need a clarification of factory finishes front suspension 73 Dart.

[Lasalle]

I did a search on this forum for the factory finishes for the front suspension on a 1973 Dart. It seems the strut rods, steering rods, ball joints, idler arm, pitman arm, brake caliper, and spindle were all left bare metal at the factory. There was some uncertainty about the upper and lower control arms. Black or bare or cosmoline? Also the torsion rods, black or bare? I saw mentions of cosmoline dip finish on earlier Mopars. Were they still doing this in 1973?

Also mentioned was a "color code" of various color paint daubs on certain parts. I could not find the actual code of what colors go on which parts.
Thank you

 

[burdar]

Torsion bars were dipped in gloss black paint and will show drip marks. I think UCAs have been found BOTH in black and bare metal. They were bare metal on my 73 Challenger. The LCAs got dipped in cosmoline up to (but not including)the LBJ hole. Some A-body LCAs have been found black but I don't think that is the norm.

The bare metal parts you mentioned are correct. They would have been a variety of different gray colors depending on what part you are looking at. Some would have been a really dark gray color with mill scale from the manufacturing process. Other cast parts wouldn't have been super dark and wouldn't have had any mill scale.

One thing that often gets done incorrectly is the 73+ disc brake dust shields. A lot of people just paint them black but that's not right. They were galvanized and left that way...no paint. If yours haven't been blasted and still show signs of the galvanizing, you can soak them in EvapoRust to clean them. Don't dip them too long or the galvanizing will be removed.

 

[Lasalle]

Thank you for mentioning the disc brake dust shields. I wondered about those also but forgot to include them in my question. I am a big fan of EvapoRust.