It's killing me to come home from work now and not be able to go for a ride with all the great weather, so I gotta get my butt in gear and put her back together.
Got my control arms all repainted along with a bunch of other stuff. Valve covers are painted, just have to sand off the ribs. Got my DeWitt radiator waiting and a pile of nuts and bolts on the work bench (most are marked).
#1- The outer pulley on the harmonic balancer, the single that fits over the double apeared to be gray rather than black like all the others. Is that correct or should it be black?
#2- The control arm cross bars that bolt to the frame. Should they be black or a cast coat iron color paint? (Got new bushings coming)
#3- Once I put the new radiator in and before hooking it all up, how do I get the old coolant that may still be in the block and where ever else out?
Thanks, Jeff

Since I cannot correctly answer numbers 1 and 2 I will give number the 3 a try.

If you crawl under the car and look at the block about halfway of the oil pan there are two plugs. One on each side of the block, take these plugs out and you will drain any coolant in the block out. When you pull the plugs out, the holes may be blocked by scale that has formed over the years. You can knock the scale out with a screwdriver but be ready with some buckets to catch the remanining fluid because it will be coming at you fast.

Hope this helps.

[QUOTE=Eddie 70]

If you crawl under the car and look at the block about halfway of the oil pan there are two plugs.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Jeffm]#1- The outer pulley on the harmonic balancer, the single that fits over the double apeared to be gray rather than black like all the others. Is that correct or should it be black?
#2- The control arm cross bars that bolt to the frame. Should they be black or a cast coat iron color paint?[/QUOTE]

The outer(single) pulley is a grey phosphate plating...similar to the plating on the hood latches.

The control arms shafts were originally a natural cast finish, but there is some debate on this...some say they were painted(black semi-gloss)...I say not...

Excellent-  I post a few questions and head off to bed -------- Get up and some answers are waiting!
On #3 should the drain plugs be put back in with some kind of pipe joint compound??
Thaks very much all.

Jeffm2008-04-26 03:41:54

I could be wrong -but - these drain plugs - i am assumung are what we use to call Freeze plugs. Copper / brass discs which would be pushed out - should ice form in the block -hence "freeze plug"  this would prevent damage to the block by expanding ice. apasbigal2008-04-26 07:49:47

Here's what I found regarding questions 1 and 2 after an exhaustive investigation. mkapp78792008-04-26 09:48:49

Here you can see the driver side drain plug, right at the lower arc of the plug wires..

Thanks for all the advice everyone and Mike, thanks for posting the picture. I got that plug out, the other side I just got to get the "V" shaped wire shield out of the way. 

I agree with Joel.  I believe the outer pulley is that gray phosphate, and I am almost certain that the shafts are natural.  Our rebuilder also thinks the shafts are natural.  He paints them with a light coat of Cast-Blast.  Some people put a petcork in after they remove those plugs.  It lets you do a thorough job of changing the coolant every couple of years.

Larry