I have a few questions I hope someone can answer
What is correct?
Are the oil pan bolts and inspection cover bolts for the oil pan for a 1912 painted or left natural?
Also, the inspection cover screws for the aluminum hogs head. Natural or painted black?
Thanks
Paint them and they won't rust as fast
Henry Ford wanted the cars to look good when new but if they looked bad after a few years so you may get persuaded to buy a new car, Ford wouldn't mind
I've seen references to brush boys running around the factory painting nuts and bolts after assembly - but the practice may have differed over the years. Generally more care and more time was spent on each car in the early years.
Here's a thread on engine painting with a picture showing how the engines were sloshed with some type of gilsonite wash with a big dauber after the engines were installed in the cassis in 1913: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/411944/442321.html?1399345226
I have no idea when Ford started raven finishing parts, but I do know that a lot of small items were done by that process in the twenties. I assume the process is similar to black oxide. I have sent parts to a company in Southern California that does this, and they come back just fine. I have a bunch of NOS square nuts that I got from Bob Bergstadt Sr. way back that are done this way.