1966 Paint marking help

[Shawn]

I'm looking for a clear direction on paint markings.   I understand there are model year changes etc that effected some of the marks.  My car 6S1816 was built at Ford late March 1966 and left Shelby American 4/26/66.  I have my front and rear springs done with the proper identification marks.  All of the body assembly marks were photographed and duplicated back onto the car.

I need pictures or direction on the following:

Rear housing and center section
Steering linkage
Steering box
pitman arm
Idler arm
Tie rods
Upper / lower control arms
Spindles


Not sure if I'm missing anything but will take any additional info I can get


Thanks

Shawn

[J_Speegle]

I'm looking for a clear direction on paint markings.   I understand there are model year changes etc that effected some of the marks.  My car 6S1816 was built at Ford late March 1966 and left Shelby American 4/26/66.  I have my front and rear springs done with the proper identification marks.  All of the body assembly marks were photographed and duplicated back onto the car.

Rear housing and center section -  lots (maybe 40) so will leave that for the moment

Steering linkage - Same as non-PS Mustangs. Center link at the drivers end/steering knuckle that attaches to the pittman arm.  Applied with a brush and white paint it typically covers the knuckle from bottom outer edge to close to the boot and approx 3" wide

Steering box - Same as non-PS Mustangs with handling package. Only have a few examples of that specific box and not enough to establish a pattern at the moment. Don't use just one or two examples to establish a belief or standard for the markings

Idler arm mounting bracket - Short answer is that I would not add a paint mark at this time.
One or two forest green stripes applied with a somewhat narrow brush (approx 3/8") around the mounting bracket like found on Mustangs have been seen. This may only relate to a short section of the 66 production year and not to all 66's.

Idler arm - Short answer is that I would not add a paint mark at this time.
On the arm itself I've got non with a paint marking with yellow or any other color except for restored cars were the marking was likely borrowed from later (67-up) applications

Pittman- Short answer is that I would not add a paint mark at this time.
On the arm itself a few cars have been seen with yellow during the later half of production. Don't have enough examples to suggest this for all 66's. As a note 6 cylinders also use yellow marked arms but those were installed at San Jose where the Shelby ones were installed at SA. Because of this there was no need to color code these two items as they were for other items installed at the car assemble plant (San Jose in this case) though the supplier may have colored some for a while to identify them in their plants. 

Tie rods - Would not apply any

Upper / lower control arms - Same as Mustangs. yellow on ball joint stud and a yellow band around the attachment shaft on the upper. Some paint would be knocked off the threads when the nuts were installed

Spindles - The major marks would be large yellow and pink paint on the steering arm section of the spindles. Both colors cover about 80 of the length and normally about 3/4 around the shaft (plus or minus a bit). Most spindles will have another four markings

Bonus for front suspension - Steering stops attached to the lower A arm. Both have a messy single pass of a brush on the flat middle surface on the concave side of the bracket/stop in strong red



Remember there is no reason to apply paint marks if you don't have 100% of the important details correct on the car. Nothing IMHO looks sillier than an incorrect part with a paint mark on it. If you worry or are considering having the car judges only the top classes require it and a incorrect marking will only cost you points. If you not worried about showing then do as you choose but remember others sill see what you apply and copying the details without asking questions or where you came up with them.


Hope this helps

Edited for a little more clarification

[Shawn]

Jeff,

This is very helpful.  Car is being restored to SAAC DIV II with Gold as the goal.  Car has all original drivetrain and original suspension/steering components restored by Jim @Shelby Parts. 

PM sent

Thanks
Shawn

[Bob Gaines]

Jeff,

This is very helpful.  Car is being restored to SAAC DIV II with Gold as the goal.  Car has all original drivetrain and original suspension/steering components restored by Jim @Shelby Parts. 

PM sent

Thanks
Shawn

To add the conversation the Div II category doesn't require the paint markings however that does not limit you to not going to the extra effort of putting icing on the cake so to speak. So no bonus points for the icing but deductions if you put wrong ones on or in the wrong place. There are many here that want to see you succeed and provide help. With all that said the best of luck on your efforts.

[Shawn]

Thanks Bob - The more I look at examples the more inconsistencies I find.  I've refrained from the adding markings I listed because of this.  I was able to replicate all original markings that I uncovered during disassembly.  Just making sure I use authentic examples and expert advice.

[gt350hr]

    Just an outside observers opinion here. When doing paint marks put yourself in the following mind set.
    It's a boring 8 hour a day job that you hate but you have to pay the bills.
    You're back hurts and you need a smoke ( or drink) break that isn't coming soon enough.
    You hate your job and just want the day to be over.
    You slap paint on just so somebody else on the line knows what side of the car to put it on.
    There is NO sense of pride in what you do as you don't expect some one 50 years from now critiquing your work. 
   
