most of it but just next to the bulge at the end of the line there was still paint. The outlet square nub had paint but nothing around the outlet hole itself. Almost like it has tape over the outlet hole. I am 95% sure this pump was on an engine painted at the factory.

 

Eric, thanks for the research. I don't know why I will find it easy to purposely overspray the back of the intake, but to overspray the starter and fuel pump will be a tough thing for me to do.

 

Joe the number stamped on the solenoid barrel is 1114364. What does the Delco casting look like? Mine has the Delco logo with a very small Made In (the) USA also on the cap, but no P/N.