TR Clutch Housing Paint Color

I called around as well on this question..
Nothing wrong with my bell housing , but a show car is a show car..and I want every item at its or my personal best..

I ended up testing sections and color matching myself..
The base color that I used is rustoleum aluminum ...in a quart can..only oil base..
it is too light in color from the can.
I made some cup fulls and started tinting with Testors model paints in oil base as well
Hobby stores have a wide range of these in premixed colors that you can use as tints..
I ended up thinking that battleship grey and a gunmetal in small quantities tinted a slightly larger quantity of base color matched it to the T
I ended up carefully painting the topside of the Engine block as well as starter manifolds..all by small fine brush.

I personally believe whats there is original casting color..

If your bell is out spray would be the way to go..
I thinned my paint in order to flow over rough casting area without filling peaks and valleys..
You really cannot tell it has been painted as it just looks like new!

I like the way it came out..
Probably mild sandblasting would renew it as well..
I dont think...I hope that judges do not pick up on this and deduct..
I am getting good at this...I have done this to 4 testarossa's in a row in the last year.


BTW, the plenum chambers are a totally different paint and color..they, or mine have a fawn color in them..
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No paint on the '87 TR.....


Phil

 

also no paint on 85,86,88

 

There are companies that bottle custom colors in spray cans under pressure
A dusting is all you need

If i had my engine out, i wouldnt think twice
I would regret it if i regretted it by not painting and re installing

Your call!

 

I`m looking since long time for aluminum spray what is fuel resistent, but until now not found
does anybody knows some?

 

If it came bare, leave it bare..

 

I use a spray cleaner for aluminiumwheels,good old strong one that takes away oxidations and so on.DONT leave it to long.And then a thin oil like WD-40 for protection.

If it's really bad,glasblasting.

 

Jim, Robert Hayden tackled this in the past--the TR bellhousing is painted from the factory. See this thread, and start at post #92....

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/boxers-tr-m/366206-aussie-testarossa-rebuild.html

 

I haven't seen a painted one yet and its a Testarossa we're talking about not a TR. Completely different car. A testarossa bellhousing is bare according to the ones I have here.

 

I'm positive Testarossas had painted bellhousings--at least some. I know mine (77094) does and it is original. Here are some photos of others I have photographed, most are later cars so maybe early had no paint. What car numbers do you have in the shop Newman?

The paint is consistent amongst all the cars I sampled--it has an semi-rough textured finish and a very slight silver-blue tint--in some photos you will see where it bolts to the bare engine block the difference in texture and color (especially car 83742).

It's the same paint that was used on the rear wheel hubs--I included a few photos of this, showing the paint with the factory-applied dinol and the thick green-ish paint they brushed over the CV joints on top of the silver paint. Also you can see on the hub that they painted the cast piece before machining.
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That rough, textured finish is called "sand casting". It is a different color from the block because they are different alloys and different casting methods.

Bell housings and suspension uprights are not painted.

 

OK thanks, that makes sense. Disregard my previous post.

 

Probably more attributed to the alloy than it is to the process (sand vs. die cast) and more specifically, the copper content (trace to 10%) in the alloy. Cu, even in its minutest composition, corrodes and changes the appearance of the surface over time but is essential for hardness which is a requirement for some of these components. BTW, all the major visible components like the heads, block, intake plenum, runners, cam covers and bell housing look sand cast but slightly vary in their natural appearance. Again, IMO, it's their material compositions which vary depending on the source, manufacturing location and of course, application.