- Joined
- Feb 28, 2011
- Messages
- 2,194
- Reaction score
- 411
- Location
- Chattanooga, TN
- My Car
- 72 Mach 1 H-Code (Concourse)
67 GT S-Code 4sp
Thanx for the encouragement everyone. I keep saying it is time to install this stuff and then I find another part that needs more detailing or something requiring a slightly different finish. I think I am becoming the "Rain Man" of suspension pieces.
Eastwood has emptied out my bank account on paints. Here is a listing of the paints I used. Sorry I do not have color codes for some, but I will update this post tonight with that.
Coil Springs: Rustoleum Primer Sealer Dark Gray, Used 000 steel wool and did one continues pull all the way along the coils to make it look like the metal was pulled into a coil. You have to look a little closer to see the affect, but as it ages the lines will become more apparent. The marking colors are Testers models paints mixed to achieve the tone closest to what I could find on the part. The gold is testers gold toned down with some brown. Testers does not make a pink so it is a combination od insignia red and insignia white.
Upper Control Arms: These are the Scott Drake Arms which come in the two tone paint scheme. The uppers from the factory were bare steel so I stripped all of the paint off. Then painted them with Eastwood Detail Gray. It is their closest formulation to bare steel. The factory markings that I have seen on OE pieces almost look like they were sprayed on. I took the pink coloring and used a cocktail straw with my compressor air gun set at about 20 psi to mimic the spatter affect. I then used the air gun to spread around a little.
Coil Perches: These are also Scott Drake pieces that need to be stripped from being black and repainted with Eastwood Detail Gray.
Lower Control Arms:These are Concourse correct as they come from Scott Drake. No rework YEA!
Front Sway Bar: These will have different markings based upon your engine and suspension configuration. Note the color and location of markings when cleaning. Paint is Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black primer. I did not like the sheen of the Eastwood satin chassis black so I opted to leave it in primer. This car is only going to be a fair weather driver and mostly shown so I feel the primer will be sufficient protection. Factory markings are again testers model paint. Yellow that I toned down with some of the insignia white.
Sway Bar Brackets: Cleaned up my originals. I had a fair amount of pitting and etching in them from all of the years in the midwest so I applied several thick coats of Rustoleum sealer filler primer and then sanded them down to a pretty good finish. Some of the bigger pitting is still visible, but I will turn that side towards the back of the car. Finished with Eastwood Detail Gray
Tie rods (inner/outer): These are new replacements that I felt the color on them was close enough to what the factory would have had that I did not rework them. The inners do get the factory pink marking which again is the testers insignia red and white. One thing I noted it appears as though the center link and right inner tie rod are painted at the same time with the pink stripe. I mocked them up on the bottom of the car and noted how the stripe would appear to have been applied at one time to both. If my alignment moves this to much I will just remove the stripe on the inner and redo it.
Note: The rubber boot on the repo tie rods is not similiar to the one used by ford in the day. I purchased both the inner and outer tie rods from NPD and they also carry a reproduced OE boot.
Center Link:Clean the center link and note the placement of any factory markings. I used Eastwood Spray Gray to mimic the cast appearence of this part.
Spindles: I first tried Gun Blueing on the spindles as I have read in other locations that this is commonly used to recreate the factory finish. I did not like the way it turned out. It was to dark in my opinion and didn't look right on the rough casting edges of the arms of the spindle. I stripped those back down and went with the Eastwood Spray Gray. I like the appearence now. I almost forgot, during cleanup on these also note any paint markings. I still need to apply those after the strip/repaint. I found both pink and yellow markings on my power disc spindles.
Rear Suspension
Leaf Springs: Completely disassemble the spring pack. I removed the clamps noting oriantation of the tab and locations on the springs. Remove the through bolt. There really is no tension in the springs when they are not under load. If you look real closely at the metal in the spring you will see the pattern in the steel from the oil quench during manufacturing. I did not want to loose that appearence. I used a medium grit palm sander to get the heavy scale and rust off. These were replacement springs from back in the 80's and had not seen much weather since then so they did not need much sanding at all. I then went an got an 8" PVC pipe at Home Depot plus two caps. I PVC glued one of the caps and let it try overnight. I filled the tube with concentrated cleaner (Super Purple?) and placed each spring in the tube to soak overnight. This loosened up any remaining grease/dirt/ and some paint. I then applied self etching primer and Eastwood Zinc Phosphate paint. After the leaves had dried I again used the 000 steel wool and did full length sweeps back and forth on each spring to create some patina to the the paint and draw out some of the oil soak pattern.
Leaf Spring plates: Cleaned these up and finished with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black
Shock Plates:Cleaned and finished with Eastwood Detail Gray
Rear Axle housing:First and foremost on the rear axle is to get down and clean it with mineral spirits or any other heavt grease remover. The axle housing may have several unique markings on it that you will want to photograph and measure for location. Mine had a large marking on the bottom of the center case and an OK just inboard from the left spring perch. It is up to you on how smooth you want your housing. I spent a fair amount of time grinding on mine, but I did not remove all of the imperfections as I think some of them were there from manufacturing. Remember guys were building these 100's of time as day and they had no where near the concersn we do. Do replace the axle seals and cleanout the housing as much as you can. I finished it with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black. This is where I decided I did not like the Satin finish, but I think I can live with it on the axle housing.
Center Section Extreme cleaning here. Alot of grease and goo. Much like the rear housing the center section is going to have some unique markings. Get your mineral spirits, degreaser, and lots of rags. Photo document any markings and measure their locations. Regretably, I found none on mine. I finished with Valspar Red Oxide primer. Note: this has been discontinued by Lowes so you may need to hunt around. I bought 4 cans just in case. Also know the valves tend to clog easily so invert the can and clean the valve after each use.
