When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I am close to painting the block after a complete rebuild. Is there a resource to direct me in what gets painted orange and what stays natural? I've owned the car sine '68 and everything was rust brown on diss-assembly. Do the plug heat shields, wire mounts and other accessories get painted or stay natural? Thanks for any help.
2025 c3 ('68-'73) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2025 Corvette of the Year Finalist - Modified
2024 C1 of the Year Winner - Modified
2023 C1 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2023 C3 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2022 C1 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2020 C1 of the Year Finalist - Modified
2019 C1 of Year Finalist (performance mods)
2018 C1 of Year Finalist
The NCRS judging manuals would be a good source. The brackets you mentioned would be the natural finish. The block, heads, oil pan, water pump, bell housing, and front engine mount would be engine color. The lower HP engines would have the intake and valve covers painted engine color too.
Last edited by Geralds57; Aug 19, 2011 at 06:04 PM.
Photos below show a typical C1 engine (a '58 270); the top rear plug wire/ignition shield supports, Z-bar bracket and road draft tube are semi-gloss black, and the fuel pump mounting plate is natural. The water pump bolts should be orange.
Those are some luscious photos of an engine on a stand. What can one do to freshen the orange paint without completely dismantling the car? I'm in the process of having the fuel injection re-built, so the intake manifold and plate are off. When I get my FI unit back, that part of the engine will look great, and the rest will look pretty shabby.
Not much I'm afraid....I've had some luck with a mild degreaser like Simply Purple to clean the GM orange up and have spot painted some pieces like the oil pan...the rest is too hard to do without some major disassembly.
I thought the bellhousing was natural with varying degrees of overspray from the block? John Z's shows painted and I'm not one to disagree with expertise, any definitive answer on that?
I thought the bellhousing was natural with varying degrees of overspray from the block? John Z's shows painted and I'm not one to disagree with expertise, any definitive answer on that?
There was a lot of variation in bellhousing paint coverage on Flint engines; the pre-1960 engines with cast iron bellhousings got a lot more paint than the '60-up engines with aluminum bellhousings.