Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[greenbeam]

Hi everyone,
I've been searching around this and other forums for some info, but not found anything definitive.

My question: What should be used to coat the nuts, bolts, brackets on the chassis of a 1930's Armstrong Siddeley?

At the moment the items have a thick coating of gunge and old paint. How would they have come from the factory?:
a. With some kind of 'oxide' coating (black oxide for example).
b. With a coat of black chassis paint (ie assembled bare and then painted with the rest of the chassis).
c. With a thick coating of gunge and old paint - applied in the factory
d. Something else (what?).

I'm in Australia, so not worried about damp, wet storage and raging rust. It's a ground-up, complete dismantle restoration, so I'd like to do it right and do it once.

Regards,
Paul - Adelaide, Australia
1963 Sunbeam Alpine S3 Sports Tourer - on the road
1935 Armstrong Siddeley 17HP Sports Saloon - unrestored, in pieces

[goneps]

Paul,

There's been a fair bit of discussion on this subject from time to time on Morris Register (GB) forums. The conclusion, deduced from a close study of photographs and film of cars being built at Cowley, is that the entire chassis and running gear, minus wheels but possibly with engine and transmission already installed, was sprayed with black stove enamel before being passed through an oven.

Admittedly most of Morris' production methods would have been quite different from those at Armstrong Siddeley and other quality makers, but it's not unreasonable to suppose that in this respect a similar procedure was followed by most manufacturers in the 'thirties. Quite likely it was just the standard of the time.

Richard