The Fan relays, airbag harness, cruise control, and various brackets that were/are all the same color. The finish didn't stand the test of time in most cases, but they're sortof drab green. But, what color/shade were they originally? Anyone have a good reference photo? And how could it be replicated? Is it a specific process? Any chance it would last better the second time, or better to try and match in powder? Anyone else fought this battle?

 

the fan relay brackets are/were a zinc plated with a black or olive drab (it varies). most of the other brackets were in similar colors on the FD, but i've seen some that were zinc with a gold finish. best way is to pull yours off and look at the side that was facing the body

the bolts under the car with a dark silver finish are cadmium plated. cadmium plating is superior, but does bad things to the environment, so its only used on really important stuff that sees a lot of moisture, like the caliper mounting bolts, or the engine mount bolts

 

Yeah they were originally a really dark green color, it's a coating applied to the bracket.

While the coating goes to crap over time cosmetically it does do the job of keeping the bracket from rusting out at least.

If you wanted to replicate it for an original look I'm not sure what the exact name of the process is that gets that green color. If you're not as picky those brackets paint or powder coat nicely.

Dale

 

Green on early cars, later cars we're zinc plated with a gold passivate for most brackets and some more visible ones like the fan relay bracket were painted black.

 

An easy way to reproduce the look of the green phosphate finish Mazda applied using a spray-on coating. Although, if you are a stickler for an exact match green is a little too green and gray-green is a little too gray. I prefer the gray-green.

https://www.caswellplating.com/metal...rkerizing.html


Another source that I haven’t tried:

https://www.duracoatfirearmfinishes....nt=38808632905

 

Thanks a lot for the input. I'll follow up with whatever I end up doing.