Painting my 1970 455 motor this weekend - curious to see if there is a good source of info on what is correct? Things like - should the short water neck hose get painted, should the intake vacuum fitting be natural or painted, what about the choke warm up tube plate?

 

DOH!

 

Paul, I don't know answers to your questions, but one thing I found is that if you paint the engine with automotive paint with a paint gun it will last WAY longer than with spray cans. I painted the engine in my Cutlass with automotive acrylic enamel when it was out in 1994 and it still looks good.

 

Paul, the engine was assembled before it went to the paint station. They selected among rigid pre-made masks to cover the areas that didn't receive paint, such as carb and exhaust manifolds.

If your engine has an aluminum intake manifold, a mask would have covered that. In that case, the thermostat housing and lift strap would not have been painted, except for a bit of overspray--underspray might be a better term. The bypass hose would have some paint on it.

 

VC… did you mean “…THEN it was painted” instead of “when”

And I know that at least on 65’s the water bypass, oil filter, bell housing always had a good fog of bronze.
Not sure about later years.

 

Yes. Fixed.

Thanks, Peter.

 

Yes, no, and no, respectively. I think.

 

I see so many restored 1970 442 W-30's with the lift hook and thermostat housing painted.

 

Not to mention the letters on the O.A.I. adapter painted...

At least this one has the valve covers on correctly.

 

Where are you getting your paint? I have a '71 455 to paint and am not finding the correct blue. Or I am not looking in the correct places. Many years ago I think I used an Eastwood paint that I really liked but don't see that available anymore. Not trying to hijack the thread, but help is appreciated. Thank you.

 

also keep in mind when you paint do not paint places where hoses connect. ie. where they connect should be bare cast iron. how do I know? had a lower radiator hose blow off the water pump. paint made it to slippery. not a problem afterwards with clean rust free metal, and just hose with nothing else and good chincing down.. also saw this on an Olds factory display engine that had no paint where the hoses connect..

 

I think the reason paint was not there from factory is there was a cap over it. Paint does not make a snout slick enough for your issue otherwise machined metal on other things would not hold.

 

It's not correct, but they will oxidize. I suppose satin clear would work.

I see this is a paint mark restored car. Working in an automotive factory for 20 years has removed the mystique and romanticism of QA marks off things. My retirement project restorations will not have QA marks as I will be my own QA.

Allow me to tangentize. At my OEM, we have a thing called pokayoke, which is a "did this happen right" check, and have electronic Pokayoke Interface (PI boxes) to electronically tell the line that this happened for this car. Usually, it's good, like
did this car receive 4 correct torques from this gun? Good? Ok then. However, there was a check. It was done by a team member, and to show he did the check, he made a mark with a grease pencil (like the X on the valve cover).
However, since the pencil was not tied to the line, they wanted to keep the pencil on a tray covered by a small light curtain that would have a PI box making sure the team member picked up the pencil and put it back each car.

This was thought to be the cat's *** by non-technical management. I wanted to ask them if the severity of their case of stupid was enough to hurt. Ugh.

 

Sorry to contradict but in 50 yrs of doing this I've never had an issue with a (clean) hose slipping off a painted pipe or water pump fitting. In fact it sticks better IMHO

 

I’m looking also, have you found something? Thanks

 

You are looking for something like this?

 

Thanks! I don 't know how that remained invisible to me for so long,

To Paul: The corresponding page in the 1970 Assembly manual is 6-24. The "do not paint" notes are the same except the oil filler cap is to be painted in 1970.

 

[QUOTE=shiftbyear;1669549]I see so many restored 1970 442 W-30's with the lift hook and thermostat housing painted.
/QUOTE]
Are they supposed to be painted, or are we mocking this?

 

The previous two posts have the details you need to verify how your engine should be painted. (Spoiler: Yes, this is mockery.)