Finnish on Wing Nut and Washer on an |M car with A/C

[Ian M Greer]

To all the gents with original M cars equipped with A/C with the remote reservoir power steering canaster. All I have ever seen is the Wing Nut and Washer that hold the lid closed, both in a Silver Cad finish . Has anybody seen an original with these two components chrome . Any input appreciated, Ian.

[Jim Wulf]

To all the gents with original M cars equipped with A/C with the remote reservoir power steering canaster. All I have ever seen is the Wing Nut and Washer that hold the lid closed, both in a Silver Cad finish . Has anybody seen an original with these two components chrome . Any input appreciated, Ian.

There is no listing for chrome hardware for the PS cover, and I have never seen any personally. The only S13/chrome hardware listed in the Blue Bible for an M Code are the ten 5/18-18 x 5/8" bolts for the valve covers. I used S8/clear cad finish on both M Codes I restored and passed muster in Authenticity judging by Alan.

[Alan H. Tast]

Part of the problem with the remote PS reservoir cover and wing nut is that the parts catalogs (at least the most-commonly available ones such as the '60-'64 "Blue Bible" don't have a listing for a chrome-plated cover/nut/washer (the non-A/C one, though, is listed for both the "M"-series cars and '63 Falcon Sprints). Over the years the chrome-plated ones, which more than likely were an owner-modified item, were accepted without full documentation as to their origin and factory availability.

One of the problems with the "Blue Bible" is that a lot of part numbers were dropped/obsoleted from Ford's P&A listings/inventory in 1968-1969, with the ones remaining in the 'system' being memorialized in the 1969 printing of the "Blue Bible," with a number of items being service replacement parts as opposed to original issue/installation parts. A check of previously-issued Master Parts Catalogs going back into the early-mid 1960s, which were updated on a quarterly basis (if not more frequently), combined with looking for similar part numbers in List Price Catalogs, Obsolete-Supersede-Interchange (OSI) and Master Parts Cross-Reference catalogs, previously haven't yielded anything indicating a unique number for the remote reservoir cover with a T-bird part prefix (C2SE/C2SZ or C3SE/C3SZ) that would indicate a chromed version. That doesn't mean another 'deep dive' isn't warranted for this, but I've been trying to track this oddity down for several decades already with results meeting the classic definition of 'insanity' (repeating a process hoping for a different result).

[Ian M Greer]

Thank you for your replies : Jim and Alan , Same conclusion on the finish as me , but please don't go over the deep end Alan on this one .
. Thanks guys , Ian