51 Buick drivetrain paint question

5

'51 Special

Active Member
I know the engine paint scheme for 1951 Buicks, but I have not seen information about paint color (if any) on:

1. The clutch cover (Buick calls it the "housing (lower)"). I know the bell housing (per Buick, the "housing (upper)") is turquoise, but I have never seen a clutch cover with any paint at all left on it.
2. Transmission (manual). Again, I have never seen a manual transmission with any paint left on it, except the top cover (of a model 40 transmission), once painted black, with a few specks remaining where protected.
3. Torque tube and rear axle assembly. Still again, I have never seen a torque tube and rear axle assembly with any paint left on it.

I have not been able to find this already discussed on this forum. If anyone has this information, or has a
survivor with any paint showing on these parts, I would love to hear from them before I start applying paint.
 
HI, I am underneath my '51 Special De Luxe, cleaning and painting. There is a smidgen of black paint on my torque tube in a place or two; my clutch lower cover is bare I think but I'll recheck. There is some black paint on a couple of the frame parts. I can't see anythign but dirt-grease mixture on the transmission, but if I see somethign I will tell you. I wonder if they even painted the transmissions back then.
I am wire brushing surface rust, treating with phosporic acid (amazingly effective) and painting by spraying on 2-part black epoxy primer. It looks great where I've painted so far.
Interesting that I have seen several early 1950s Specials with black engines, and sometimes I see one which seems to have some turquoise showing through the black. Mine is black with no turquoise showing, so I wonder if some of the engines were black, maybe because of shortages during the Korean War, or if it was repainted as part of a detail at a used car dealer. if mine was repainted they did a good masking job because I have owned it 40 years and it did not have any evidence of overspray anywhere that I could tell. The oil filter was orange and blue, and the spark plug cover was bare.
 
Randy-Thanks for the follow-up. I have my Buick back together again, with the clutch lower cover painted black, and the transmission in the (apparently) unpainted condition in which I received it. The transmission is a mid-40s box with a '50 tailshaft (Buick calls that a "rear bearing retainer"), but no part of either transmission that supplied parts had any paint on any part, except the stamped cover. The one cover had some black paint, but there was no paint on the tops of the machine screws that held it in place. If I ever need to remove the rear end, I'll consider applying some black paint to it. '51 Special
 
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