The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Tailgate Support Chain

Denny
The 49 GMC did not belong to me, but was listed for sale on e-Bay a couple of years ago. I drove up to northern Tennessee to photograph it for documentation to help me with my restoration of my '52 GMC. It was a completely original paint and upholstery vehicle with only 2700 miles on it. It even had the original US Royal tires, including spare tire, it left the factory with on it. I don't believe the black finished tail gate chains would have been replaced. '49 GMC Take a few minutes and look through the album on this truck and I think you will agree it is/was a time capsule. So, I still believe that black tail gate chains were the standard finish for at least some factories prior to 1954.

Also notice that the chain was the same from ‘32 to ’53,
3801845-46 but changed to the ones that George was talking about
3810823-24 in ’54, go figure. I’m sure the covers would fit any
of the chains from ’32 to the end of the chain age. Once again,
can we take that to mean that the trucks came from the factory
up to and including ’53 without the covers?

DG

The factory filmstrips and literature document that covers were on chains.
1938
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/8526597986/in/set-72157632906249201/lightbox/
1951
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/12315229543/in/set-72157640522200463
1951
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/11965080365/in/set-72157631872034068
1952-3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/8131113231/in/set-72157631872034068

And that's what I was hinting at Brad, often times we use the
parts books for documentation, but they don't always tell the
whole story. Lots of parts went obsolete and the numbers taken
out of the listing where others were left in for decades and
one number superseded another and so on.
I would have thought that the chain covers would have been on
all of them from the factory from day one till the end of the
chain gang.
And I learned a long time ago not to count as gospel
comments like, "My 60 or 70 year old truck is exactly
the way it came from the factory." I rank statements
like that in the same category as "It ran when I parked it."

I spoke to both the original owners or caretakers of
both my '50 and '54 and they swore that nothing was
changed from when they bought the trucks. But I'm
constantly finding little things that just don't jive
with the books or photos documenting the original trucks.

Color of the chains?????? Who knows, information seems
to be all over the place. Test your VCCA judge and
see if he has it figured out, I sure don't. All I
know is that any chain on either of my trucks will
have plated chains and black ribbed covers, and I'm
happy with that.

Denny Graham
Movin' on in Sandwich, IL

That 49 gmc has black splash aprons

Locking gas cap, lock on spare tire

Could it have been a special order truck?
That might explain the black chain

Gus
The black splash aprons were standard with GMC unlike the Chevy which were painted body color. I am pretty sure the locking gas cap and spare tire lock were dealer or owner installed accessories not factory options.

Here is a 1951 tail gate chain cover photo. This is from a recently-posted GM filmstrip from Brad. The cover is lighter-colored than black - maybe gray?