1965 Dodge Dart Charger

65dartcharger said

I was pretty sure until last night that all the starters on the Chrysler smallblock were painted semi-gloss black after they were assembled. Last night a guy from New York called me about some other things and said that the starters were only painted on the startes frame where the linings are. He was sure they did it after 1968 and though that was done from 1960. The rest were left natural.

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Your guy from New York sounds as if he is taking what he has seen one or two or a dozen times and inappropriately generalizing it to all cases. In the first place, the starter in question (Chrysler gear-reduction) did not exist in 1960. It didn't exist until 1962. Secondly, I have seen what might be considered an unusually large number of original '62-'86 starters on very-low-miles original cars (and NOS items), and while I have seen the paint configuration Mister New York describes (round steel field frame and rear cover plate painted semi-gloss black, aluminum gear housing unpainted), I have also seen the configuration I previously described (entire starter, more or less, painted semi-gloss black). The earlier starters, '62 through '67ish, in my observation are more likely to be more or less fully painted. The later starters, about '66ish on up, are more likely to be painted only on the field frame. And sometime in the late mid '70s, completely unpainted starters began to show up.

Wheel bearing grease caps: Plated as shown. Not painted.