When did Ford go from the red block on the birds to blue?

[ward 57]

When rebuilding my generator I found it had been rebuilt & repainted black before and the fan blade Has touches of blue paint along with a newer style end plate. I've been asked if the red block is an original color as most are used to seeing blue blocks.

[289ace]

I'm not sure on when blocks went from red to blue, but in Mustangs the 65s had black blocks and in 66 they transitioned to blue.

ETA-
Found this previous post by Alan-

viewtopic.php?t=10463

[55blacktie]

If talking strictly Tbirds, 57 was the last year for Ford Red. For 58-65, I couldn't find a definitive answer. Apparently exports were painted a different color than those for the domestic market.

[Alan H. Tast]

One of my pet peeves is when people arbitrarily use 'Ford Blue' on an engine built before the '66 model year. Prior to 1966, Ford relied on color(s) of air cleaners, valve covers and engine blocks (especially prior to 1959) for engine sizes. The link provided by 289ace with my list of engine colors should help answer your question.

For '55-'57 'Birds, all 292s-312s were painted Vermillion, aka Ford Red, for the long block assembly; engine without the dress-up kit had black-painted valve covers and decals which differed between the 292 and 312 'Thunderbird Special' versions. Air cleaners lids/covers I had thought were painted Argent Silver without the dress-up kit, but last weekend I came across a very rough, unrestored '57 D-code 312-4v without the dress-up kit from mid-August '57 with a black-painted air cleaner lid/cover.