FWIW II...
Assembly line photo of some "W" engines at the assembly plant....courtesy of LIFE magazine. It shows that Chevy painted most everything including the exhaust manifolds.
From first hand accounts of people who worked in these plants...there was a "mask" of sorts that was haphazardly placed over the aluminum intake area on the big blocks while the engines were sprayed...so over spray did indeed get onto the intake and heater bypass hoses. After all, Chevrolet was in the business of building cars...not restoring them [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]
Plus, there are many documented examples of low mileage unrestored cars that still have the over spray on these areas!
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