Found Blue Paint on My Black Torsion Bar ('65 Formula S)

dibbons said

#1) It appears the last time they were painted, the paint ran down to the bottom of the bar (gravity) because the paint is not smooth on the side that faces the ground. This could have been a factory finish for all I know.

#2) I thought there was some left over blue masking tape on the driver's side torsion bar from when the underbody was painted (white). However, I can't scrape it off with my fingernail and it appears to have been painted on there.

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Torsion bars were dipped in paint...they weren't sprayed. After they were dipped, they were set aside to dry and the paint ran down and created "drips/runs" on the bottom side. As was already mentioned, the paint marks were so the line workers could more easily identify a part. Much easier to look at a colored line then read a part#. When restoring my Challenger, I had one silver mark on one bar and two silver marks on the other. That was so they could more easily identify which bar was left and right.

8-3/4 center sections have a lot of paint marks on them too. Each gear ratio has a specific paint color mark as well as specific marks for sure-grip units. 8-3/4 housings also have a lot of factory markings on them.