Topic: Paint Color ? 428 CJ Manual Trans Bellhousing

[J_Speegle]

Thanks Jeff. That is a lot of paint. It actually looks like they were trying to paint the entire bell housing deliberately as opposed to just some overspray from painting the motor. Should all bell housings from my year and application have "OK" Crayon marks, or was that standard procedure on all bell housings?

Yes the spray pattern from the guns at that time were 10 or 12" wide so not well focused application. You can see, in the pictures of workers painting the engines there was plenty of paint.

As for the OK on manual transmission bell housings. This is something I documented through 1970 production. For all that will read this post the style, color, location and other details differs depending on the engine plant so don't just blindly apply these without full consideration of when and where the engine was assembled. This was done at the engine plant not the car plant.

In the example in the upper left what appears to be a number or part of a number I believe was a car plant applied detail not related to the OK nor the engine plant

[bullitt68]

Thanks Jeff. So is it safe to assume that the motor was shipped separately from the transmission or was it all one assembly?

[J_Speegle]

Thanks Jeff. So is it safe to assume that the motor was shipped separately from the transmission or was it all one assembly?

For manual transmission engines they had the engine, engine plate, flywheel, clutch assembly and bell housings in place when painted, The engines were then dressed for the application that matched the aluminum and paper ID tags and they were shipped that way. transmissions were attached at the car plant. They came from another plant to the car plants.  For other engines they ended up in crates as replacement/over the counter purchases. 

We have a fair number of assemblies showing just this from multiple years. You'll find them in different threads through out the site. Below is a picture of an engine (428 CJ automatic application) to give an idea of how they looked when shipped and arrived at the car plant





Automatics would have the engine plat and automatic flywheels attached when painted so no engine blue on transmission

[bullitt68]

Thanks Jeff I have not seen any assembly plant photos of the website, but would love to reference them

[J_Speegle]

Thanks Jeff I have not seen any assembly plant photos of the website, but would love to reference them

General pictures of car assembly plants of the time as well as supplying plants such as Cleveland and others can be found in the main section titled
The Assembly Line - Discussions related to assembly line practices and observations - Members Only Viewing


There are almost 400 threads with pictures and sometimes links to films related to the main subject. Included in that section is a number of very difficult to find San Jose plant pictures from 68 that we purchased from the official photographer of the San Jose plant for Ford in the 60's. We didn't get a ton of them nor were their many available but we got all that related to the production of Mustangs and in turn Cougars. 

[bullitt68]

General pictures of car assembly plants of the time as well as supplying plants such as Cleveland and others can be found in the main section titled
The Assembly Line - Discussions related to assembly line practices and observations - Members Only Viewing


There are almost 400 threads with pictures and sometimes links to films related to the main subject. Included in that section is a number of very difficult to find San Jose plant pictures from 68 that we purchased from the official photographer of the San Jose plant for Ford in the 60's. We didn't get a ton of them nor were their many available but we got all that related to the production of Mustangs and in turn Cougars. 

Thanks Jeff that is great information I will check it out