Paul,
I know for certain that the entire bed assembly was painted as a unit. I'm taking my 51 apart right now and the tailgate hinges, tailgate, front bed panel, etc, were assembled before painting. All these components have just the black primer underneath, and the bolts still have some Forester green on them, therefor all the bolts should have body color paint. I'm still not certain about the fenders being attached before paint, I've got a photo around here somewhere of a new Ad pickup and it looks like the clutch head screws for the fenders are still cadmium color. When I get a little farther along in my detective work when stripping the paint, I should have a better idea.
It's also my understanding that the wood bed floor was pre-assembled before being given a coat of black paint, therefor all the 1/4" carriage bolts on the wear strips would be painted black. I haven't ascertained what the 5/16" carriage bolts on the bedside angle strips should be.
My '50 is still original paint and its' bed was Mariner Blue from the get-go. Just black primer under the blue paint.
Bob
