1973 Imperial brake booster finish

Boydsdodge

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Hello, I am pretty sure that my brake booster should be zinc plated. I am asking if this is correct? I will be having my booster rebuilt and will having it plated if the majority says that is correct.
Thanks
 
Looks like it should be the gold zinc.

Here's two different super-clean cars that were on ebay some years back.

booster 2.JPG

booster 1.JPG


Jeff
 
Interesting - the bottom photo looks like a low mileage unrestored car, but the upper photo looks like a very nicely "over-restored" car - due to the perfect exhaust manifolds with no paint overspray/burned-off residues, and a nicely painted master cylinder bale. The lower photo seems to show more realistic paint finishes etc.

Regardless, BOTH pictures clearly show the booster as plated NOT painted as I suggested might be the case, so I could well be incorrect in my assumption. From what I was told by Dewey, earlier disc brake cars (with the Bendix dual diaphragm and a Bendix master cylinder) had both the master and booster painted as an assembled unit since they came from the same supplier/manufacturer, while drum brake cars had the booster and master assembled on the assembly line, and the booster was plated/unpainted, since they were from independent manufactures - Midland Ross for the booster, and Bendix for the master.
 
My original 1973 booster is gold cad plated (type II with chromate treatment). Would assume that Imps had the same unit?

You can also achieve this look with a chromate dipped zinc plate.

IMG_6456.jpg
 
That is a Midland-Ross tandem booster. (First photos by big mopar Jeff) Used in Imperials and some Chryslers in '73. If I remember correctly all of the tandem boosters of this type were plated.

Dave
 
Interesting - the bottom photo looks like a low mileage unrestored car, but the upper photo looks like a very nicely "over-restored" car - due to the perfect exhaust manifolds with no paint overspray/burned-off residues, and a nicely painted master cylinder bale. The lower photo seems to show more realistic paint finishes etc.

Regardless, BOTH pictures clearly show the booster as plated NOT painted as I suggested might be the case, so I could well be incorrect in my assumption. From what I was told by Dewey, earlier disc brake cars (with the Bendix dual diaphragm and a Bendix master cylinder) had both the master and booster painted as an assembled unit since they came from the same supplier/manufacturer, while drum brake cars had the booster and master assembled on the assembly line, and the booster was plated/unpainted, since they were from independent manufactures - Midland Ross for the booster, and Bendix for the master.

Bottom photo is from a very original car that's only had some maintenance related work done under the hood. The top car has had quite a bit of detailing done to the engine bay, but I don't think anything was actually removed from the firewall and fenders. Some things have been repainted and the rest of the engine compartment got a heavy dose of used car dealer engine shine, courtesy of Lakeland Lash. I also think that Lash always edited his photos to crank up the color saturation.

I think it's safe to say that Bendix boosters were painted black and most others had some kind of plating on them, either the gold or a dull gray zinc. There may have been one other non-bendix booster used in the 60's that was painted black too.

Jeff
 
My engine looks more like the second photo. The booster has a reman sticker on it but when it was painted incompletely I see some slight gold on the unpainted areas and on the bracket holding the cruise control cable is gold zinc finish.
Going to double check the booster today and valve for the hard peddle before sending the booster out.
Thanks.

IMG_0363.JPG
 
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Is this the new and improved rebuild? Did it solve your braking woes?
No, the last item in the brakes to be rebuilt or replaced is the cast iron combination valve. I purchased a rebuild kit and will do the rebuild over the winter.
 
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