Master Cylinder Painted Black?? 5S276

[dockbay]

At last year's national convention in Sonoma I had my car judged and I received NO deduction for having my master cylinder painted black (Base and Top cover). I Was told by a couple folks that this was correct and apparently the judges agreed.  At a recent Local Shelby gathering I had a couple "so Called" experts argue that it should be Natural with a Gold Cad Top cover. Opinions anyone???   I had heard that Shelby removed them to re-do the brakes after taking delivery from San Jose and painted them black so they didn't rust while they were "waiting" to be put back in the car?? Any truth to that??
Cheers,
John

[J_Speegle]

Even Mustangs with disc brakes have been found with the complete assembly as delivered from the supplier to the car assembly plant painted semigloss black. Small round shadows showing bare metal around the line attaching locations can be found due to inserted plugs installed when they were painted and for transport . There are a number of period pictures from Shelby and magazine articles that show the same. Covers were plated in zinc dichromate and the paint on them didn't always stick well.

Wasn't a Shelby thing either way and the practice continued for many years. For Mustangs the practice was not limited to only disc brake applications either


Some examples  - Have plenty

1st and 3rd are period pictures from 65-66

[Bob Gaines]

At last year's national convention in Sonoma I had my car judged and I received NO deduction for having my master cylinder painted black (Base and Top cover). I Was told by a couple folks that this was correct and apparently the judges agreed.  At a recent Local Shelby gathering I had a couple "so Called" experts argue that it should be Natural with a Gold Cad Top cover. Opinions anyone???   I had heard that Shelby removed them to re-do the brakes after taking delivery from San Jose and painted them black so they didn't rust while they were "waiting" to be put back in the car?? Any truth to that??
Cheers,
John

The so called experts are behind the times by about 2 decades. That is about how long the 65/66 master cylinder has been expected to be restored as black by the general consensus. The consensus is backed up by historic photos some like Jeff posted and survivor documentation. All but the earliest brake upgrades were done at Ford and not Shelby. As has been mentioned regular Mustangs with disc brakes were black also . It was not just a Shelby thing. FYI the same black painted master and cap is expect on 67-70 too  .