    Once in that mind set , apply the appropriate paint mark as there are a thousand more waiting to get your next "Rembrant's touch" . That should simulate the marks better than the way most I've seen are replicated. Same goes for letters and numbers.
   You can start shooting at me now,
     Randy

[Shawn]

Randy,

I like the observation and advice.  Once the clear path forward is determined I'll schedule the task for a Friday 11:00pm 

Thanks
Shawn

[J_Speegle]

Edited reply #1 to better explain and reflect my findings related to the idler and pittman arm findings I posted earlier.

[s2ms]

Idler arm - Short answer is that I would not add a paint mark at this time.
On the arm it's self I've got non with a paint marking with yellow or any other color except for restored cars were the marking was likely borrowed from later (67-up) applications

Adding to the idler arm discussion, part of the "longer answer" I guess...

The original idler arm on 6S1757 was covered in yellow paint when I cleaned all the grime off after removing it in 1990 for detailing and a new bushing. I've confirmed with all the previous owners it is the original arm. Pitman arm is also confirmed original and was also covered in yellow.

Certainly not suggesting Shawn should go down this path with 6S1816, just providing it as a data point since our cars were likely built at SJ about the same time.

Dave

[Bob Gaines]

Idler arm - Short answer is that I would not add a paint mark at this time.
On the arm it's self I've got non with a paint marking with yellow or any other color except for restored cars were the marking was likely borrowed from later (67-up) applications

Adding to the idler arm discussion, part of the "longer answer" I guess...

The original idler arm on 6S1757 was covered in yellow paint when I cleaned all the grime off after removing it in 1990 for detailing and a new bushing. I've confirmed with all the previous owners it is the original arm. Pitman arm is also confirmed original and was also covered in yellow.

Certainly not suggesting Shawn should go down this path with 6S1816, just providing it as a data point since our cars were likely built at SJ about the same time.

Dave

I think that it is important to keep in mind that the individual suspension pieces and sub assemblies were likely marked at the MFG and not at SJ . The marks were to help the assemblyline workers at SJ so logically they would have been done before they got there.  Although a car was built at a similar time on the SJ line does not necessarily mean that the parts from that parts bin were made or marked at the same time and by the same person in the same exact way at the particular MFG. 

[gt350hr]

    When this topic came up on the old forum , I related the following experience.
       In March of '77 I was "on tour" drag racing on the east coast and had some free time so myself and two friends took a trip to Holman Moody when they were still in Charlotte. While there I ran across a "wire basket" (4'x4') with about 100 N.O.S. "XRR" GT350 idler arms and at $5 ea I bought ten of them. None had yellow or green paint on the but did have a very faint ( more like a stain) spot of darker blue paint. The parts man ( Pete)  could not remember the application or why they had them and asked if I wanted them all as he was about to scrap them all. Yes I should have done that but ten was more than I needed.
     Parts like this , whether outside vendor or internal Ford manufacturing , were made using a procedure manual for the specific part. If ( as often happens) a paint code specification is called out in the manual it would be done before parts are sent to the assembly line/plant. To be 100% sure of a paint mark , the manual or actual part blueprint would have  to be looked at. Until then  (IMHO) we are all guessing on "this" particular item as the "shipping destination was SAI not a Ford manufacturing plant.
    Just this old guy's opinion.
  Randy

[Bob Gaines]

    When this topic came up on the old forum , I related the following experience.
       In March of '77 I was "on tour" drag racing on the east coast and had some free time so myself and two friends took a trip to Holman Moody when they were still in Charlotte. While there I ran across a "wire basket" (4'x4') with about 100 N.O.S. "XRR" GT350 idler arms and at $5 ea I bought ten of them. None had yellow or green paint on the but did have a very faint ( more like a stain) spot of darker blue paint. The parts man ( Pete)  could not remember the application or why they had them and asked if I wanted them all as he was about to scrap them all. Yes I should have done that but ten was more than I needed.
     Parts like this , whether outside vendor or internal Ford manufacturing , were made using a procedure manual for the specific part. If ( as often happens) a paint code specification is called out in the manual it would be done before parts are sent to the assembly line/plant. To be 100% sure of a paint mark , the manual or actual part blueprint would have  to be looked at. Until then  (IMHO) we are all guessing on "this" particular item as the "shipping destination was SAI not a Ford manufacturing plant.
    Just this old guy's opinion.
  Randy

Well said old guy.

[J_Speegle]

Thanks Randy for your post and opinion.

In this particular case/example we were able to confirm that the cars original idler arm had the same markings documented on other cars built around the same time period as far as the green stripes. Nothing on the arm. There are IMHO at least one reason (the fact that the mounting brackets were shared with Mustangs) this may have happened during a specific period of production and not meant to represent the full years production.

As for the drawings I don't recall ever seeing markings called out on the maker of the parts drawings for any of the idler arms for any of the applications close to the ones we're discussing but have not see the 65-6 Shelby specific ones