Topic: Rear axle housing paint

[Nicecar]

Hello,
I have a 1968 May Metchun Candy Apple Red Convertible. I have looked at discussions on Rear axle housing paint and other people seem to be painting it black. My car is pretty original, and I am just about sure the housing was not originally black.
I have ground off much of the rust and am ready to treat it with Eastwoods rust converter. I have gone thru the MCA Concours document many times and just cannot find what color to paint it.  I am thinking Natural Steel Finish.  If that is right could someone give me paint codes for that. Eastwood has a color called Detail Gray which says Bare Steel Replication. I have many cans of it and was wondering if that would work. 
Also, Not sure if I should do another post about this but here it is.
I read that for non-undercoated cars with red oxide paint "(Paint drips should be visible" does anyone have pics on how they did this? I am going to be using rattle cans for this part of the job so that should be easy.
Thank you very much,
Nicecar

[Anghelrestorations]

The rear axle housing was always black for all Mustangs...dont think I have ever seen a different color.  Thats pretty standard. 

[Nicecar]

Thank you very much

[Bob Gaines]

Hello,
I have a 1968 May Metchun Candy Apple Red Convertible. I have looked at discussions on Rear axle housing paint and other people seem to be painting it black. My car is pretty original, and I am just about sure the housing was not originally black.
I have ground off much of the rust and am ready to treat it with Eastwoods rust converter. I have gone thru the MCA Concours document many times and just cannot find what color to paint it.  I am thinking Natural Steel Finish.  If that is right could someone give me paint codes for that. Eastwood has a color called Detail Gray which says Bare Steel Replication. I have many cans of it and was wondering if that would work. 
Also, Not sure if I should do another post about this but here it is.
I read that for non-undercoated cars with red oxide paint "(Paint drips should be visible" does anyone have pics on how they did this? I am going to be using rattle cans for this part of the job so that should be easy.
Thank you very much,
Nicecar

Welcome to the website . Semi Gloss black is the typical painted color of the rear end housing of the first ,second and third generation Mustang. You may have ground off much of the rust but your picture shows that the surface still has extensive rust pit damage that will be highly visible unless attended to. I see extensive use of filler primer or glazing putty to fill pits in your future . That is if you don't want the rust pits to show. I have seen many Metuchen cars over the years and have only known of a larger part like the front disc brake caliper splash shield to sometimes be install bare metal without paint at that plant. A rear end housing would be very out of the ordinary to not be painted based on the normal. The fact that the metal is so heavily rust pitted could indicate it was bare metal but I have seen others heavily pitted that still had evidence of black paint.  If it was installed bare metal then it is logical to conclude that it was by mistake of some kind given literally millions of Mustangs over the years at that plant ended up painted. We know mistakes do happen for many reasons. It is not like it was a cool mistake that enhanced the cars look. In concours the burden of proof for something highly unusual and out of the ordinary would be on the entrant and if on the show field your picture evidence is not convincing enough to get a pass IMO. If through research you can not definitively confirm that it was bare metal I would strongly suggest painting it black like what was typically done. If painted a metal color it will stand out like a sore thumb to anyone familiar to what they are typically painted and you will be questioned frequently about it. That is unless you want to be that guy.

[carlite65]

the mca rules are quite clear on the color of the axle housing. please look again.

[jwc66k]

Hello,
I have a 1968 May Metchun Candy Apple Red Convertible.
I read that for non-undercoated cars with red oxide paint "(Paint drips should be visible" does anyone have pics on how they did this? I am going to be using rattle cans for this part of the job so that should be easy.

Think "assembly line". It's noisy, the assembly line worker is working to a time limit. He has to spray primer on the car. That step has to cover bare metal so he sprays "heavy" and maybe a "second pass", but not everywhere. As this primer not visible in the normal fashion, it's "heavy" in spots -so pick a few. That's how you do it with a rattle can - heavy. The drips are mostly on a downward stamped part of the metal - heavy.
Jim
I added some pictures of a 1966 Mustang GT Fastback underside. I sold the car about 20 years ago. It now "speaks" Australian. I kept the trophies.

[J_Speegle]

First welcome to the site. Hope you find the information and support you need for your concours restoration projects

Hello,
I have a 1968 May Metchun Candy Apple Red Convertible. I have looked at discussions on Rear axle housing paint and other people seem to be painting it black. My car is pretty original, and I am just about sure the housing was not originally black.

Remember that the rearend assemblies were not assembled nor painted at the car plants but all in 68 at Sterling plant so the finishes would be identical for the same size and application no matter where the car was built

Also, Not sure if I should do another post about this but here it is.
I read that for non-undercoated cars with red oxide paint "(Paint drips should be visible" does anyone have pics on how they did this? I am going to be using rattle cans for this part of the job so that should be easy.
Thank you very much,
Nicecar

Since your new I guess you may have not found the unrestored picture thread section which will provide you with a fair number of pictures of unrestored cars for you to examine and consider. Also since we've been open for many years now there is a ton of earlier threads related to undercarriage paints and finishes used on our cars. Like all search features they are not perfect and will take a number of tries (different words and combinations) to find most of the threads

In response - there was no undercoating applied at any of the car plants. Some (pre 68 for Mustangs) there was no sound deadener applied at the car plants for special models like the Mach I, Grande and so on. Don't know of any rattle cans which will apply the darker, often fair shinny, epoxy primer sealer finish originally applied to the front end and the firewall rearward at the factory. The flat, red oxide Rustoleum will not correct and also consider you'll need to be adding body color overspray and then pinch weld black out on the rocker panels extending inward towards the drive shaft tunnel.   Won't go any further on the subject since you already started the thread on another subject and don't want to create a lot of cross talk. 

One picture from a low mileage 68 NJ built car showing the "red oxide" color primer sealer and the amount of shine it can have when there is no or little overspray or dirt on the panels . If you want to discuss this subject more I ask you to start a new thread in the 68 section or add to the earlier one on the subject