Were all third gen lower control arms painted? i ask this because i am in the middle of cleaning mine and found that the end where the ball joint is pressed in is painted what looks to be chevy orange. This control arm came off of the passenger side. i haven't done the driver's side yet. This may be miniscule but i was really curious. Some background about the car: My brother bought the car new and in 2001 it was sold to me. I asked him if he ever had the control arms replaced or serviced in anyway and he said he never did. If anyone can shed some light on this it would be awesome!

-Mark

 

Typically the suspension pieces would be either painted in a semi-gloss black, or not at all. The front control arms were barely painted, the rear 10 bolt axle was not painted, the drive shaft was not painted. The rear control arms, & pan hard bar were painted semigloss black, the tork arm was painted, the sway bars were barely painted semi-glss black, the idler arm and front steering pieces I pained mine black, and I think they were originally black.

 

They were partially painted. The ball joint section would have been taped off and left bare and the rest was painted black.