I am painting the firewall and etc. of my 1965 Ford F100

Was wondering if anyone knows what was the original color of
the hood hinges?

 

Hmmmmm, I'd say black. But I can't remember that far back and beyond rust color.


John

 

The original hinges, hood latch and safety catch are all a phosphate coating that ends up somewhere around a dark grey.








.

 

On my 64 they were black

 

I believe this was the original finish. I also believe this was the same manganese phosphate finish that was used on military firearms. You can get the chemicals from any good gunsmith supply and refinish them yourself. It's a simple stovetop process and none of the chemicals are particularly hazardous. That is if your wife doesn't mind you boiling truck parts on her stove.

 

Here's some pictures of NOS and used hood hinges.


NOS first


C2TZ-16796-C
C2TZ-16797-C

















This is an interesting hinge because it wasn't stored properly so it was about half covered in rust. I dipped that half into a solution and it removed the rust but left the phosphate where ever the rust had not taken over.








Here's the used ones off the Ranger.




And the ones still mounted on the white F250 4x4





Once they get covered with dust and crud it gets a bit harder to tell what they were. This is slightly left of the above photo.








Here's the NOS hood latch in front of the one on the white 4x4





And the safety catch - NOS in front of the one on the white 4x4





Ford wasn't the only one doing the phosphate plating. GM was doing the same. Here's the NOS hood latch for my 1971 Trans Am.





And the NOS hood hinges for the Trans Am, too.





Once they started to rust it was not uncommon to hit them with some paint

 

Eastwood has a paint (not a plating) that is a fairly close match to the original look.


Eastwood Zinc Phosphate Aerosol


Of course, they aren't talking specifically about Ford, either.


High-solids enamel duplicates the charcoal gray zinc phosphate plating on inner and outer tie rod ends, tie rod adjustment sleeves, center links, some spindles, hood hinges and latches, sway bars and some shift and carb linkages.


.

 

We used Mangenese Phospate coating from Palmetto Enterprises.





Setting up to coat the hood hinges and latch parts, the solution has to be 190-200 degrees.





Hinges in the solution.





We cleaned the parts with oil as suggested in the instructions, then cleaned and shot them with flat clear.





After cleaning with dish detergent and spraying with flat clear.

 

Nice job on those hinges Astronaut! I came across this piece in Mustang Monthly a while back (How To Apply Phosphate And Oil Coating - Mustang Monthly Magazine). They suggest wd40 as the finishing touch.

Where did you find that stainless steel bucket? I am going to try and redo my hinges after I have then restored by HoodHingeRepair. Got repops on there now and they are already having trouble keeping the hood up.

 

You only need stainless steel for the Parkerizing solution the other containers can be mild steel. I use a couple of old beer kegs with the tops cut off. Also you can skip the oil treatment if you intend to paint the part right away. After the final rinse in flowing water I submerge the parts in boiling water for a couple of minutes then blow dry and apply paint. I only oil them if they aren't going to be painted.
Good job on the hinges Eastronaut, an the rest of the truck looks good too!

 

Why would you paint after the process? I always thought that it was a substitute for paint that is more durable.

 

I was talking about the flat clear coat that eastronaut put on his. Parkerizing won't hold up as well in a wet environment as paint will. Unless you keep it well oiled. But it does make an excellent base for paint.

 

I had mine powder coated a natural finish. The correct bolts to use are black phosphate-oil finish.