What color should Fordomatic transmission be on a 1956 Thunderbird?

[zuburg]

I'm having my Fordomatic rebuilt and wondering what color it should be. My restorer said it should be some kind of green, but that didn't sound right to me.

[dmsfrr]

Here's a link to a '56 restoration page. Scroll down about half way, it looks natural gray or maybe silver to me.
http://www.hccperformance.com/resour...irdpage18.html
Mine was natural metal and came back from the rebuilder painted black. It almost matches the black underside of the car so I'm not planning on changing it.
.

[zuburg]

Thanks, what research I did showed natural grey too. Just wanted to confirm. I thought black would look good as well for the same reason and some of the other parts in the red engine are black. Since my car will never be a show car, I'm thinking of going black. I just couldn't fathom green.

[dmsfrr]

Originally Posted by zuburg

..... I thought black would look good as well for the same reason and some of the other parts in the red engine are black. Since my car will never be a show car, I'm thinking of going black. I just couldn't fathom green.

Red and black seems real familiar for some reason.
.

[scicala]

Somebody's T-Bird is looking sweet !

Lookin' good Dennis !

Sal

[paul2748]

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According to the CTCI Authenticity info, all automatic trans' (bellhousing and body) were natural finish (meaning cast iron) No paint. The tailhousing, aluminum, was natural.

If you want to maintain the cast finish, I recommend Cast Blast.

[dmsfrr]

Thanks Sal,
She's my dusty retirement present / project.
I had to name her Mabel, I 'may' eventually get her back together.
Those photos were from last March & April.
Some family medical problems have been interfering and I've just in the last couple days been able to start working on her again. Hopefully she'll be running by this Summer.

.

[Motorhead6]

Originally Posted by paul2748

According to the CTCI Authenticity info, all automatic trans' (bellhousing and body) were natural finish (meaning cast iron) No paint. The tailhousing, aluminum, was natural.

If you want to maintain the cast finish, I recommend Cast Blast.

I've never seen paint on a FOM transmission out of an unrestored car or truck, not even the pans or extension housings. I have seen many that are painted, these are ones that someone along the way have rebuilt. Just sayin'. I've never seen a red one. I've seen silver, black and even purple but none of these were factory paint.

[Daves55Sedan]

Well, for the full size cars, I used to see a lot of '55 & '56 cars in the junkyards in the 1970's. The bellhousings were always painted the Ford red/orange engine paint. Of course you had to scrape off 1/2 inch thick grime to see it, so I assumed it was factory applied. The transmission case itself was bare cast iron, never painted. But nowadays, some of the trans rebuilders will paint them with whatever they got layin around.
I told the shop that rebuilt my Fordomatic (so many years ago) NOT to apply any paint because I wanted to grind off all the rust using a wire-wheel in a drill and clean the outside thoroughly with solvent before I painted it.
I used Ford red/orange engine paint for the bellhousing as it was originally, but I did paint the trans case black to help keep new rust from forming. I used appliance epoxy on the transmission pan.

[oldazehotrods]

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