The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Correct 235 Paint color

I'm looking to find the correct engine paint color for my 1956 Truck Thriftmaster 235. I've read on other forums and websites and seems to be narrowed down to either a blue/gray or gray. I understand car engines were all blue but trucks were blue/gray or gray. I just want to know which is correct.

Here is a link posted by a fellow ‘bolter that may help. http://www.1954advance-design.com/Web%20images/PPIP/PPIP-1912-1966-EngineColors.html

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I used the engine paint color sold by Jim Carter on my 216. It’s gray with a hint of blue. I think it’s the same for later engines.
It matched the remnants of original paint very closely.

Correct 235 Paint Color - as if anyone knows (and also has GM/Chevrolet documentation)?

An old thread with enough information to confuse anyone.

Choose the shade of gray that suits you.

This is what I've got. Not for show, driver. F--d grey

Here's my engine painted. Colors probably don't show accurately on the computer, though.

I bought paint from Bill Hersch, Chevrolet Gray. https://www.hirschauto.com/ENGINE-ENAMEL/productinfo/EE-QUART/CHV%20GREY/

Thanks for all the feedback, its looking like gray is probably the go-to color here. Good link to the PPIP article- I may have that issue laying around somewhere and never thought to look through those.

I started out looking for Chevy gray. I found some references on Amazon and a couple other sites to find out it has been discontinued and I could not find it anywhere. After a lot of research each plant mixed their own engine color. No set color code. Some shade of gray. They were all close but could have slight differences. The closest match I could find from the original few chips on my engine is F**d gray. It turned out pretty good. You also mentioned car vs. truck. Cars were blue and trucks were gray.

Unless you're concerned about losing judging points just pick a color and go with it like Tim said. If you're concerned about being "correct" for judging you need to be aware of the requirements of the club/organization that will be doing the judging. The VCCA recognizes the gray from The Filling Station as being the closest to "correct" and there's a good write up on The Filling Station's site explaining why they chose that color. The Hirsch gray is generally considered to be too light. FWIW I used the gray from TFS on my 38 and it closely matched what OEM paint survived the years. Here is the page I referred to:
https://store.fillingstation.com/detail/FS-119/Chevrolet_CHEVROLET_ENGINE_PAINT_DARK_GRAY.html

Interesting. I had blotches of blue on my truck engine. A 1974 plate came with the truck, so ASSumed last driven that year. Maybe someone replaced the engine within it's first 20 years with a car engine. Because the engine was junk, I since replaced it with one from a junk yard and had them paint it blue because I thought that was correct.

Thanks- I guess I should've prefaced my initial post with I don't intend to have my truck judged for points or awards. Its more important to me that its accurate but its good to know which colors are accepted by some of the larger organizations. I am taking a purest approach to my restoration- at least staying as close to stock as possible while taking some liberties along the way. I will tell ya any future shows I take my Napco to very few people will even know the engines were painted gray let alone which shade of gray was used. Again, thank you for the replies.

FWIW For your reference I'll post a photo of my 38's engine following the rebuild and paint. It's pretty dark gray with a slight hint of blue. My photos are on my other computer.

Here are a couple of pics of what the VCCA considers to be the correct gray. As you can see the shade can vary even from the flash angle. The photo on the engine stand is the closest to the IRL color.

Task Force truck engines are what I consider a darkish gray with a hint of blue. Quite different from the very dark gray I have seen on original 216s.
The 216 color, as it ages and loses its sheen, becomes a dead ringer for the color of oily road grime.

I had the fortunate opportunity to work on a true barn find '55.2. We carefully removed the significant amount of oily road grime from the valve cover which preserved the original paint. As we got through to the paint, it showed through as dark grey with a slight blue hue (not a dead ringer for oily road grime). We even were able to see the yellow 235 script painted on the side.

(The following is only my opinion and pure conjecture at best. I’m sure the Filling Station’s research is as good as it’s gonna get)

The 216’s production run spanned both the pre and post WW2 period. If GM cared enough to standardize the shade of gray they were painting engines before the war᠁I’m betting they ceased to care DURING the war. Whatever gray paint was laying around was likely good enough. And by the time the 235 production run started, how much surplus gray paint was lying around? I’m betting it was a LOT. And I’m betting GM didn’t think twice about using it as long as it was some shade of gray.

All that said, I have seen 2-3 216s still wearing some original paint. In all cases it was a very dark, almost charcoal, similar to the pics that Tiny posted.

JW, everything you said makes very good sense. My '53 engine (swapped into my '51 as a short block way back then) was definitely very close to the pic I posted. I found 3 or 4 spots on the engine that were dang close to the JC paint color I used. I've never seen one as dark as what Tiny posted, but haven't seen that many. The Korean war effort may have dried up quite a bit of that surplus paint you mentioned, and GM may have standardized by 53.
[on edit] I just noticed from looking at Tiny's pics that I should have painted my balancer the same color as the engine. I painted it black before reinstalling. I guess I'm gonna get docked some points.

The engine in Tiny's pic has the draft tube painted black. Ist that correct on the grey engine?

Sure.
At least that's what I did. No idea whether that's correct or not actually. I looked for a picture in the Service Manual, but only found one that even showed the draft tube and couldn't tell the color.

50 Shades of Gray (Search for "50 Shades of Grey)

Bob Adler is mentioned in that post - Bob is THE Stovebolt expert (he only has/had maybe a hundred or more Stovebolts").

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1955-chevrolet-235-engine-color.554754/

I used the F@&d gray in my ‘46. It’s a driver, not show, and the color is good enough for government work.

I painted all my engines off the shelf Rust oleum Charcoal Gray. It is a very good option

That non-engine paint seems to hold up?

Never seen it fail!
Used it on many engine over the last 30 years.
Here is a customers 1936 with a 235 I installed, with a few years on it.

The stuff that Jim Carter sells is the same as their body paint. PPG ALK-200. It's an industrial acrylic enamel.
We'll see how it turns out on my engine.

I am using armour coat from Canadian tire the colour is called court grey will see how it holds up .the exhaust manifold I rubbed in graphite it looks good but time will tell .

I use Rust-oleum extensively and like it except it fades in the sun after a while.

Ed

I use Rust-oleum extensively and like it except Ed

Does that matter on an engine?