I am doing a total rebuild of my 1967 XKE OTS and wanting the correct factory finishing of the independent rear suspension.
I have goggled and saw pics of 1963 S1 and S3 but not on 1967 OTS if any changes were made.
It appears that some parts were cadmium plated
Any help would be deeply appreciated.
Steve Wissink
Hi,
In 1967 (and all the way to at least 1978 the diff was painted black (applied with a brush, not very carefully) and the hubs were left bare aluminum except for some (yet unknown reason) round dab of paint on both hubs on the side. On mine they looked like green paint, or greenish blue. Mostly parts were semi glossy black, same were plated, zinc woth bright or yellow cromate and some perhaps cadmium.
Cheers,
Pekka T. - 1S20183
Fin.
I’ll add that on mine (69 S2) the springs had a dab of blue paint - possibly identifying the length &/or rate:
I did not know that the diff would have been painted black for 67+.
That’s a rather interesting photo you show - I assume it is not yours so I won’t bother to ask what’s going on with what appear to be remote bleeders mounted on top of the cage.
Thanks
My build date was 07/13/66 does that make a difference??
Steve Wissink
It was just a pic I got from goggle.
Steve Wissink
The top of my cage does not have anything mounted on top.
Steve Wissink
I don’t think it should have. Maybe someone did a remote bleeder system to accessed from inside the car ?
My 66 had -I think- a light blue green paint. Hard to judge the colour
Your picture is pretty accurate.
Black components are satin. I paint the half shafts and the stabiliser arms to avoid problems with getting powder coat material in critical areas. Everything else black including the diff cover plate and the springs we powder coat. The dabs of paint are just there to identify spring rates. Reuse your original springs as you cannot buy correct replacements.
The hubs, brake and handbrake bits and all nuts and bolts are zinc plated, because we can’t get cadmium.
Do not plate the fork shaped springs for the handbrake as they are brass. Do not plate any of the fulcrum shafts as you may run into trouble getting bearings etc to fit on them if you do.
The diff housing is painted using red lead primer which gives a good authentic colour. I then paint it over with a gloss clearcoat.
If I’ve forgotten anything let me know.
The thing on top of the housing looks to be a home made remote bleeder for the rear calipers.
Actually now that I think about it - the wishbones on mine are a very very dark brown rather than black. The same shade of brown that is on the fan brackets (Series 2). Hard to tell it from black in a photo but to the eye the difference is apparent:
Anyone else notice that?
Also, since the OP seems interested in original/correct - what is the consensus on the direction of the safety wires on the top of the cage? I put mine back the way the old ones were done (side to side) but have seen many that are fore & aft…
…or
I believe Pekka is referring to the cage itself being black, not the differential housing. The differential housing was a red glyptal (enamel insulating paint) inside and out. The cage was indeed a satin black with lots of runs. I believe mine to have been dipped. The wishbones are a dark brown and I also found this coating, that I believe to be a primer or sealer, on the underside of the car over red oxide primer. It could very well be a sealer because it was over the primer.(?) My series 2 springs had a touch of blue (indicating spring rate) down the length of the spring. I guess every employee could have had their own method of marking them as long as they were marked. Same thing on the safety wiring.
Took me a minute or two but then it hit me, "hey that bottom picture is one I took of my car’s refurbished rear end.
Here’s the before. Safety wiring running front to back. I have no way of knowing if it was original from the factory, but that’s what I found. Maybe Each guy in the assembly area did his own thing.
Hi,
Nope, this has been discussed dozens of times before. Yes, all sandcasted housings were painted with red Glyptal, to seal in the sand and make any pouros surfaces smooth, I think they may have been painted this way already at the foundry or at an early stage before final assembly took place.
But then the diff was painted semi gloss black, just like the engine block, the gearbox and most components made of steel or cast iron.
1S20183 has never been restored and the diff is sloppily painted black, so is 2J50041DN on which I took the rear axle apart a couple of years ago and took detailed photos as it clearly had never been off the car. The funny detail was that in places like behind the brake caliper mounts there was no black paint, only red Glyptal was visible there, but the rather sloppy brush strokes were clearly factory work, maybe a typical job for a fresh apprentice…
Also 1E76372BW made on July 14th 1966 had sloppy black on the diff, on top of the red Glyptal, but back then I thought it was the PO, but perhaps not, as later every untouched rear axle I have seen has had black paint on the diff, which to me is perfectly logical, if you think how things were at the factory back then. I can also dig some assembly line photos from the 1960’s. There’s even colour footage from the factory that IIRC does not show a red diff anywhere to be seen, although it is mostly about the making of a MK2.
