? about factory finish - steering box

[62champ]

At South Bend this year I dug through a bin of factory engineering photos trying to see if I could empty my pockets of cash before returning home.

I found a number of engineering photos concerning Champ truck which seems to be my Studebaker focus lately. These photos involve factory deviations and are interesting.

Anyway, I noticed on one of the under-hood photos, it appears that the steering box appears to be unpainted - even the bolts holding it together are painted black, but not the housing.

Does this sound right or were they in a hurry to put this truck together and it did not get painted? The deviation is installing a small, square under-dash heater/defroster (HaDees) in place of the regular climitizer. And anyone who worries about getting over-spray on your valve covers - they were not very careful from new so don't sweat it...

[StudeRich]

I am a bit surprised that the Cast Iron on the Ross Box is so light colored like Aluminum.
You know that for emphasis in the Shop Manual Photos they Painted parts they wanted to show up white or Silver sometimes, so this truck was probably a mule used for MANY different things.

I note that it is Dec. of '61 so they were working on '62 7E Designs at the time.

Much more interesting to me than that, is the purpose of the Photo; Deviation #5104.
It is to show where to cut the holes & how to hook up the Rare "HaDees Dash Heater" on a OHV Six 7E5 or 10.
That was the Cheap "Box" heater like a Scotsman, in case some CASO or Fleet Sale did not Pony up for a real, Climitizer, Fresh Air, Heat and Defrost System.

Note that it mounts over or just slightly to the right of the trans tunnel.

The Tag on the Windshield likely says XXXXX BANK? An Engineering "Bank" Truck?

Just imagine all the cool things we could have learned, if we were a "Fly on the Wall" in that Engineering Building?

[t walgamuth]

Yeah, there is paint that looks like aluminum or bare cast.

[62champ]

The Tag on the Windshield likely says XXXXX BANK? An Engineering "Bank" Truck?

Just imagine all the cool things we could have learned, if we were a "Fly on the Wall" in that Engineering Building?

It also looks like the tag on the coil wire has RUSH! written on it - I guess it being December they needed this fast...

I think I would volunteer to take off a month of work if all 40K engineering photos still existed somewhere and could be looked through. I know there would be lots of detail photos of a brackets or a new screw, but lots of other interesting stuff. Have always wondered about the deviations needed to produce the two Champ trucks with R2 engines - did they photo those as well?

[Jeff_H]

Where those boxes painted from the supplier or bare? Reason to wonder is my 2004 F150 that I bought new off the lot in Oct 2003 the box was never painted and was already flash-rusted.

[jnormanh]

It was fairly common to use iron castings like steering boxes and master cylinders bare, maybe with a light temporary rust preventive. There seemed no point in painting them before machining and assembly, and it would have been somewhat of a PITA later.

[jackb]

air filter ??

[showbizkid]

Yeah, there is paint that looks like aluminum or bare cast.

Use POR's Exhaust Manifold Gray.

[StudeRich]

air filter ??

A Stock 6 Cylinder TRUCK, open, Dry Type, Air cleaner.

[Jeffry Cassel]

The only ones I've seen are finished in grease and road dirt. As far as I can tell they were black so I just use chassis black--- it is close to grease and dirt colored. Very strange about air cleaner??? Makes me seriosly doubt color of steering gearbox.