Lots of activity in this forum from me here tonight. Sorry if I'm boring you! :boring: Anyway, I'm degreasing the bell housing and the inspection cover and I noticed they look like they both were originally painted black. I always thought the bell housing was natural aluminum. Although the black comes off rather easy after sitting in the degreasing tank, it looks uniform enough to be paint. Anbody have an answer on this one???
The color is satin black I looked for a picture but all I have is the no paint pictures of the cover I sell
Thanks Mike. I was all set to hit the bell housing with Alumablast, glad I asked. I'll shoot it with satin black. :TU:
Interesting.... That's what I originally thought. The bell housing looks like it has paint on it, but I suppose it could be something else. Thank you for clarifying.
Bellhousing Colors Ken, to be totally correct you are to have a over spray of Buick red at the lip of the belhousing if its like Corvettes where the engine was painted with the belhousing attached (I didn't do mine like that). I painted the bellhousing alumium blast and the engine the correct color. AL.
I wonder if the assembly process was the same? Were engines painted before the tranny was assembled? Or after? Hmmmm.... This is a picture of why I thought it was painted. The black you see did not come off in the degreaser and sure as heck looks like paint. The car's been in the family since '71 and the bell housing was only off once for a clutch job by yours truly. I didnt paint it that's for sure. One of life's mysteries, I guess. I don't see anything in the assy manual about paint or not.
Here's a pic of what looks to be what's left of some sort of mark on top of the bell housing in yellow. There's only a little bit of it left.
i believe that the engines were painted from the engine plant . tranny attached just before assembly time .
Engine Paint That is different then the Corvette assembly, The engine is painted with the bellhousing attached. As I posted earlier no overspray on mine, I painted mine separately, and put the engine together with on gaskets then painted it then reassembled it so you could see the clean new gaskets.
Ken, Looking at that pic, and also knowing that you have had the car in the family it's entire life, and knowing no "hot rodder" painted it black at some point, I would tend to believe that your particular piece may have left the factory with black paint on it. Mike's car was a '70, and I have a '70 4 speed car here, and it for certain never had any paint on the bellhousing, but that does not mean your 71 did not. The best evidence you have is in your hands, and I would go with it, if I was doing your car. Most of the "knowledge" of painting and plating colors comes from restorers and enthuisiasts taking cars apart, and carefully inspecting them. And your car would be one that I would consider very valuable for that process. It is very possible that for some reason, they started painting the bellhousings in '71.. a good way to get more info on the subject would be to poll owners of '71 cars that came with 4 speeds originally and are still in original conditon. JW
Flywheel Inspection Cover Guys, I always thought that the inspection cover was black also. My GSX cover has always been black, at least since 1977 when I bought it. But, I am helping an original owner restore his 70 GSX 4speed that was untouched and his cover was natural steel, no coating, no paint. It was litely rusted on the outside but the inside was fresh steel. I found this out after putting it in the parts washer to get it ready for blasting. Now I have to change mine. Both my car and the other GSX have natural aluminum bellhousings, no paint.
