Under Hood Color Diffrence

Why are some of the cars body color under the hood and some painted black. Did I read somewhere that it depended on where they were built? Also I know they built Mavericks in Canada but were Comets built up there also....I'm sure this has been covered here before but I'm new to the site and just got to thinking about this....Gary

 

Here is one search from the past.
http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=9750&highlight=engine+bay+paint+detail+question

 

My Maverick is a 74 and the engine compartment is the exterior body color.

 

I've always understood that until 72 all cars were black and from 73 up they were body color regardless of the build plant. That is also true of my other pre-73 Ford cars, not just Mavericks.

 

Well I read all the links and still didn't get a clear awnser. I'm starting to think it may have something to do with what plant they were built at or if it started in 73 it was a cost cutting measure. I do remember my 73 Comet that I bought new was light blue in the engine compartment like the body color....I think it's a good topic so everybody keep digging.....Don't everybody yell but I think they look better body color

 

my KC 71 Grabber is blue and the compartment is black. but you can tell the PO must have done that as i can see the blue in some spots.

 

My 71 is body color in the engine compartment and so was the 72 that donated the driverside apron and what ever year car it was that donated the radiator support.

 

both of my 71 grabbers are body color. rmiller the support is a 72

 

I think the only ones black for sure were 1970. I'm wondering if later year cars that have a black engine compartment was due to an assembly line defect in the paint. Instead of fixing the bad paint (or big scratch from a runaway engine hoist) in the engine compartment it was just painted black. From what I have seen 99% of 1971+ cars have body color engine compartment.

 

Mine didnt have black nor was it body color. It`s like a bare steel color. So far its the only one ive seen like that.....

 

If you are the original owner, i would like to see a picture of that!

 

uh yeah I was born in 89 theres no way I could be the original owner I know the previous two owners and its a 56k mile car. Everything on the car was bone stock except for the top end on the engine, AC delete and a hackjob on the heater hoses. The cars door sticker says it was a 3M "silver blue met" but it actually was a 3Q "pastel blue"car. If you have ever taken the drip rail trim off youll see that its unpainted there, well thats the color that my engine bay was. Heres a pic of when I got it. Its pretty big so i didnt want to embed it, just click on the link. http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/4316/maverick004wf1.jpg

 

OH MAN....This is going to get deep.....Could it be that they painted the underhood the color the car say's on the tag and then just missed on the rest of the car.

 

My 69.5 KC is black, both my 71 KC's ( a 2dr and a 4dr) are black, the 73 is the first one with a body color engine compartment. My 71 LTD (Chicago) was also black. Of course my 76 Stallion is black because that's the base color. But my 74 Montego, 76 Grand marquis, 79 T-Bird, 78 Pinto, and 88 Taurus are body color. My 74 Impala is black. I think that's all of 'em. Oops, forgot my 79 Lincoln, it's black in the engine compartment though.