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I would be willing to bet that they were painted black when sold as a service part. Joe Lucia would be a good person to contact... He seems to have a pretty serious collection of Corvette service parts.
They were delivered to the engine plant natural... The only reason that they were orange is because they were on the assembled engine when it was painted orange.
Many natural steel or iron parts used in production were painted black for sale as service parts... These parts had to look good for the customer.
For what it's worth, current harmonic dampners are sold painted black.
Regards,
Stan Falenski
Last edited by Rowdy Rat; Nov 15, 2012 at 11:55 AM.
I agree with Stan. The service replacements of any part that was 'bare metal' as it came in the vehicle, was likely painted black for spare parts. (Except for fasteners or 'working' parts which should not be painted.) Those things sat on shelves for years; and bare parts would begin to rust if sitting for that long...even with treated paper around them.
The balancer on completed engines in vehicles were either Chevy Engine Orange or Corporate Blue (after mid '77). But, short blocks or complete engine spares were painted black, as purchased from a GM dealer.
Hi kis,
Please don't post accolades like that.... I can't live up to them!!!
I know a lot about one car, but very little about any others.
Regards,
Alan
All the ones I saw on the shelf back then (late '60s, early '70s) were raw metal,smeared in thick gooey cosmoline-like grease, wrapped in brown paper and sold inside a box.