Anyone know what the factory finish was ?
All the grease and dirt protected the steel, just very light rust underneath.
TIA,
Porter
Just a joke here, under the 1/8 of grease and dirt it was surface rust, I cleaned off all the grime, sandblasted them and painted them chassis black, no sign of any cadmium plating, or black paint for that matter.
Porter
Chassis black is probably as good as anything. Mine dont have any paint on them either and are caked with brake dust and road dirt.
Lynn
Black. Every backing plate I have ever seen, new or old, was painted black. Now, some had more gloss than others.
I would say you caould paint it a semi-gloss black and be pretty dead on.
Mike
I dont think they had any paint anyway, not a trace of any finish what so ever.
Im sandblasting them and painting them black inside and out, the car is getting modified anyway, I dont do any repair/resto work without cleaning the parts to bare steel and paint or clearcoat for a finish.
Most of these cars had dubious repair work performed to them by less than desirable mechanics.
Im blasting the drums and painting them black too.
My 90 Chevy Van came from the factory with a bare steel front end, pretty sad. Must have been coffee break time. Then again one of my old employees had a new 90 Ford van that left the factory with an ungreased front end, wore out pretty quick, they rebuilt in for him.
Porter