So yesterday was fun! We removed the sub frame.
As we all know this car is a low mileage unmolested early production car. The body mounts are in great shape! The tape for the rear body bushings was still intact!
I have dug up some things in this archeology experiment that differ from what I thought were correct.
Many things on the front suspension seem to have been painted black at the factory rather than "natural finish" such as the drag link, tie rod ends, spindles, and the steering knuckles, and pitman arm. The idler arm definitely looks like it is natural cast iron. I always thought these parts were left natural finish from the factory. I HIGHLY doubt these parts were painted black after the car was purchased new. Note the orange inspection paint on the drag link, pretty cool! The car retained all the factory bushings, control arms, riveted upper ball joints. Only thing that looked altered were the shocks. Figured everyone would like the condition of the ID tag on the one coil spring..
So my question to you all is would you refinish the black aforementioned parts in black, or would you do them in a natural cast finish? I am leaning toward the black because it seems like they left the factory that way. Either way, black parts will be powder coated....