Correct Sheen for the Floor pans?

[GüteAndTite]

Im ready to get my floorpan and suspension parts sand blasted and powdercoated. I may do my engine tin while im at it.

Ive scoured the forums and found no really good conclusive answer to this question.

What is the correct sheen for the pan, beam, trailing arms, axle tubes and engine tin? should it be high gloss black, semi gloss, matte? Ive tried finding good clear color pics of original cars and not having much luck.

I read somewhere on here that when painting it should be flattened to 80 sheen? I will be going powdercoat. I do have some NOS 36hp air cleaners and an original paint fan shroud and they both seem really shiny, not quite full high gloss black. The fan shroud isnt as shiny but im guessing thats due to years of cleaning with a cloth rag.

full gloss black seems way to shiny - looks great, but appears custom , not restored. the semigloss powdercoats seem too flat when compared to the original tin.

Im chomping at the bit and need to pick, but since its gonna cost 800, i want it dead on correct.
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[splitjunkie]

flat and semigloss are definitely incorrect. Most of the parts were quite shiny but not full gloss. They also won't all be the exact shade of black or level of gloss depending on what vendor painted what part. Runs are not uncommon.

The front beam was assembled all the way to the drums and bearing caps and steering box from unpainted parts other than the shocks which were painted. The entire assembly was then sprayed black as one unit. No paint on the inside of the drums or backing plates. Once painted it was bolted onto the pan and the brake lines were attached to the brake cylinders. The only unpainted fasteners on the front beam will be the four attaching bolts and the lock plates and the brake lines. You obviously can't do this if you are powder coating the front beam.

The pan was painted as one single unit with nothing attached.

Rear axle tubes were bolted to the backing plates and I believe assembled out to the drums with a temporary axle and then painted as a unit. No paint on inside of drums or backing plates. Once dry the temporary axle was removed and the assembly installed on the transaxle and the bolts tightened. At some point they assembled the whole rear axle and trans as one unit and them painted the whole thing including the transmission case. I am not sure if the brake hard lines were installed before painting early on but I think by the time they started painting the entire assembly they were so they should have a coat of paint on them at that point.

The entire rear axle/trans was bolted to the pan. The axles were bolted to the spring plates and the shocks added which retained their factory paint.
The spring covers were painted before assembly and the spring plates had some sort of finish but I am not sure what. The rear transmission cradle was painted before assembly. None of the fasteners for these parts should be painted.
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Chris

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