The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Interior Paint Scheme

1950 Chevy 3800 - The interior paint for the glove compartment door & the speaker cover was done how? They both have the horizontal ridges if you will, so was the high surfaces different than the lower areas? Looking for an original paint scheme for these two pieces. Were the higher surfaces ever just a stainless finish with no paint (seems I recall seeing that a long time ago, but I maybe mistaken). If both upper & lower areas were painted, did one have an offsetting color to make the so called ridges stand out. Sorry for all the questions on this, but trying to get it as close as possible to the original look. Thanks for considering my questions. If anyone has any pictures of their original interior, please pass them along. Tom

My speaker cover was painted just the interior color, but I believe the glove box door was painted interior color just in the recesses, with the tops of the ridges polished stainless steel. I can share a pic of my speaker color, but the glovebox door was painted over top of the original scheme, with just the wider top section paintless.

So after I posted, I got curious and dug out my original glove box door which had been painted rattle can blue by a previous owner. Trying to sand the blue out of the grooves was unsuccessful as all the paint came off, but I did find a couple spots with original interior revealed under the blue. Here's a couple of close-up photo where you can see both the original tan interior color where the blue had chipped off. Also one of the speaker cover where you can see the original paint on both the high and low spots.

Kevin, Thanks for the response, both of my pieces were painted black at some point in history. I guess I will try to scrape some of that paint off and see what is underneath. I still think I remember at least on the glove box door the high ridges being the polished stainless like you mentioned. I will try and strip some of the black paint in a small area and see what's there. Any other comments welcome. Tom

Perhaps this helps...it is two different colors.

Interesting. Is your speaker grille stainless steel or plain steel? When you say two different colors, is that paint or paint and stainless?
My truck is a no-frills model and the grille is plain steel, and was painted interior color. It does have the stainless pieces top and bottom.

The speaker grille is plain steel, and the glove box door is stainless. I originally painted the raised ribs on the speaker grille silver, and I went with a polished stainless-steel look on the raised ribs on the glove box door. It was followed by a few years of a silver paint look on the glove box door. The raised ribs were originally painted a slightly different color than the dash color. It took me a while to track down the correct color. It is a grayish brown color--not silver. I carefully masked off the areas and used paint in a spray can prepared by a local automotive specializing in automotive paints. A very fine brush was used for touch-up. It now sports the look that it would have had from the factory in 1948. I spent time researching various posts here on Stovebolt.com to source the information for this project.

Thank you both for the great information. After taking some of the black paint off, I now do see the dash color in the lower recesses and a lighter shade on the raised ribs like you mention. Fonz8261, thanks for supplying the pictures and the paint label for what you used. Your dash looks great, did you paint the whole dash, if so, what was the color you used there if I may ask. It looks like a matte finish - no gloss, that is what I want for mine. Thanks again to both of you for the information. Tom

Original interior paint wasn't glossy, it was a semi-matte finish. If your glove box door is original, take a look at the back of it. It was painted interior color and you can see what the finsih looked like.

I have my doubts that GM went to the expense on anything but maybe deluxe trim model trucks to paint the ribs on the speaker grille a different color than the base interior color. I don't have any info to back that up, but it just doesn't make sense. These were trucks designed for work, not necessarily to look pretty.

As far as interior color, Jim Carter sells what is purported to be the correct color, but it was quite a bit darker than my original protected dash color. I had it lightened to match. That being said, using JC's color wouldn't be a bad choice. Who's going to know unless parked next to an original truck and even then would be difficult to tell.

Kevin,

After taking some of the black paint on both pieces, the upper ridges on both were the lighter shade as mentioned above. My truck is a very basic 3-window model cab, built in Janesville, WI if that matters. Maybe the factory locations differed slightly on how they painted things (just a thought anyway). But yes, it makes sense what you say about the deluxe cab vs. the standard - who knows???

Tom

I used Jim Carter's interior cab paint. I sprayed the entire cab and it laid down nicely. I like the look.

After a little more sleuthing through the catacombs of the forums. I've discovered that the lighter accent color on the speaker grille, ash tray cover, and glove box door were used through early '51 production, and later '51 trucks just painted those items the main interior color. Tim Lederman had a post with a link to a GM document with the two GM color codes for the main interior color and the lighter accent color and when they were used. LInk
So instead of masking off the ridges of my glove box door and painting just the grooves, I'm going to paint the whole center section interior color, leaving just the top and bottom areas stainless, which will match the trim on top and bottom of the speaker grille. It'll be easier, too. Anybody need some cut-to-width tape for masking the small high areas?

To be correct, 3800GUY, yours should have the lighter accent color.

Kevin,
Good information as always! Yes, mine does have the lighter shade of paint on the higher ridges, and could be a bit of a pain trying to tape it up and spray the different colors. Plan to getting back on that project soon, just getting a few outdoor things done around here while the weather is still decent - winter is coming soon unfortunately. On the document you provided, would the Duco stock no. mean anything to the paint shops today? Just wondering how they might come up with a color based on that number.
Thanks again,
Tom

Tom
If you give those Duco numbers to a paint guy nowadays, you'll just get that deer in the headlights look.
What I would do is get some of the base color and either add some silver to it to get it lighter or sweet talk your paint guy into lightening it up for you. Who's going to tell if you don't get it exactly right? If it looks good to you, that's all that counts.

I did run across some paint chips (although they're electronic so not real dependable) at TCP Global. But they were two different tones of the Cambridge Grey Poly (see attached pic). Tim's Tech tip on paint colors call the interior colors Medium Tan Metalli-Chrome and Dark Tan Metalli-Chrome. So there's lots of confusion around interiors.

As I mentioned, Jim Carter's interior paint was too dark to match my original, but their steering column paint was spot on for my truck.

I saw another pic of a guys '51 COE for sale in the swap meet that suggested that the whole speaker grille and center of the glove box door was all the same color, and appeared to be lighter than the dash itself. Found that pic too, in case the truck gets sold and the post deleted.

My plan was originally to mask the higher ridges with 3/16" wide tape and spray the lower areas, leaving the ridges polished stainless. You could spray the whole thing with the lighter color, then tape off the ridges and spray the darker. I think that would be easier than spraying darker first and taping the valleys.

I agree the raised ridges of the radio speaker panel were painted a lighter shade of brown and the recessed areas were painted a darker shade (like Fonz8261’s pictures). At least that’s the way it was painted on the 1952 truck we had back in the day. The earlier 1947-1950 trucks had more polished stainless and chrome trim both inside and out. Early trucks had stainless dash trim strips, stainless glove box covers, and ashtray knobs. I even have a pair of original stainless inside window moldings from a 1947 truck.

You may be remembering incorrectly on the '52. The two tone interior scheme for the speaker grille & glovebox was phased out mid '51, and GM went with a single color on them per the GM notice that Tim posted.
I always thought my dad's GMC shop truck was a '48, but finally came up with a picture of it, and discovered it was a '51. I do remember that it had wing windows, though. Just shows that as we age, memories change.