Just blasted the hood hinges for my 69 442 and i want to know what color to paint these to make them look as close to factory as possible. Thanks.

 

The hinges and springs were originally a gray phosphate color. I would suggest Eastwood Spray Gray as that will get you pretty close. If it has too much gloss to it, spray it with a light coat of satin clear, also offered by Eastwood. If you buy their clear, make sure you buy the one for painted surfaces as they sell the satin clears for bare metal surfaces too.

 

I had trouble figuring it out at first for my '68 but finally found some old B&W pictures that lead me to what I did. First, when I cleaned my hinges, I saw the same thing as you did with the color of the hinge. I blasted mine and painted them cast metal grey. Second, when I cleaned my springs, they were both covered with a light, but solid, coat of rust. I made a "tool" that would hold each spring in an open position and blasted them. The B&W pictures I saw indicated to me that the spring was a slightly lighter color than the hinge, so I used a "stainless steel" color to paint them. I'm not sure of the exact color of the springs to this day but, when I put them back on the hinges, the assembly looked very similar to the B&W pictures I saw before I did the job.

Randy C.

 

I used Eastwood Zinc Phosphate. Right on the money

 

This is what I used, not sure if factory correct but it looks good.

 

I'm going to revise my previous suggestion on the Spray Gray and go with this Zinc Phosphate too. The Zince Phosphate is a little darker than the original phosphate color but it's not that far off and it has the same dull appearance. This will likely be as close as you can get out of a can.

 

so charcoal gray zinc phosphate from eastwood is my best bet?

 

From the research I've done, it looks like it should be the zinc phosphate. I just painted the hood hinges with the Eastwood Zinc Phosphate which you can see in the attached photo. Just be sure to clean them thoroughly and I used a liquid sand as a prep, and then used the Pre Painting Prep Aerosol prior to using a grey primer coat. Then I put 3 coats of the zinc phosphate. After you get done, you will need to lube the hinges as they will be a little stiff.

 

FYI- . I was going to have my hinges sand blasted. I had painted them at one time, so I assumed it was do to rust etc and I did not want to just repaint them again to clean them up.. I desided to try paint stripper, which worked very well. It removed all of the paint. The hinges did not have any rust, and still had the factory grey coating on them. So befor you sand blast and loose that coating, try paint stripper, to remove paint.. Might get lucky and find all of that coating is still there.

 

Just painted them today with Eastwoods Zinc Phosphate and turned out excellent! highly recommend it thanks for help guys.