paint accents on SS

by RossK73 Wed Aug 28, 2013 8:14 pm

Hello - busy summer so haven't been around in a while. Got a question about the underhood accent colors. My car (73) has silver hood hinges, silver hood catch and support frame, etc. Even the spring next to the hood catch and the hand lever are silver. The issue here is that my car is black and has never been painted. It looks like the silver is original because it looks old and kind of like first generation powder coat. Does anyone know if they are supposed to be like this for the SS model? My son wants to paint the car this winter and I want to keep it with original paint scheme.
Thanx, Ross

by sick73chevelle Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:13 pm

I never heard of that stuff being silver from the factory. I have an original 73 Chevelle SS car and all of the items you mentioned are black on mine. My car has maroon metallic exterior.

by Joe73 Wed Aug 28, 2013 9:44 pm

I dont believe the silver is original either. I've owned two SS's. Mine is factory midnight blue with off white interior, no silver underhood items. I bought it in '82 from the daughter of the original owner. I had another SS that I parted out and it was brown again with the off white interior. No silver underhood parts on that one either.

by 77mali Wed Aug 28, 2013 10:07 pm

Could be a "ZRC" (zinc rich coating) this is a cold galvanizing compound that must have been applied to those parts at some point in it's life. The stuff was popular back in the day for protecting uncoated steel, not so much nowadays with all the VOC laws (*cough tree huggers.)

The brand ZRC still exists.
http://www.zrcworldwide.com/p_zrc.asp

by Pontichev327 Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:26 am

They should be the black phosphate coating from the factory. I dont think it lasted very long, and they are usually natural metal (rusty) after a little while. if you are looking for the stock look, Eastwood carries some coatings that are almost perfect.

by RossK73 Thu Aug 29, 2013 11:57 am

yea, it does kind of look like semi galvanizing. Maybe a former owner did this at some point, but I like the contrast with all the black mass under there. I may leave them that way. I'll try to enclose a pic or two. Thanx for responding. paint accents on SS Img_0011