RKC
Member
383 Engine Air Cleaner Restoration: I plan to paint the outside gloss black. What are the recommendations for painting the inside of the air cleaner?
383 Engine Air Cleaner Restoration
- Thread starter RKC
- Start date
When I was getting my '67 Newport detailed and spiffed for some indoor car shows back in the 1990s, the paint I discovered was an exact match for the air cleaner paint and other "black" paint under the hood was, strangely, GM Gloss Black Engine Enamel. It was a perfect match, although the word "gloss" was in the name. I used it to spray the air cleaner with and also sprayed it into a glass jar and used a "fine hair" artist's brush to do the hard a/c tubing. It looked outstanding as to color match (yes, there are different shades of "black") and importantly, gloss. I sourced it from work (which was a Chevy Parts Department I worked in for 46.5 years).
Working there supported my "Chrysler Habit" quite well! I also learned many things which also related to Chrysler and why/how the (and other OEMs) did things! Even if it might have been "cavorting with the enemy". My '67 Newport CE23 was a trade-in from the orig owner's widow, in 1981, so it's all good.
ONE thing I have observed is that aftermarket "restoration paints" might not be accurate for what was used in production. No matter what their seller might claim, so proceed with caution.
One other discovery was that the Turquoise engine paint was an exact match (by color chip from the local Sherwin-Williams body shop paint supplie at the time) for a 1968 Dodge Pickup truck "Desert Turquoise" body paint. So he mixed me some in acrylic enamel. I used a PreVal sprayer and some Home Depot reducer to paint a new oil pan. Using Berryman's B-12 to degrease it first. It sprayed on greatly and has been there since the early 1980s in "full gloss".
The bad thing about OEM-sourced spray paints is that few dealers will stock then. Used to be that we would stock them to paint new short blocks and such our shop would install, but with the advent of the GM "Target Motor 350" program in the later 1970s, no need as the motors came painted blue. So finding the "Engine Black" in stock might be difficult. The other issue is that it might take buying 6 spray cans as a "minimum order" situation.
An option might be to find a body shop paint supplier who has an old formula for that GM Gloss Black engine paint and get them to mix you a quart (usually the minimum amount supplier will mix). Such engine paints were usually more-inexpensive enamels rather than the same acrylic enamel that went on the car bodies. Their purpose was to protect from rust, which is why they were sprayed quickly without much concern about "thin spots" or a run or two on the valve covers.
I also used the GM Gloss Black Engine Enamel on all of the black brackets which were on the engine, too. Again, perfect match of color and gloss.
There IS a moving scale for "paint gloss" levels. From 100 to 0, or vice versa, FWIW. What is termed "semi-gloss" is too dull for the engine items, by observation.
As always, proceed with caution until you find what works for you, as I did. In the aftermarket, it might take a few tries to find what is really an accurate match.
From my experiences,
CBODY67
Working there supported my "Chrysler Habit" quite well! I also learned many things which also related to Chrysler and why/how the (and other OEMs) did things! Even if it might have been "cavorting with the enemy". My '67 Newport CE23 was a trade-in from the orig owner's widow, in 1981, so it's all good.
ONE thing I have observed is that aftermarket "restoration paints" might not be accurate for what was used in production. No matter what their seller might claim, so proceed with caution.
One other discovery was that the Turquoise engine paint was an exact match (by color chip from the local Sherwin-Williams body shop paint supplie at the time) for a 1968 Dodge Pickup truck "Desert Turquoise" body paint. So he mixed me some in acrylic enamel. I used a PreVal sprayer and some Home Depot reducer to paint a new oil pan. Using Berryman's B-12 to degrease it first. It sprayed on greatly and has been there since the early 1980s in "full gloss".
The bad thing about OEM-sourced spray paints is that few dealers will stock then. Used to be that we would stock them to paint new short blocks and such our shop would install, but with the advent of the GM "Target Motor 350" program in the later 1970s, no need as the motors came painted blue. So finding the "Engine Black" in stock might be difficult. The other issue is that it might take buying 6 spray cans as a "minimum order" situation.
An option might be to find a body shop paint supplier who has an old formula for that GM Gloss Black engine paint and get them to mix you a quart (usually the minimum amount supplier will mix). Such engine paints were usually more-inexpensive enamels rather than the same acrylic enamel that went on the car bodies. Their purpose was to protect from rust, which is why they were sprayed quickly without much concern about "thin spots" or a run or two on the valve covers.
I also used the GM Gloss Black Engine Enamel on all of the black brackets which were on the engine, too. Again, perfect match of color and gloss.
There IS a moving scale for "paint gloss" levels. From 100 to 0, or vice versa, FWIW. What is termed "semi-gloss" is too dull for the engine items, by observation.
As always, proceed with caution until you find what works for you, as I did. In the aftermarket, it might take a few tries to find what is really an accurate match.
From my experiences,
CBODY67
I think that they dipped the air cleaners to paint them. I know they did that with other parts and brackets. Basically, they just dunk the part in a big vat of paint and let it drip off.
So, IMHO, the inside should match the outside. Even if it was sprayed, they would use the same paint.
What the correct outside color is always up for discussion... From what I've read, it was gloss paint to begin with but aged fast into a semi-gloss appearance. I don't think the factory was that fussy. If it was black, that was good enough.
RKC
Member
The inside looks like bare metal without any paint. I think that is the way they came from the factory.
Yes, all of mine have been sprayed with bare metal innards. OTHER parts were dipped into a vat/bucket of paint floating on water, which also had runs in them, but air cleaners were sprayed form what I've seen.
CBODY67
CBODY67
I have seen them both ways, but thinking about it, the larger ones are probably sprayed, so bare metal is probably correct. Since they don't rust a lot on the inside, I'll bet they are dipped in some sort of acid etch, like a phosphate. So you could do a bare metal type spray or even just use some Ospho to etch and keep from rusting. That wouldn't flake like paint might.
Yea, you are probably correct, but it seems to me I've seen smaller air cleaners that look like they are dipped.
Actually, if done correctly, the dipping doesn't leave runs in the surface. Schwinn (and others) bike frames were done like that.
I remember now where I've seen the inside of the air cleaners being black and looking like they are dipped. The bases of the unsilenced air cleaners!
IIRC, I read a big discussion about this somewhere, probably about Roadrunners and probably years ago.
I had to google it and spotted this right away. Saw several original looking air cleaners like this. The repops may or may not be the same.
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