Chrysler factory AFX cars (12 of them), paint

[fiatboy]

Hi.  Probably a lot of you folks know about the 12 factory Mopar AFX cars: 6 Dodge, and 6 Plymouth, built in 1965..  I know that the K-members, or K-frames, were moved forward 10".  The new K-frames were made from magnesium and I've seen them painted a sort of yellow color.  And here is my question: I've seen some deep oil pans on drag cars also painted a similar shade of yellow, I think.  Any comments?  

[gtx6970]

Yellow ?

Never noticed that detail

[afx]

Photos will help us help you.

[smhardesty]

I just completed reading the book, "Maximum Performance" a couple of weeks ago. I didn't recall any mention of any special oil pans being installed, so I have just now finished reading that chapter of the book again. I didn't find any mention of special oil pans being used on the regular '65 R01/W01 Hemi A990 Max Performance Engines or on any of the 11 (some say 12, some say 13, and there were at least 2 built outside of Chrysler's control) A/FX cars. That doesn't mean they didn't receive special pans, only that this book doesn't mention it.

It also doesn't mention the K-members being painted any particular color. It states that the K-member was a "specially built lightweight thin stainless piece with front reinforcements for the torsion bar connections". Maybe that painting was done at one of the garages that did the prep work on a few cars. After Chrysler cut them loose there was quite a bit of work needed to have them race ready. 

Just a thought. 

 

Had another thought. Do you remember which cars you noticed the special oil pans on? Maybe you could then track those cars to whatever shop prepped the cars. If they all came through the same shop, maybe the mystery would be solved.

Edited September 17, 2018 by smhardesty

[TarheelRick]

My only question is concerning the material the K members were made of.  I know this has nothing to do with the models, but I believe magnesium would not have been used.  Magnesium is quite brittle, if you have ever seen a real magnesium wheel that has hit a curb you will see what I mean.  The use of stainless steel seems more appropriate for this particular application.  That being said, I also think they may have been painted yellow by some builders in order to better see cracks forming during the rigors of racing.  Just my $.02 for what it is worth.

[smhardesty]

19 minutes ago, TarheelRick said:

My only question is concerning the material the K members were made of.  I know this has nothing to do with the models, but I believe magnesium would not have been used.  Magnesium is quite brittle, if you have ever seen a real magnesium wheel that has hit a curb you will see what I mean.  The use of stainless steel seems more appropriate for this particular application.  That being said, I also think they may have been painted yellow by some builders in order to better see cracks forming during the rigors of racing.  Just my $.02 for what it is worth.

I have no personal knowledge of what they were made from. I just quoted what is in that book. As I read through it, I took a lot of breaks to do research on the 'Net to kind of supplement what I read in the book. To the best of my recollection I never found any errors to speak of, at least nothing major. I hadn't thought about it, but you're right about magnesium being kind of brittle. Would they possibly have used magnesium because the cars were never intended to be street driven? And maybe only certain cars ended up with the magnesium K-members because they were race prepped in the same shop. I suppose it's possible that 3 or 4 cars happened to all get prepped in the same shop and that shop did a replacement on K-members and oil pans and just happened to paint them yellow, possibly to watch for cracks like you mentioned.

I think the first step would be to find out if Jeffrey knows which cars had the yellow painted parts. If we could narrow that down we could then find out where they were race prepped.

[SteveG]

I pulled as many photos and magazine articles I could find before building my Moebius AXF Plymouth test shot.  The kit is based on the restored Lee Smith Car.  To the best of my knowledge all the AFX cars were delivered to the race teams with stock oil pans and the K-frame were most likely painted black or left natural metal (I painted mine black ).  The cover of the July '65 Super Stock Magazine shows the S&M car doing a wheel stand (in color) and has an excellent article on it inside.  You can see where they had modified the oil pan already which appears to be painted black.  I checked through all my photos and didn't find any Yellow painted oil pans or K-members but it's certainly possible a certain race team might have done so. 

Here's some detail shots of my built Melrose Missile model for what it's worth ….

 

[smhardesty]

I did some more Internet research and couldn't turn anything up. I'm leaning towards either a single race team or a shop doing work for 2 or 3 teams being responsible, but can't find anything to prove, or disprove, that idea.

Very nicely done car, by the way. Extremely neat and clean build. Thanks for sharing.

[fiatboy]

I suspect I was wrong about the magnesium K-member.  I think it must have been stainless.  Maybe I saw a '65 AFX with a K-frame painted yellow.  Of course Ferrari (and others) use yellow colored magnesium wheels.  They were 'coated' with a substance made by Dow, and maybe the Europeans had a similar coating.  But we know a lot of racers use just uncoated mag wheels.   Boy, you guys put a lot of effort into answering my question, which I 'm afraid was a dumb one!  Thanks 

[1972coronet]

Perhaps the special , sans skid-plate , '65 FX cars' K-members were painted a Zinc Chromate Primer ? That would be a yellow colour .

[afx]

Maybe this is the one you saw?

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/guy-drives-65-dodge-funny-car-street/

Edited September 18, 2018 by afx

[smhardesty]

1 hour ago, fiatboy said:

 Boy, you guys put a lot of effort into answering my question, which I 'm afraid was a dumb one!  Thanks 

No dumb questions here. We all learn a little from each question.

[dragcarz]

In the 70s company’s like Milodon and Moroso made gold anodized oil pans, I wonder if you were looking at a restored car that wasn’t 100% correct.

[fiatboy]

Hi AFX and dragcarz.  Thanks for the replies.  AFX, the "Gold Rush" pictured, does not have a K-member.  The original '65 Mopar AFX vehicles (Plymouth and Dodge) retained both the K-frame and the torsion-bars, which had to be extended.  And dragcarz, I am building a (Gibson) street hemi engine, and I was thinking of using a deep sump Milodon pan.  Now, I WILL use it, and paint it yellow!  So thanks very much, again!

[dragcarz]

Try painting the oil pan gold, and then a light coat of clear yellow over it. This will give you the anodized effect your looking for. 

[smhardesty]

1 hour ago, dragcarz said:

Try painting the oil pan gold, and then a light coat of clear yellow over it. This will give you the anodized effect your looking for. 

Ah-Ha! I've been trying to find a way to create the color of the air filter housing on a '57 Chrysler. Thanks! I just need to figure what color top coat to put over gold.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, smhardesty said:

Ah-Ha! I've been trying to find a way to create the color of the air filter housing on a '57 Chrysler. Thanks! I just need to figure what color top coat to put over gold.

 

2 hours ago, dragcarz said:

Try painting the oil pan gold, and then a light coat of clear yellow over it. This will give you the anodized effect your looking for. 

Anybody wanting to do very realistic looking "anodized" parts should have a look at these...   

https://duplicolor.com/product/metalcast-anodized-automotive-paint