Generally the the bearing carriers were not painted and just left natural die cast finish, but yes I've also seen them painted and I'd say that was generally done by previous tenants of the machine, but at times I've also felt that some have come from the factory painted. This is only evident in the earlier built machines and not the later 45's which were definitely straight die cast finish.
As far as that piece of sponge foam is concerned that's merely nothing more than a dust seal as the original bearings were open sided. The bearings should not be able to move laterally in the carriers when the caps are secured tightly. This piece of sponge is no longer required as all the replacement bearings are sealed RLS5 units and thus require no extra dust seals nor oiling through the oiler points in the top of the carrier caps.
The front roller assembly frame was originally zinc plated and bright dip finished, thus it had a silver type finish, the same as all the nuts and bolts were.
Also while I remember the reel bearings are meant to be a resonably tight fit onto the reel shafts, but after time they become loose on the shafts and the reel starts to rotate inside the bearing. This must be rectified before reassembly by either knurling the shaft lightly or spot peining around the shaft at equal spacings using a centre punch and hammer.
This must be done prior to reel machining as you engineer will use the newly installed bearings to rotate the reel on the spin grinder.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
