Correct engine paint suggestions please!

[JohnZ]

Isn't that a water wall in front of them to act as an air filter?

Mike

It captures the overspray and contains it in a water-filled sump below the grated floor; there was a LOT of paint being sprayed at 300 engines per hour (one every 12 seconds).

[JoeC]

on engines like the Z/28 and L78 with alum intake and chrome or alum valve covers.
I know they used some type of cover or masking device to mask off the valve covers and intake that resulted in different levels of orange paint overspray but was the distributor covered?

Did the distributor get any orange paint on a 302 Z or L78 engine and would the dist on an slum intake engine look different then an iron intake engine?

I have an unrestored 499 L78 L72 distributor and has no paint on it

[JohnZ]

on engines like the Z/28 and L78 with alum intake and chrome or alum valve covers.
I know they used some type of cover or masking device to mask off the valve covers and intake that resulted in different levels of orange paint overspray but was the distributor covered?

Did the distributor get any orange paint on a 302 Z or L78 engine and would the dist on an slum intake engine look different then an iron intake engine?

I have an unrestored 499 L78 L72 distributor and has no paint on it

The distributor was masked with a high-tech device (a coffee can) - the hold-down clamp portion of the housing sometimes had orange overspray, sometimes it didn't.

[JoeC]

John , thanks for the reply

was this coffee can mask process the same for aluminum intake engines and iron intake engines?

Do you recall what was used to mask off the aluminum intake and alu/chrome valve covers of the L78s and 302 Z engines?

[JohnZ]

John , thanks for the reply

was this coffee can mask process the same for aluminum intake engines and iron intake engines?

Do you recall what was used to mask off the aluminum intake and alu/chrome valve covers of the L78s and 302 Z engines?

Coffee cans were used to mask the distributor all engines.

Aluminum intakes and aluminum or chrome valve covers were covered with vacuum-formed plastic masks the engine plants made in their toolrooms.

[Mike S]

 John, serious about real coffee cans? Were the distributors timed and locked down by that time?
Was the distributor cap on too during the spraying process?
Heck, if it was a real can I'll use a Maxwell House can and replicate the process when I respray my block again.

Mike

[JohnZ]

John, serious about real coffee cans? Were the distributors timed and locked down by that time?
Was the distributor cap on too during the spraying process?
Heck, if it was a real can I'll use a Maxwell House can and replicate the process when I respray my block again.

Mike

Yup, coffee cans. The distributors came from Delco-Remy without the caps - the caps were installed right after the distributor was installed on the engne. The distributor was locked down later, when the timing was set during hot-test. The hot-test stands included a slave quick-connect ignition/plug wire harness and slave exhaust manifolds.

[6667ss138]

Very interesting stuff JohnZ. Your first hand knowledge and willingness to share is awesome and very much appreciated! So much to learn here. Wish I would have found this site years ago.

[My68SS]

+1
The photo's and info in this thread are pure gold!! Thanks JohnZ and everyone else for contributing 

[6667ss138]

You guys were gracious enough when I first asked this question to offer many great suggestions. I thought I would show what I decided to use for the engine color paint on my 66 big block. I thought some might find it interesting that we found the 69 Hugger Orange color matched almost spot on with my bracket which is an early take off survivor, original paint, smog bracket(you can see the bracket before I stripped it sitting on top of the intake). My friend that owns a body shop came over to shoot it for me. He uses Glasurit paint at his shop. I decided to not go with a complete exhaust manifold overspray, even though I do agree that is how it was originally done at Tonawanda. Thanks again for all the help!

[NoYenko]

Len, Your engine looks great. I like that the paint finish appears to be a little flatter, less glossy, than what you typically see. I was going to use a chemical to dull the fresh paint on my engine but decided not to experiment on it. Good job. George

[69Z28-RS]

.....  AND...    Hugger Orange goes good on anything..     

Happy 2015 everyone.  Hopefully this year will be the best yet for all of us here.. and for our world...

[6667ss138]

Thank you George, and yes Gary it sure does 
Happy New Year!

[My68SS]

...we found the 69 Hugger Orange color matched almost spot on ....

Very interesting. Here in Au my brother and I used GM-H Sebring Orange, a color used on '69 Monaro's and Torana's.
It too is a very close match like the Hugger Orange.
Did he add a flattener to the Glasurit paint? Looks good! 

[cook_dw]

Right or wrong this is how mine turned out.  I painted it this past Sunday.