MTFCA Forum

I've got mostly original 1914 touring car that has all the Murphy fasteners painted black. Does anyone know if that's how they came from the factory, or was that done by one of the previous owners? The pictures show a few examples.

Appears correct, those common sense fasteners likely raven finished, available still today but named government black. Used on lots of military vehicles.


Here is another very original 1914 that was displayed on an upper NY tour years ago, took these closeups for the photo file.

Doubt it is paint, most likely is blackend brass. Brass that is stained like blueing steel.

These are some old originals, brass formed , one has metal thread insert that is magnetic.

The others are non-ferrous brass, painted black, the later Lit the Dot backings are raven dull black , the one Common Sense fabric plate is shiny black paint still.

It makes sense to me that curtain fasteners were chemically blackened or painted, even the most OCD “brass snob” in the era would probably balk at polishing them, and utility items like that were better “camouflaged” than obvious, and a tarnished fastener is unsightly.

Auto supply catalogs of the period list Common Sense type fastener in all brass, and brass with black enamel paint.

Ford likely used brass for the early cars, and when brass was on the way out, probably switched to the black paint finish.

As seen Saturday at the Old Car Festival on another unrestored 1914 touring car, the Murphy fasteners were all black originally on these cars in 1914.