Rust my friend, where it's been scratched off it gets rusty, paint is dull, it' just generally in need of repaint.
And yes Dan, that is my "big old wife" I'm talking about, now don't you dare tell her I said that when you meet her at the KC reunion next September. And that oven is her brandy new Kenmore, but it makes a great bake out oven for small parts.
It is the stock paint, but like most things made a half-century ago, you can't get the same thing any more. Heck, you can't even find anybody alive that remembers what the stuff was made from back then. Someone, somewhere, engineered or mixed or packaged those items, but I've never found anyone that worked in the factories that made automotive products or parts back in the day.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/129616769/large DG
