12 bolt restoration pictures needed

[jasonL78]

Looking for some detailed pictures of a camaro/nova 12 bolt rear end restored. I noticed on my 12 bolt from the 68 L79 I am restoring the inside of the backing plate wasn't painted black. Was the backing plate installed after the rear end was painted? Is the back of the backing plate steel(gray) or painted black? What is the correct color of the brake drums? Gray?

Jason

[enio45]

my 1600 mile 69 Z backing plate on the inside (covered by the drum and the brake shoes) etc is bare steel -

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I always felt that the rear assy was bare, and the black paint was shoddily sprayed - sometimes with just black overspray hitting the backing plates. That is what I found on my car, so that is the way I restored it.

Must have been short on paint back in May of '70 bec/ there was very little overspray on my floor boards, f/wall, interior, trunk, etc....

[SS427]

My experience has been that if and when there was black paint applied to the rear it was usually done sparingly as Marlin pointed out. I usually see varying degress of black overspray on the drums. What I normally do is install the drums over unfinished but treated backing plates and fog the black over the natural cast iron drums. From the many survivor cars I have inspected it appears that the brake lines were not installed but the e-brake cables were and had overspray on the drum end. jmo

[jasonL78]

The bottom of the 68 L79 nova was not painted black or undercoated. You can still see all the zinc coating on all the floor braces. Kind of interesting since all the cars you see restored are painted black. Maybe it had some thing to do with where the car was sold new maybe? Being it was from down south? I am going to pressure wash the rearend tonight I will take a couple of pictures.

[SS427]

Here are a couple of the low mileage and unrestored 68 L78 Camaro. Notice the center housing has no paint on it while the axle tubes and backing plates do. Also notice the black overspray on the e-brake cable.

[jasonL78]

Why would they only paint part of the housing? Very good pictures. Thanks

[SS427]

It was very common and still is to this day. I am sure they figured why waste the paint on heavy cast iron as there would be no harm unlike unpainted steel. When you are talking a million cars you can see the savings. Most all the front suspension pieces were never painted for the same reasons. However for some reason that smae thing did not apply on driveshafts. I remember as a kid it was common practice during dealer prep for the body shop to put a quick light spray of black on the rear axle so that car showed well on the lot and hid the surface rust long enough to sell the car.

[jasonL78]

So on the first set of pictures you posted did you paint the complete housing or just some of it like the second set of pictures.

[SS427]

Jason, the first set of pictures is of a 1970 Chevelle and the entire rearend was painted as that was the way I found it. On the 68 Camaro that I am doing the rearend was originally painted just like the rear in the survivor photos and that is how it is restored.