Gary,
I used to think the same thing, but the 2 66's I had with the black crinkle coat finish were both built in the 2nd week of Oct 65, one was a Sprint 3-speed Lemans, the other was a 4-door Tempest 1 bbl Automatic. I bought the 4-door from the grandson of the original owner, no performance mods were ever done to it, I do not think anyone ever had the engine apart before I changed the cam when it went bad at about 85,000 miles.
Drove it for a work car for about 4 years until the rust and front end parts wore out on it, then I parted it out. Both those covers went to Q back in 2006 when I sold most of my spare parts to him.
Almost makes me believe that they made a small run of coated cam covers early on, but probably stopped due to cost. I have no proof at all though. But that Tempest sure seemed to me to have been Factory. The sprint had headers, and an H-cam in it, ran very well until it was totaled by a drunk driver parked in front of my house around 1980. So I would beleive that that one could have been added by a previous owner.
__________________
Jeff R
60 Jaguar Mark 2, 3.8L Automatic
67 Sprint Firebird 230 OHC-6 4-Speed A/C
1971 Fiat 130 Coupe 3.2L SOHC V6, ZF 5-speed
78 Catlina Safari, Pontiac 400 powered
77 Astre Formula, 215 Buick V-8 T-5
73 Lemans Safari, 400 4bbl 4-speed
71 Catalina Enforcer, 455 4bbl
05 Dodge Magnum 3.5L SOHC V6
06 Mallet Solstice #024 LS2, Now with a Tremec 6060 6-speed!
2012 F-150 Echo Boost (My local Ford Dealer SUX!!!)
2020 Dodge Charger Scat pack (recovered)
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