Trans paint or not?

[uhcrandy]

Ok, I am replacing my Ford 352/COM with a 390/C-6. I am redoing the new combo. Do I paint the C-6 or not?
Thanks

[DanStokes]

Re: Trans paint or not?

No reason not to. If you're doing a 100 point resto you'll need to know what Ford did but otherwise go for it. Use self etching primer as you're obviously painting aluminum.

Dan

[squirrel]

Re: Trans paint or not?

If you want it to look original, then leave it bare aluminum, Ford never painted the aluminum case transmissions (or the iron parts of the iron/aluminum case ones). I only say that because I've worked on a lot of fords over the years....including my stint at the transmission shop in the early 80s.

[IRONHEAD]

Re: Trans paint or not?

it's up to you..
painting the tranny.. just makes you sweat more when installing as you'll worry about chipp'n the paint..

[milner351]

Re: Trans paint or not?

The trans guy I know hates it when people paint the cases - cause it plugs up his cleaning tank....

you can hardly see the thing in the trans tunnel - so - I've never bothered.

I do paint the trans pans though.

[IRONHEAD]

Re: Trans paint or not?

The trans guy I know hates it when people paint the cases - cause it plugs up his cleaning tank....

you can hardly see the thing in the trans tunnel - so - I've never bothered.

I do paint the trans pans though.

your tranny guy hates painted case, because he can't stuff a core he rebuilt when it was slow into the car and be done with the job..

[jays67]

Re: Trans paint or not?

in my coupe the first tranny was all pinstriped because it was hanging on the bench when I was f'n around with the striping brush and the second one was all flaked the color of the panals on my coupe but it is up to you

my coupe you can see a little bit more then other cars so that is why I painted it

[A/Fuel]

Re: Trans paint or not?

The trans guy I know hates it when people paint the cases - cause it plugs up his cleaning tank....

you can hardly see the thing in the trans tunnel - so - I've never bothered.

I do paint the trans pans though.

your tranny guy hates painted case, because he can't stuff a core he rebuilt when it was slow into the car and be done with the job..

If that was the case, he'd just spray bomb it, then stuff it in.

[squirrel]

Re: Trans paint or not?

The shop I worked at painted all of the transmissions, as did most rebuilders at the time. It was pretty easy to spot who did the work on it, just by the color of the transmisssion. Gold, silver, light blue, dark blue, nowadays you see a lot of cast iron gray color paint.

We also stamped some secret numbers on them so we'd know for sure it was one we had done, and who the builder was.

I'll paint an auto trans only if it had been painted before and the paint did not all come off in the cleaning.

[IRONHEAD]

Re: Trans paint or not?

I paint mine with flat black home steam rad. paint..
drops the fuild temp 5-10* and cheap (only know from the three I've done, and done mean installed not rebuilt)

[min301]

Re: Trans paint or not?

It depends.

Stuff I've assembled for me, I care that it looks good.


Stuff I do do for other folks, get what they want to pay for.

The circle track stuff always get the full treatment(and see the most abuse).
The drag guys don't care as much, street racers care even less. :-\

Theres alot of time involved...

[Caddyman]

Re: Trans paint or not?

You could always do like a friend of mine did.
Polish the case.

He's got a reeeaaalllly nice '69 Camaro Q/rod car. Full chassis. He polished EVERY aluminum piece on it.
Every one.
NOS bottles, clamps, interior, trans, heads, intake, distributor...everything that was made of aluminum.

He retired from ?Lockheed or Grumman?-some aircraft plant...I figure Doug was the polishing guy.

He even has a polished aluminum enclosed trailer. It looks like a 30' mirror going down the road!

[mlcraven]

Re: Trans paint or not?

I put a wire cup attachment on my hand grinder and polished the case of the TH 350 -- it came out looking a treat, not mirror-finish polished but pretty darn shiny. Didn't take any time at all to do. Unfortunately, didn't take any pics and the thing is now...in the car...in the garage...in the middle of winter

[uhcrandy]

Re: Trans paint or not?

I put a wire cup attachment on my hand grinder and polished the case of the TH 350 -- it came out looking a treat, not mirror-finish polished but pretty darn shiny. Didn't take any time at all to do. Unfortunately, didn't take any pics and the thing is now...in the car...in the garage...in the middle of winter

Did you clear-coat after?

[Brad54]

Re: Trans paint or not?

I paint mine with flat black home steam rad. paint..
drops the fuild temp 5-10* and cheap (only know from the three I've done, and done mean installed not rebuilt)

I did a story with TCI once for Super Rod (that for some reason never ran after I turned it in. Twice.) and we tested different finishes on trans pans, and how it affected the temp of the trans fluid.
We let the fluid cool to a specific temperature, then ran the trans on their transmission dyno, and timed how long it took the fluid to reach a specific temp.
Plain unpainted steel pan was the best "stock" type. Chrome and polished aluminum were horrible--the fluid heated up very quickly. bare cast aluminum was the second best, while black painted aluminum kept the fluid cool the longest.

going down the road, with air pulling heat off the pan, I expect the raw aluminum and black painted aluminum would keep the temps lower. I see no reason this wouldn't apply to the aluminum trans case as a whole.

-Brad