MTFCA Forum

Can anyone tell me what the correct finish on the steel sediment bowls under the gas tank was? Most of the time these are painted black but is that correct? I'm just wondering if they were just left unpainted from the factory, I have never seen any evidence of paint on unrestored ones.

I'm suprised that nobody out there can answer my inquiry about the original factory finish on the steel sediment bowls. This is kinda fun stumping the experts out there.

I could be wrong but I doubt they were painted. The main body may have been raven finished but that would likely have been all. The tanks were of course galvanized and not painted, so the whole thing would not have been dipped as an assembly. On my '20 I'm going to just use a clear satin lacquer on the bulb.

I suppose there’s no value in speculating without solid documentation but I’d be willing to bet they came unpainted. Then as now, some seeping or sweating if fuel is inevitable which would (will) ultimately remove a coat of paint.

Factory photos good ref. Early sediment bulbs cast bronze, by 1916 cast iron, no finish on them. Just naked

Thanks to RV, Rich and Dan for their reply. As I mentioned I my first post I suspected that they were unpainted originally. I'm currently rebuilding three sediment bowls and always like to do things correct if at all possible, they will be buck naked!

How do you know the ones in the picture are steel and not bronze? Appearance of both oval and round tanks? It doesn’t make sense that round and oval tanks would be in the same photo. The change-over was in ‘20. Is it possible that the photo is much earlier, maybe around ‘14, and the tanks that appear to be oval are in fact round tanks moving by on a conveyor?

Adam

Those are all round tanks, early photo, posted a cropped version, and camera angle made the upright tanks seem oval