Color questions spare parts Dino 246 L series

I can only give you my opinion based upon the colours I found on my 73 246GT and the research I did on this forum and in various books. I am sure others will add their views as well.

Satin Black paint:
Shock springs
Airbox - Lid for same - Airfilter box and lid for same
Wishbones
Oil / water heat exchanger
Wheel hubs
Torsion bar
Brake / clutch pedal
harmonic damper
oil level pin guide pipe
Fan motor blades
front lid hinges

Nickel Plated - silver:
rear lid hinges

Various:
Engine mounts - mine were satin black and my new replacements came in black so I left them this way
Starter - mine has been rebuilt and is now all black but I think this is wrong. I think the end plate and front part should be natural aluminum, the body satin black and the metal band that goes around the body should be nickel plated silver
Ignition coils - mine were both satin black and original I think. I can send photos if you wish.
Various Fiber glass panels - I used satin black on the inspection shields and underneath the wings. I think the main fiberglass sections used in the front wheel well, the interior tub and so on were also satin black. I painted my interior tub satin black and left the front wheel well original.

A good tip someone told me when trying to decide colours was that if a piece was cast it was plated and if it was welded it was painted (usually satin black). I have generally found this to be true.

 

Possibly do the springs in powder coating so that they could last longer and that is what OE suppliers paint them in.

 

Peter this is a subject I spent an enormous amount of time researching before re-finishing parts. Getting the correct colour can be tricky because often times gloss parts are exposed to heat making them look flatter over time or low gloss parts get impregnated with oil making them look glossier than they are. As such a lot of effort went into trying to figure out what was correct for our M Series Dino. While you are looking for details pertaining to an L series I believe that most of the items you asked for clarification on are pretty universal across all of the series.

Secondly before sharing my findings on colour I would like to break down gloss levels of black down to 4 main levels:

Gloss - Shiny and if well polished would give a very good reflection to light

Semi-gloss - About 70% of full gloss

Satin - About 60% of full gloss but still has a shine to the surface

Matt - Almost no gloss and I have not seen evidence of us of matt finish anywhere by Ferrari. Sometimes sub-assemblies supplied by other suppliers will use some matt. Aged semi or satin can easily be mistaken for matt which is where close investigation comes in to be sure.

With these levels of black clarified I believe the parts you are painting should be the following colours:

Shock springs - Gloss black (seems to be fairly common for Ferrari and I checked this against NOS springs)

Airbox - Lid for same - Airfilter box and lid for same - Semi-gloss black (if anything a fraction more gloss than other semi-gloss parts)

Wishbones- Semi-gloss

Oil / water heat exchanger -Semi-gloss (often mistaken for gloss because of oil contamination over the years)

Wheel hubs - Raw cast iron. Can be coated with satin clear or cast iron paint to prevent almost immediate rust. If you are referring to the cast uprights they receive an ultra thin layer of gloss black. Too much and they will look too shiny and like plastic.

Torsion bar - I have seen both gloss and semi-gloss

front / rear lid hinges - Satin black to match all fiberglass panels and chassis. The rear trunk articulating hinges go in a satin zinc finish or cadmium silver

Engine mounts - Semi-gloss with no paint on the rubbers

Starter - Satin black

Ignition coil - satin black

Brake / clutch pedal -semi-gloss black

harmonic damper - Satin black

fresh air system components - Semi-gloss black

oil level pin guide pipe- Semi-gloss

Fan motor blades - Semi-gloss

Various Fiber glass panels- Satin black

In addition I will note a few things I saw in your photos:

- I cannot make out the Koni shocks but they go the early almost orange shade of red rather than later Koni's that are much closer to red.

- Wishbones are normally painted before the bushings are installed so some masking will be necessary to get the correct look

Good luck with your project.

 

Fantastic explanation and breakdown Rob, I may need to rely on this information soon if I get the Dino I'm after.
Regards,
Mike

 

A couple of points...
Some parts such as air box and air cleaner came from FISPA, the expansion tank from FIM and it appears they arrived pre-painted with a higher gloss level than other components on L-series cars.

Read this and don't get too hung up on the level of black gloss:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/139157785-post2.html


Andrew

 

Peter, you added an extra step and missed two:
- no primer
- pre-rust them prior to paint
- thin the paint ALOT

Photos below are NOS L-series components showing the paint "of the day they were done" and L-series orange Konis.
Painting fibreglass panels on early cars is straightforward as not much paint was originally applied to the actual fibreglass itself. I believe this was the procedure:
1. paint the whole chassis and underbody with crappy black paint (no fibreglass installed)
2. install all the fibreglass
3. paint under the hood (spare tire tub)
4. paint underneath the front of the car incl. under the spare tire tub and front footwells.
5. paint inside rear wheelwells but not on top.
6. paint the undertray.
They basically painted anything you could see from outside or by lifting the hood, everywhere else was unpainted. Most folks prime and paint everything during restoration these days.

Rob,
Front bushing body (in black zinc) was welded onto the wishbone and the bush installed then painted over, on L's at least. Nice list!
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Peter your steering rack is totally correct to have the center and side pieces painted black. We re-painted our rack after making this discovery and have since updated the blog with a large note to not mislead anyone.

 

What about the original red/yellow/etc. paint stripes on the springs? Does anyone have photos of an original set of springs?