Original front cover & water pump appearance?

[NCTURBOS]

Someone with an original, original car... What is the appearance of the front cover and the waterpump, cast aluminum or painted black??

Thanks,

K.

 

[Thumper]

K,

My car appears to have been painted black from the front of the engine during or near the end of assembly. The water pump, sides of cover, and oil pump area all misted in black, behind the balancer and on top where the cam sensor sits in the dip in the cover is clean aluminum. I guess they must have painted it assembled and that is why the oil filters where black???????


Thanks
Bill

 

[Steve V]

That's gonna be a good one for the people who want an exact resto to duplicate. I've that on my end also.

 

[getchasum]

Keith, they are black but you will find some are better covered than others. Then the age of original painted ones have lots of flaking becacuse the paint did not hold up well on the aluminum.

 

[NCTURBOS]

Bill- Thanks!! That was what I wanted to know, but not really what I wanted to hear... :biggrin:

Steve- I agree, and that is my reasons for wanting to know!!

Scott- So have you seen some completey covered with black paint? Both the front cover & the waterpump? Done after assembly so the gaskets have paint on them as well?


Thanks,

Keith

 

[getchasum]

Bill did a good job explaining.... I have seen some more covered than others. How many times have you even seen the factory blk over spray on the intake of an unopened engine. I'm sure the painting process was done by man after assembly of the long block, including front cover, water pump & intake. They for sure were not consistent w/ the process, in the form of paint coverage.
The front cover & water pump on my GN was almost completly covered other than what has flaked off.

 

[phillyturbosix]

I found that the folks working the line at GM took black spray and mainly they got sprayed from the top of the head to about mid block. They then swung around the bottom of the front cover when they just spay bomb (misted) the engine. None are the same that I've seen. I've seen some low mile blocks (under 1K on the car) and they all seemed that way. I think the were thinking if you looked down into the engine bay it would appear the block was black because you really can't see down past the headers.

I'm having my engine built in my 86 and going back to a stock look in the engine bay. I'm making sure the entire block is covered in black and I painted my front cover with Eastwood Detail Gray. It's really close to the original color of the aluminum and it will make things last and look good for years to come. I shot the water pump with it as well. When your holding the front cover and water pump in your hand while it seems like a lot of area to cover, when these parts are on the engine and it's back in the car and together you really can't see much of any of it! Almost don't matter. When something left the factory with no consistency at all like these cars it's impossible to make it like they did. Just make sure it's covered and it will look great!

Here is what it looks like with the Eastwood detail gray spray paint...

 

[getchasum]

Just looked at 5 originial front covers & water pumps...all had over 85% coverage of black paint including gaskets from the factory.

Philly the detail gray looks nice. Have you ever tried the Alumi-blast, gives it more of a natural color that does not look painted.

 

[rob350]

I painted mine this color.

 

[aminga]

Just looked at 5 originial front covers & water pumps...all had over 85% coverage of black paint including gaskets from the factory.

Philly the detail gray looks nice. Have you ever tried the Alumi-blast, gives it more of a natural color that does not look painted.

They've got that in a powder too. Although I doubt that the pump seals would survive the cure.

 

[phillyturbosix]

Philly the detail gray looks nice. Have you ever tried the Alumi-blast, gives it more of a natural color that does not look painted.

I was going to try that but I liked this gray in the engine bay. It just seems to flow better with the black and for the little you can actually see if it I really liked how it blended in.

I painted mine this color.

That looks good!

They've got that in a powder too. Although I doubt that the pump seals would survive the cure.

That's why i didn't powder mine. The cover in the picture is a Earl Brown cover and it came to me all done up. Rather then taking it all apart for powder I figured I'd just shoot it. As long as you can keep any fuel away from it, spray bomb will last.

 

[aminga]

That's why i didn't powder mine. The cover in the picture is a Earl Brown cover and it came to me all done up. Rather then taking it all apart for powder I figured I'd just shoot it. As long as you can keep any fuel away from it, spray bomb will last.

How hard is it to take apart a buick water pump. I've got an urge.

 

[phillyturbosix]

How hard is it to take apart a buick water pump. I've got an urge.

I think that's all pressed together. Might be a little harder then it's worth!

 

[earlbrown]

LOL. You could tell I built that cover after Pringles went up in price. I used to use the lids to protect the filter adapter. The "later" model covers used 3M painters tape and the crack bag the fasteners came in.

How hard is it to take apart a buick water pump. I've got an urge.

All you need is a puller and a press. Don't really know why you'd want to take one apart though....

 

[aminga]

So I just finished powder coating my original front cover from my one owner car. While it's possible that the paint has flaked off over the years the front cover had no paint on it what soever. The bottom of the oil pump housing had been painted black (it was flaking off). The whole thing could have passed for painted with all of the oil stains.

FWIW it now looks like this. I even coated the water pump we'll see how long it lasts

 

[pmoore4321]

source: vortexbuicks-etc.com

 

[hurst]

I painted mine this color.

What spray paint is that or brand

 

[turbo nasty]

Front covers /oil pumps and water pumps hand random blotchy black and over spray paint