I would like to clean up and paint the drums on my car and need to know what color they were or even if they were origionally painted at the factory. The car is a 72' Dart Swinger /6 car, 9" (I think) all round.

The drums where just left natural from the factory, unless you had the Road Wheels (magnum 500 style), then the face of the drums (where the wheel mates to the drum) were painted red. I cleaned mine up and painted them black, using high-temp engine paint. I just painted right on the rust (after I wire wheeled them), and they havent chiped or discolored yet after almost 2 yrs of daily use. You can paint them any color you like!

Factory drums were unpainted. If you want to paint them, black is the ideal color for radiating heat...

_________________
My truck is a Frankenstein creation
Built from the dead carcasses of others
And brought BACK TO LIFE!

The correct color is gunmetal gray. Drums were left bare and unprotected when new. Depending on how bad the rust is, I would put a cup brush on an angle grinder and brush heavy scale off, then coat with dark metallic grey manifold paint. If the drums are almost new I would sandblast them and either apply the manifold paint or urethane flat clear depending on how much I drive the car. The flat clear will yellow with heat but looks closest to factory fresh and keeps the drums looking great. But I generally only worry about the drums if the rest of the car is mint. Black is a functionally better color for the drum to be as mnecaise said, but if the drum is visible it will look incorrect. Personally I would paint it black if it was a stock show car, black if it was a hot rod. Wait, if it was a hotrod it would have four wheel discs

_________________
I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.