The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Frame and Body Recommendations

I recently bought my 1952 Chevy pickup from a guy who had started the restoration but lost interest. The body is solid and he did a very good job of getting the body ready for paint. He cleaned up the frame and painted it with a rattle can of something. :confused: It already has a few chips and minor rust spots. I want to keep the truck fairly stock and to be able to drive it a couple of times per week around town but also be able to put it in a local show. What is the general recommendation for painting the frame. I am leaning towards going back down to the frame and getting it powder coated but don't know if this will ruin the trucks value. I'm also struggling with body colors. I was thinking about one primary body color (an original color of course) and black for some of the other parts like running boards, fenders, bumpers, etc. What is the feeling about how this would look and effect the value for showing. I want the truck to look the way I am going to be happy with but I also don't want to create something that looks cheezy. I am hopefully going to be driving this truck a long time and will pass it on to my son.

I am excited that I found this forum. Everyone here seems very knowledgable and excited about trucks!
tim52

Tim: It's one of things dang If I do, dang If I don't. As we usually reomend it's your truck> A lot of the fun is imagination. A lot of us have gone all the way to frame and done right. The problem is as P>O> losing interest.

Those frames are old a little care and they will last a long time. Color preference is yours. Look up pictures ya kinda know what you want then go for it. As we are indiviuals so is your truck and extension of you. GET SON INVOLVED! popcorn The Truth is Out There (thats what is all about plus harassing this page )

Tim, I went all the way to the frame myself. Used Eastwood's frame products and am happy with the results. Just wire brushed the loose rust away, used the rust preventive product and their Chassis Black paint. Looks like original. As far as body colors, I am doing my '53 in Burgundy Maroon body with black fenders and grill. That happened to be an optional color scheme in '53. I used the paint chip code for the two colors and had NAPA mix them in Martin Senour paint. Looks great! I don't know for sure what the color schemes were that were available for '52, but you might find that there were some two-tone options for that year like there were for '53. If you are interested in keeping to the original optional colors, I'd start with finding a paint chip chart for your year of truck and go from there. Good luck.