The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop What color are your leaf springs?

I just finished blasting and painting [eastwoods corect chassis black]the frame on my 42 1/2 ton.My question is what color should the leaf springs be.Iprobably would have painted them the same color had i not ran out of paint but i now wonder if that is corect.As always your input is greatly apreciated.Thanks..Ron

Iwould also like to know what color the drive train should be. I realize that paint is a personal choice but i would like to know what they would have been origanally.. thanks...Ron

rust is the most popular color.

Chassis Black.
Everything.The only thing that wasn't black was the engine.

IHC used to paint their chassis red, back in the '30s, which looks neat with a dark green truck, but that's expensive, and not correct for a stovebolt.

Frank McMullen

Everything I got is rust color with some black grease on the front springs.

Well , let's see - when I bought my '49 , the lowrider I got it from had heated the original springs , they were mostly rusty red as MT guggests , with a generous bit of light brown 90W on the left one courtesy of the leaky steering box , various shades of grease with some grey mud on the passenger side spring . now I have noce new shiny black springs but since greasing them they are beginning to look like the old ones did..

While sandblasting my springs, I found the old part numbers stenciled on in yellow. Traced them, scanned the tracing, made a template on the computer, printed it, then made a silkscreen from the printout. Then painted the numbers back on the springs. How's that for going crazy on details???

DId you dis-assemble the leafs before sandblasting, or did you leave them together?

pknauth,

See this other forum for more info:

Vintage Chevy restoration/preservation

Back to topic: All the springs are painted the same chassis black as the frame. Sandblasting may leave bits of grains stuck in between the leaves so air blow (or pressure wash) them out really-really well. The sand is super hard to get out of tiny crevices and most guys blast them dis-assembled. Some folks then re-assemble them with Teflon or Nylon thin sheets in between the springs to smooth down the friction between leafs and decrease the squeek.

On color: a seperate "chassis builder" would sometimes repaint the frames a contrasting paint color for "commercial" paint jobs. A Cab/fenders may be Red for instance, and the frame past the cab with springs would be Green. This was done especially when just a cab/chassis was ordered from the factory minus the bed and a builder would put a commercial bed on; like a delivery truck. One popular commercial frame painting scheem was matching the frame color (rearward of the cab) with the Cab color, while the fenders were painted black. These original commercial paint jobs are super rare to find and look strangely cool, if you are lucky enough to find them.
Otherwise springs are 99.99% ....black.

John
1952 2 ton COE
1947 COE tractor

lil' johnny--
Bought silk screen thermal masters from an art supply store. Enough of the old numbers were left on one spring so that I could trace them, then scanned the tracing into the computer and matched the font as best I could with Freehand (a drawing program). Printed to laser printer, then used an old Thermofax copy machine to make the silk screen master from the printout. Then taped the silk screen to the spring and brushed on the yellow paint. Although it's a lot of steps, it's a very simple process. I have a photo but don't know how to post it. Also don't have your e-mail. The quality of the silkscreen is perfect for something like a spring (also did bumper brackets), but I think it would be tough to do a really clean job on a valve cover.

[img]http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/46cba2f4/bc/1950+Chevy+half-ton/spring%23s.jpg?bc49BU8A0d583TaZ[/img]

[ 11-24-2001: Message edited by: pknauth ]

any chance ou still have the photo
Thank you

Joe

preziosoj@harcolabs.com

The AD trucks came from the factory with the springs unpainted, as were the transmission, front axle assembly, rear axles assembly drive shafts and steering gear.
If you go to the original size on this picture you can still see the green id paint that was on the bare front axle on most of the light duty AD trucks. http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/113628961/large
The bottom of the cab was bare also except for paint over spray at the edges and a strip of under coating on either side. The chassis was painted black before it went to assembly.
GM was in the business of building and selling new trucks and these trucks were not made to give several decades of service. They were built to last about eight or ten years at the most and be replaced. As noted in some of the old parts literature which I remember from when I was a Chevy parts man, they did no promise that new replacement parts were to be made available after ten years and many parts that were not common to later years disappeared from the later parts books after a decade.
The majority of the restorations that I see (as I also do) paint all of the under chassis parts semi-gloss chassis black, which is technically incorrect but generally accepted by judges. In some cases such as the transmission, center section, master cylinder, steering gear I use the Cast Coat simulated cast iron paint from Eastwood.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

Looks like we've fooled GM on this one?

Yep but we sure end up paying for that longevity don't we Tim!
You've seen a lot of original AD's, isn't that about what you've found also on the underside???
Denny G

Denny,

Regarding painted drive-train parts, Yes, that is what I have found (usually found no paint on the parts ).

However, I trust your research more than the conditions I have found over the years.

I think I am going to leave the front axle. transmission, and rear-end au naturel on my 54 Hydra-Matic. I'll keep the parts oiled, to lessen rusting.

I still have to decide on an engine paint. I think that Bob Adler has written that the shade of gray changed in 1954 trucks - from the darker blue-gray on low-pressure engines to the lighter gray (but, not as light as Ford engine gray). Decisions, decisions, . . .

The gray on the engine that you recently posted a link-to looks lighter than the Filling Station gray (blue-gray?) that I have seen posted in the past (it is hard to judge by html-rendered photos on different monitors/displays). I like it. Bob Adler has given a PPG code for 1954 truck engines - I think I might get the smallest can they sell at my local jobber and try it.

If your addressing the color in this link Tim, you are correct, it’s impossible to judge the color from pictures. Differences in cameras, computer screens, photo editing software, then there is the lighting. Was it sunlight, tungsten, florescent or kerosene lantern. There are simply to many variables to expect an accurate color reading. Plus in my case, most of what I post to my album probably has been edited in Photo Shop which I use to correct a poorly exposed picture by lightening or darkening or changing the contrast: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/136174267
We’ve been thru this engine paint thing hundreds of times since I’ve been a member here. Over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that any of the Stovebolt’s look best in the dark gray that The Filling Station sells. I defy anyone judging the engine color to come up with a factory original un-faded color chip for comparison. Over the years I’ve heard that Bob Adler has changed his formula several times also. As has Bill Hirsch, that seems a clear indication that they were finding variation in their research of original parts also. I did some comparison some time ago laying the colors up next to each other in a single photo. This is probably the best way to compare the shades of gray. I’ve been unable to obtain a sample of Bob Adler’s idea for engine paint. I would like to get an oz. so I could add a strip of his gray to my color chart. As you can see there is even a slight variation from can to can in Bill Hirsch’s interpretation: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/116496103
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/116496118

I ran a bare transmission, front and rear axle in my ‘50 for four years. But, I didn’t drive it in the rain, and it was leaking oil so badly from every where that everything underneath was constantly oil soaked. Got lots of comments about my marking the territory every time I parked in any ones driveway. So as I said, I’ve decided to go the chassis black and cast iron paint route now that the entire drive line from the engine on back has been completely restored.

The original question was about the springs. During the tear down last winter I disassembled the springs, wire wheeling them, replaced the bushings, new clips and hanger hardware, then reassembled them dry as the shop manual instructs. After they were back together I painted them with the chassis black. A bunch of pictures of that about half way down this page: http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/3604_suspension&page=all
I’ve always said that I’m not after “Factory Stock” rather that I’m aiming for a “Period Correct” truck keeping it 95% as it was originally. By that I mean, if I had bought one of these trucks in the 50’s I probably would have made some small custom changes to it to keep it looking nice. Such as panting the parts that weren’t painted and adding a few items from the period, like a side mount for my ’50 which wasn‘t available in ‘50.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL