rear sway bar...natural or black

[burdar]

1970 rear bars on the T/A's were painted black.  What about the later years?  Some say black and others say natural(unpainted).  On Mopar Muscle Magazine online, there are pictures of a 74 Cuda that won OE gold back in 02.  It shows a natural unpainted rear bar however there are a few things on that car that don't seem right.  I know "Bullitt" said his 73 didn't show any signs of paint.  Does anyone have pics of survivor cars with a rear bar?  Preferably 72-74 cars. 

I got a replacement bar from "Brooks"...I cleaned it up good enough for paint it but it's going to take a lot more work if I want to leave it natural.  I may just paint it to look natural if that ends up being the consensus.  The replacement bar has gray paint on it in a two inch band right next to where the bushings ride.  I don't know if this was added at some time or if the factory put some inspection marks on it.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks

[Jamiez]

The bar on my 74 looks to be natural although it's got a fair amount of grime and surface rust so it's hard to be completely sure.
I needed to crawl under there and look at the rear shocks anyhow, so I snapped a few pictures:

[burdar]

Thank you!   

The bar has one coat of black paint on it now.  That's the base coat before spraying 3 other colors to get the natural look.  Anyone else?  I can still go either way at this point.  I'm leaning twards natural.

[Chryco Psycho]

I used an epoxy primer to prevent rust
the Eastwood Detail Grey looks like natural steel

[burdar]

I got the bar painted to look natural.  I sprayed a black base coat followed by a light mist coat of Eastwood Spray grey.  Then a light mist coat of Eastwood Detail Grey.(you should still see some of the black base through those two colors)  Then I sprayed a light coat of Krylon Battery Protectand spray and lastly a good heavy coat of matte clear.  It looks pretty good.

The only problem with doing that to the frame brackets is that there's no way to duplicate the discoloration on the welds.

[TreeFrog]

When I painted the Vapor Seperator, I painted it with a high temp primer (since I had it) and did an over spray with a multi colored speckeled paint (used to paint on plastic) it gave it a nice used undercoat/overspay look.

[burdar]

I originally sprayed the separator with Eastwoods Tank Tone paint.  It looked OK but it wasn't going to fool anyone into thinking it was new.  Over the weekend, I misted it with chrome spray paint.  I think it looks a lot nicer now.  I think once it's under the car, it will look close to what my new gas tank looks like.  We'll see...

[Bullitt-]

After blasting off the rust I just wire wheeled all the bare metal pieces & clear coated with Eastwood's Satin Diamond Clear
Kind of turns the metal a dull grey with just a hint of shine, don't know how accurate it is but it doesn't look put on.
http://www.eastwood.com/ew-diamond-clear-satin-for-bare-metal-quarts.html

The sway bar, brackets & exhaust hangers
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii100/wbullitt99/repair/P1010014-1.jpg


Rear chunk, u-bolts, drive shaft & shock plates
http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii100/wbullitt99/repair/P1010002-3.jpg