I think the red diff and red engine craze comes from the US hot rod scene. On my MKV DHC also the egnine block and cylinder head had been painted red in the US, they were definately black when the car was made in Foleshill. Maybe they ran out of black paint the week they built Jerry’s FHC’s rear axle, or some of the early few cars that perhaps did not have black paint on the diff?
There may have been few cars where for some reason they left the diff unpainted at the factory, but that must have been rare. Of course almost all restored cars nowadays have red diffs, and in some cases also red gearboxes and red engines, but that is not the way they left the factory.
Cheers,
Pekka T. - 1S20183
Fin
Have to agree with Pekka.i’ve only handled probably a dozen diffs off the car and all have been black outside. Never noticed a red one still on the car either, although I haven’t grovelled underneath them all to check. I have seen red inside, or under the worn-off black, but never an actual car with a bright red diff except moden restored ones.
Many of the parts on my '68 Saloon were a dark chocolate, many plain black. Generally speaking the castings and forgings are black, but steel parts vary without much rhyme or reason.
Hi,
This is off the XJ6C and not an E-type, but they all looked the same on my E-types and a few friends’ as well.
The locking wire mounted front to back, just like on 1E76372BW and 1S20183.
On the XJ6C the insides of the rear springs have a line of red paint on them, on the 1966 E-type there was a dab of blue on the springs. Very likely they had marked the springs at the factory as the same rear axle was being used in production at the same time for:
E-types
S-types / 420
MK X / 420G
And later also XJ6
The lower wishbones and drive shafts are of different length on the Saloons and I bet the springs are different on a MK X / 420G than on an E-type, so I take it that the different coloured paint was used to give a visual clue to which rear axle was supposed to go onto which assembly line and which type of car.
The pumpkin getting cleaned.
And afterwards reassembled, showing the factory original black paint, with brush strokes and runs:
And I wondered what caused the “goose bumps” on the top plate? Welding sparks when it was being made?
Cheers,
Pekka T.
Fin.
Tweety’s as-delivered diff is black.
Runny, drippy black…
My series 2 had never been apart and my diff was a dull glyptal all over. Not a speck of black paint. My front wishbones were black, not a speck of cad plating anywhere under the paint. I know for a fact they had never been removed. So there are differences of what came off the line at the factory, and who knows why. All the cars specified by Pekka are series 1 cars. After a search on Xkedata for series 2 rear diffs, 12 were red glyptal and one was black. I find it hard to believe that E Type owners would paint the diffs red glyptal just because they like american hot rods. Why would people restoring their cars opt for red glyptal instead of black if they were trying to keep it as close to original as possible? Could it be that the factory stopped painting them on later cars and the restorers are seeing glyptal diffs when they disassembled them like I did? Did the factory use a defective black paint that washed away over years of use? I think there is more to this story other than they were all black when they left the factory. I respect Pekka’s knowledge of these cars a lot more than many others on this forum, but I think there is a reason for all the red glyptal diffs that is yet to be discovered or explained.
Maybe they were like this guy who got a nice rebuilt diff from Coventry West in black and proceeded to make it look like what he thought was correct…
In retrospect, perhaps I am just a KO (knucklehead owner).
I was partly misled by the color of the old diff which looked red but I now suspect was the just the result of multiple aggressive cleanings which removed most of the black paint but did not affect the very tough Glyptol.
Well, here is a possible exception to the black paint over the glyptal enamel. Here is a photo of my believed to be original IRS upon removal from the car. There was NO evidence of black paint over the glyptal under the dirt and oil, and notice the rectangular splotch of blue paint on the differential case under the hand brake lever. No black paint either over or under this splotch of paint. My car was blue from the factory, so was this a way to match the diff with the car? I’ve never seen this on another car, not that I’ve seen that many unmolested IRSs. I restored the diff case per the way I found it with glyptal enamel on the outer surface, but I didn’t replace the blue splotch.
BTW my safety wire was installed in-line with the car’s long axis from the factory, so that is how I reinstalled (to reference another thread). Also, all the silver looking parts are cadmium plated, heat treated, and conversion coated so hopefully they will last a while 
