Anyone reccomend a correct color for the park brake mechanism?Thanks!

I don't know if it's correct, but my parking brake mechanism is orginal. It appears that the upper part is natural steel (unpainted or maybe plated) and the lower part of the brake foot lever is painted semi gloss black about 6 to 8 inches from the bottom. (I guess so that the part that sticks below the dash is painted) I hope this makes sense and helps...Mike

Yes, my top half is rust(bare) and the lower is black. I dont want to leave the top bare after its stripped clean,i guess painting the whole thing satin black would be acceptable?

Below are some pictures of the one for my 74 I'm restoring.

http://hometown.aol.com/krystaldesigns/pageA19.html

I basically soaked it in a muriatic acid and water solution to get off the rust then masked it off and shot the black where it needed to be. After it dried I then shot the whole works in a semi-gloss clear. It hasn't been on the car yet but has been sitting in the basement for over a year and still looks like when I did it in early 2003.
Jim

Looks good Jim.Whats the ratio of acid to water your using?

Originally posted by shoddy_F-body:
Looks good Jim.Whats the ratio of acid to water your using? Thanks, I tried looking for my mix ratio but cannot find it right now. I do remember finding info about the acid on the internet and I do remember only buying like 4 gallons of muriatic acid and did a whole bunch of parts with it. It seems to me I put about 1-1.5 gallons of muriatic acid into a large plastic storage container that held about a total of 31 gallons of solution but only put in 20-25 gallons of water, the acid and the parts to keep it from overflowing out of the container. I think I mixed it weak and I also found out that the acid solution would lift off the old factory paint on some of the parts and "what I would call the pond scum" would float to the surface of the container I was using and to keep an eye on the parts cleaning I would mix up another batch of it and after hosing off the part to remove the stuff that as broke loose and then put the parts into a new clean batch of solution.
I think the biggest thing was monitoring the progress of the cleaning as I had never done anything like that before. I did leave some parts in a solution one time and didn't monitor the progress and they came out with some very deep etchings and were pretty much junk. Live and learn.
If I do come across the mix ratio, I'll post it but I do know if it is mixed too strong you can have a nice part to refinish or wait a little too long and it will require more work than needed.
I was also doing my parts in the midwest heat and I do not know if that is a factor to consider.
Chemicals can be good or bad, dangerous or somewhat safe, you just have to be careful and watch what you are doing.
Jim

Jim, I'm thinking that the parts coming OUT of the Muratic Acid solution (available at HOME DEPOT) would immediately start "rusting"/discoloring ??? If you found this to be true, can WE assume that you painted ASAP........
Chuck Sharin

Originally posted by CamarosRus:
Jim, I'm thinking that the parts coming OUT of the Muratic Acid solution (available at HOME DEPOT) would immediately start "rusting"/discoloring ??? If you found this to be true, can WE assume that you painted ASAP........
Chuck Sharin You assume correctly (I think it was before ASAP :D ). After I rinsed the part in water I took a towel to dry off the majority of it and then took a hair dryer to heat up the parts and evaporate the water quicker. I did not want to use the blow gun off off my compressor even though I had a water trap. I also looked over the part to make sure I didn't have any "fuzzies" stuck on it from the towel.
I believe after I got it all dry I dusted the part with clear so it would slow down any surface rusting and then after that dried I masked off where I was going to put the black on it and then cleared the whole works. I probably did it in a day or less total.
The picture I took of the one I restored leads me to believe I didn't put on a real thick coat of clear over the whole works as I can feel the tape edge from where I masked it off.
It's hard to say how long a part could sit around right after being removed from the bath but I didn't wait as the humidity hear gets quite high. I do have some parts like the control arms that I stripped last year and they have a fair amount of surface rust on them now but probably a short soak would clean them back up (pretty minor amount). I just need to short soak the uppers and send them out to have the ball joints and rivets installed.
Jim

I just restored mine and it was 100% original. I bead blasted mine and painted the upper portion in clear as to keep it from rusting. The bottom portion of the pedal/rod is black.

Move the parking brake pedal down to where it almost forms a "T" with the upper portion. Next, you can pretty much draw a line straight across the bottom portion of the upper plate and the pedal rod. This was/is the dividing line between what is painted

Under this line is black, above it is clear metal. Does this make sense?

I used "bare steel" spray bomb on the upper part of mine. Not exactly the same color as real bare clsteel...but looks good.

Good to read again