OK, I think I have covered all of the paints and finishes I used. If I missed something I will add it through edits.
Hope this helps others.
Eastwood has emptied out my bank account on paints. Here is a listing of the paints I used. Sorry I do not have color codes for some, but I will update this post tonight with that.
Coil Springs: Rustoleum Primer Sealer Dark Gray, Used 000 steel wool and did one continues pull all the way along the coils to make it look like the metal was pulled into a coil. You have to look a little closer to see the affect, but as it ages the lines will become more apparent. The marking colors are Testers models paints mixed to achieve the tone closest to what I could find on the part. The gold is testers gold toned down with some brown. Testers does not make a pink so it is a combination od insignia red and insignia white.
Upper Control Arms: These are the Scott Drake Arms which come in the two tone paint scheme. The uppers from the factory were bare steel so I stripped all of the paint off. Then painted them with Eastwood Detail Gray. It is their closest formulation to bare steel. The factory markings that I have seen on OE pieces almost look like they were sprayed on. I took the pink coloring and used a cocktail straw with my compressor air gun set at about 20 psi to mimic the spatter affect. I then used the air gun to spread around a little.
Coil Perches: These are also Scott Drake pieces that need to be stripped from being black and repainted with Eastwood Detail Gray.
Lower Control Arms:These are Concourse correct as they come from Scott Drake. No rework YEA!
Front Sway Bar: These will have different markings based upon your engine and suspension configuration. Note the color and location of markings when cleaning. Paint is Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black primer. I did not like the sheen of the Eastwood satin chassis black so I opted to leave it in primer. This car is only going to be a fair weather driver and mostly shown so I feel the primer will be sufficient protection. Factory markings are again testers model paint. Yellow that I toned down with some of the insignia white.
Sway Bar Brackets: Cleaned up my originals. I had a fair amount of pitting and etching in them from all of the years in the midwest so I applied several thick coats of Rustoleum sealer filler primer and then sanded them down to a pretty good finish. Some of the bigger pitting is still visible, but I will turn that side towards the back of the car. Finished with Eastwood Detail Gray
Tie rods (inner/outer): These are new replacements that I felt the color on them was close enough to what the factory would have had that I did not rework them. The inners do get the factory pink marking which again is the testers insignia red and white. One thing I noted it appears as though the center link and right inner tie rod are painted at the same time with the pink stripe. I mocked them up on the bottom of the car and noted how the stripe would appear to have been applied at one time to both. If my alignment moves this to much I will just remove the stripe on the inner and redo it.
Note: The rubber boot on the repo tie rods is not similiar to the one used by ford in the day. I purchased both the inner and outer tie rods from NPD and they also carry a reproduced OE boot.
Center Link:Clean the center link and note the placement of any factory markings. I used Eastwood Spray Gray to mimic the cast appearence of this part.
Spindles: I first tried Gun Blueing on the spindles as I have read in other locations that this is commonly used to recreate the factory finish. I did not like the way it turned out. It was to dark in my opinion and didn't look right on the rough casting edges of the arms of the spindle. I stripped those back down and went with the Eastwood Spray Gray. I like the appearence now. I almost forgot, during cleanup on these also note any paint markings. I still need to apply those after the strip/repaint. I found both pink and yellow markings on my power disc spindles.
Rear Suspension
Leaf Springs: Completely disassemble the spring pack. I removed the clamps noting oriantation of the tab and locations on the springs. Remove the through bolt. There really is no tension in the springs when they are not under load. If you look real closely at the metal in the spring you will see the pattern in the steel from the oil quench during manufacturing. I did not want to loose that appearence. I used a medium grit palm sander to get the heavy scale and rust off. These were replacement springs from back in the 80's and had not seen much weather since then so they did not need much sanding at all. I then went an got an 8" PVC pipe at Home Depot plus two caps. I PVC glued one of the caps and let it try overnight. I filled the tube with concentrated cleaner (Super Purple?) and placed each spring in the tube to soak overnight. This loosened up any remaining grease/dirt/ and some paint. I then applied self etching primer and Eastwood Zinc Phosphate paint. After the leaves had dried I again used the 000 steel wool and did full length sweeps back and forth on each spring to create some patina to the the paint and draw out some of the oil soak pattern.
Leaf Spring plates: Cleaned these up and finished with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black
Shock Plates:Cleaned and finished with Eastwood Detail Gray
Rear Axle housing:First and foremost on the rear axle is to get down and clean it with mineral spirits or any other heavt grease remover. The axle housing may have several unique markings on it that you will want to photograph and measure for location. Mine had a large marking on the bottom of the center case and an OK just inboard from the left spring perch. It is up to you on how smooth you want your housing. I spent a fair amount of time grinding on mine, but I did not remove all of the imperfections as I think some of them were there from manufacturing. Remember guys were building these 100's of time as day and they had no where near the concersn we do. Do replace the axle seals and cleanout the housing as much as you can. I finished it with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black. This is where I decided I did not like the Satin finish, but I think I can live with it on the axle housing.
Center Section Extreme cleaning here. Alot of grease and goo. Much like the rear housing the center section is going to have some unique markings. Get your mineral spirits, degreaser, and lots of rags. Photo document any markings and measure their locations. Regretably, I found none on mine. I finished with Valspar Red Oxide primer. Note: this has been discontinued by Lowes so you may need to hunt around. I bought 4 cans just in case. Also know the valves tend to clog easily so invert the can and clean the valve after each use.
OK, I think I have covered all of the paints and finishes I used. If I missed something I will add it through edits.
Hope this helps others.
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