Engine Bay / Firewall

[Rod]

It seems that virus has has some positive outcomes. Gee there are a lot out there in various forums cleaning up their old girls etc... I am one of them. Taking the motor out for a freshen up etc... has led to cleaning up the engine bay, which has lead to finding some rust in the usual places in the front sub frame region which I plan to repair. If I don't look out I will do a full resto. Need to leave something to do when I retire, whenever that will be.

I am sorry to bring up a thread that seems to be covered many times as I have found through a search. I have a 57 FE which has black skirts with the firewall body color. How far down the firewall does the body color go? Does it stop at the from cross member?

While I am at it can anyone give me any tricks of the trade in removing (and installing) the nuts from the wiper assembly (EK Electric Motor). I got them off but gee wasn't that one difficult task. I struggled to get a spanner onto the main nut let along the secondary drive due to the angle of the primary and secondary cranks.

As I am going to paint the engine bay / firewall I am planning on removing the steering column to freshing it up with paint as well. It is black, however as it leaves the cabin and goes into the engine bay there is no paint (bloody leaking brake fluid). Does it continue black in this area or does it go to body colour like the firewall? (the actual box itself is plan and not painted). Finally related to this, what is the colour of the steering column inspection plates (I unsure what they are called)?

Sorry for all the questions. Keep safe.

Cheers

Rod

[my8thholden]

Rod..There is a wealth of info on here ,my conclusions were as far as the engine bay is concerned are it depends where your car was built , a manufacturing plant or an assembly plant ,cars built in Brisbane for example , the bodies were railed up ,final paint colour not known at dispatch so they were black ..my car was built in Sydney ,Pagewood Manfg Plant ..the engine bay was black when I got it ,however it was rough and became evident it was part spray and part brush done somewhere in its life ,and came off easily ,clearly underneath was the original Ivory, so its re done in Ivory .I will say there is more work in keeping a Ivory engine bay clean as opposed to a black...the steering column is black ,the alloy cover on the box is the silverfish colour typical of alloy ,I cleaned mine and sprayed with Incrolac Clear...cheers Vern

[mcl1959]

Rod, black skirts and body colour firewall is generally 56 model whilst 57 model had all body colour. But plenty of grey area around the date that the changes came through including different things happening at different factories.
The colour on the firewall would go right down to the underbody crossmember since it was being painted without the subframe in place. Evidence suggests that there was no masking so the paint just finished on the front of the crossmember. I usually mask it up so that the crossmember stays black, but this is unlikely to have been the factory finish.
Steering column is black for the whole length EXCEPT early 56 models which had a body colour painted column inside the cabin and black in the engine bay.
The plates around the column are black
The steering box is plain aluminium HOWEVER there is plenty of evidence that black steering boxes were also around. More likely in FE than FC though.

You don’t have to take the main primary crank nut off the wiper motor. The motor will come out by just taking off the secondary crank.


Ken

[mcl1959]

Painted column in a 56 model

[Rod]

Thanks Ken and Vern,

I spent much time going through all the threads and I must say it is interesting in seeing the differences from year to year but also location of manufacture to location of manufacture.

I am fairly confident that the skirts are black and the firewall is body colour as I have found no evidence contrary to this. I always thought it was a 57 build (on old rego sticker indicates this). I put it through he decipher but was unable to give year of manufacture as the motor isn't original. Ken based on your information are you able to give a rough year based on - 728755M (this is on the drivers side skirt, not battery skirt), FE 225 27006A (Trim - 26-703 and Paint - 256-6332),

You have answered my questions brilliantly especially in regards to how far the colour goes under the car and steering colour. Thank you again.

In order to take the wiper out I had to take the primary nut off as there was no way I could access the other due the firewall card / insulation. I will keep this in mind when I reinstall the motor.

Once again many thanks for passing on your knowledge.

Cheers Rod

[fcwrangler]

Hi Rod, there is another way you can check the build date, although it can be a bit hit and miss. If you can read the round standard marks on the glass you will see the word armourplate. If you look closely, you will see a dot over one of the letters which give you the year. If you can find the marks on each glass the dot should be over the same letter, in your case, the dot should be over the “P” which is the seventh letter thus making it a 1957 build. Being an FE, the likelihood of all glasses being the same would be very high. The FC’s on the other hand could have them mixed up through the run as older stocks of glass may have been used up before new stock.
Hope this helps,
Jim

[mcl1959]

Rod your FE is mid July 57. I entered the details in the database and it came out right in the middle of 1957.

Ken

[Rod]

Ken thank you for confirming the year for me. I have been slowly stripping the firewall and subframe of old paint. Interestingly I found some old body paint under the black on the skirt of the subframe. It was only minimal for a couple of centimetres on each side where the skirt attaches the body. It was more like a run / overspray. The rest of the subframe is black. I found this strange as I thought the subframe and body would have been painted separately. Anyway the old girl is one of the those anomolies you spoke about above and in other threads.

Jim thanks for the information on the glass. I will look at that tomorrow.

Once again for enlightening me further of the history of these cars.

Have a ripper! Rod