[68ragtop]

What parts do you guys feel would be natural steel in color vs cast gray?
Thinking the springs would be natural, but what about the stabilizer bar, & steering components? Tie rod ends, center link, etc?

['ol Pinion head]

tie rods & centerlink are a darker forged steel.

[68ragtop]

Any opinions on the sway bar? Seems like they look like cast gray is some picts & natural steel in others.

In the GTOAA site, they list all of the parts as "natural finish" but no specifics to what the natural colors would actually be.

[68ragtop]

This car, looks like everything up front is the same "cast" type gray.

A little hard to tell though. the bar looks brighter than the steering pitman arm where your can just barely see it.

[TN68GTO]

All of my cast parts are cast grey, my sway bar and brackets will be steel color.

[TN68GTO]

my center link is actually a dark blue, resembles a blued gun barrell. I struggled with this because I thought it should be cast color. The guy thats helping me restore my car is also restoring a 68 gto that had all of the original suspension parts on the car and his centerlink was the blued color. So we paint both of them the bun barrell blue color.

[68ragtop]

I recall reading about the center link being a different color.
Or maybe another member posting about it a while back?

[Formulajones]

Parts like the center link and pitman arm go through a heat treat process so even though they are a natural appearance, they look different than the sway bar etc...

Here's a pic of the original unrestored center link from my 69 Z/28. May not be the best pic but you can clearly see it's not a typical cast appearance. Very difficult to duplicate this appearance with paint. What I've found works best is gun bluing dye found at places like Dicks. I use it when restoring a driveshaft to duplicate the blue metal created when welding the ends on.

[TN68GTO]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

Parts like the center link and pitman arm go through a heat treat process so even though they are a natural appearance, they look different than the sway bar etc...

Here's a pic of the original unrestored center link from my 69 Z/28. May not be the best pic but you can clearly see it's not a typical cast appearance. Very difficult to duplicate this appearance with paint. What I've found works best is gun bluing dye found at places like Dicks. I use it when restoring a driveshaft to duplicate the blue metal created when welding the ends on.

Yes, we actually had a quart of paint mixed to match the color of the original. It looks very similar. I also used the blue paint to detail my drive shaft to simulate the welds. I also went over it with with a dark brown for the weld simulation.

[68ragtop]

Aahhhh, I wondered how guys were doing that with the welds. My driveshaft had a lot of small pits, so I filled them & painted it to "simulate" bare steel. Yup, looks like paint, but its clean & smooth anyway.

Any picts of the blue'd welds? Just curious

[Formulajones]

I'm giving away my tricks

Takes practice to apply it, rub it in, giving it a fade away appearance etc... But works very well.

I have 100's of photo's. I'll have to search through and see if I can find one.