Stovebolt.com Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed AD truck hardware finish

When leaving the factory floor, did the hardware in the AD truck beds receive the black finish just like the bed wood, or were the bolt heads and washers left exposed in their natural finish? It is my understanding that the rails between the individual boards were black.

II'd be willing to bet that the bolts were painted galvanized steel. They'd rust pretty fast if they weren't. We know they weren't stainless.

If the bolts were galvanized or zinc plated, I'll bet they didn't go back and paint the fasteners. Galvanized fasteners weather pretty well. That's what the zinc does - protects the underlying steel from rusting. I don't plan on painting the fasteners when I put my wood (painted each plank black on all sides individually) in the bed. The bed strips are already painted black.

A fella on here had some pics of an absolute untouched immaculate original '49 1/2 ton GMC which showed that the bolts were painted black.
This truck wasn't his, but he took the time to take some amazing pictures of it that answered many, many questions about details of these trucks. One thing that I gleaned from his pics was where they used masking tape between the interior color and the exterior color.
It was not exactly where the exterior sheet metal met the door lock and hinge pillars. Close, but not exact.
Another thing was how the end of each beltline pinstripe had a rounded end wherever they began and ended.

Carl, did it show the bolts on the angle strips painted body color? Those were attached to the bedsides and then painted with the body. The wood would have then been installed, or would the box been masked and the wood (including strips and hardware) painted afterward?

There was also a post a few years ago of an original bed where the wood was painted the body color, IIRC. It would make sense that the hardware was painted also.

When I removed the 1/8 " steel plate from the bed of my 1954 Chevy Truck, it revealed that the bed rails, bed wood, bed bolts and angle plate were all painted ocean green. Even after 67 years there was still remnants of the green paint on some of the bed wood. It's my understanding that the painting of the bed to match the truck color only began in 1954. Prior to that the bed wood was a dark charcoal color. Although I have not yet found color pictures of earlier GM Trucks , it would make sense that the bed strips, bolts and angle plates match the bed wood in appearance and would be painted black. Again, I have no proof. The search begins....

Ron, Thanks for confirming I'm not crazy when I said I saw a post about bed wood being painted body color. It was your post about it that I recalled.

The question in my mind is whether the angle strips on older trucks would have been painted body color and THEN the prepainted wood installed with the other bed strips prepainted black and all the hardware left unpainted. It would make sense to me that painting would be done on both the wood and metal parts, and then the wood installed. But that's just a supposition on my part. My bed was too rusty to determine if that scheme was used.

I used Black Oxide bolts for the bed strips when I rebuilt my bed. Painted the perimeter bolts before install.

There has been good information shared here. My take away from it all is that the hardware in my '48 Chevy 1/2 ton truck should be black. Thanks!

That was my takeaway as well.

Kevin you got me to thinking about this issue so I backtracked to a post response from Tim Lederman, I hope he's ok with me reviving it! See the attached screen shot.

No problem, Ron.

Just to add further confusion: I now have some sales-illustrations of the two, two-tone pickup and panel models that came out in late 1954 and 55-1st series.

The bed wood and metal bed strips were painted black (a semigloss, perhaps).
The running boards were painted lower-body color.

However, I also have original color-documents that show those late two-tone models having black running boards.

Shell White top/upper of exterior cab (above the "ribbon")
Yellow or Blue or Green bottoms (which in includes that center ribbon)
Shell White pinstripe (1/4") in the center of the "ribbon".

There were a variety of two-tone interior sheet-metal & upholstery colors available with those options.

Would running boards have been black on base, stripper models?

They were in '51. My running boards were black, and it's a 3-window cab that was bought as a fleet truck. I don't even think it had the pinstripe around the belt molding. I found no evidence of it, anyway under the second layer of paint. My thought is that ALL running boards were black, and were painted on a separate line as bolt-on items.

As far as that item in Tim's post about the bed wood (prepainted as an assembly) installed in one piece. I have my doubts, as both sides need to be tucked underneath the angle strips. I suppose it could have been done that way, but it would have been a very cumbersome task, and much more easily done with individual boards and strips. If the fasteners were black, I think they may have been black oxide as someone mentioned above. [on edit] I'm rescinding that thought on black oxide finish on fasteners. I just looked thru the 29-54 Master Parts catalog [chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com] for fasteners and the only thing that wasn't cadmium plated were some sheet metal screws that were plain steel or parkerized. No Black Oxide finish mentioned at all.

I posted above "The bed wood and metal bed strips were painted black (a semigloss, perhaps)."
I did not state (and, I do not believe) that they were painted as an assembly.

Tim, I was replying to your post that Dusty53 posted a screenshot of where you said Bob Alder said....
I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth.
Maybe I should have worded it more precisely. Sorry.

"https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...ruck-color-on-1954-3604.html#Post1309981"

"I have spoken with Bob Adler (Stephentown, NY), and, Bob says that:

1. 1947-1953 Advance-Design pickup beds were painted black (boards & strips)
And the boards and strips were (somehow) painted together and placed in/on the bed as a painted assembly.

2. 54/55st Advance-Design pickup beds were painted body color (lower body color on two-tones).
These boards and strips were not painted as an assembly.

So, Ronnie, yes, your bed boards/floor came that way from the factory.

By the way, I really like that 1954 Ocean Green color."

We need a "certified survivor" non-deluxe truck and deluxe 1954 Truck to examine! Good ole' Dusty53 still kicking that dead horse and kicking up dust... I'd sure like to view those Illustrations Tim has. I'd add them to my limited library.

If I remember to look, and, if I can find/copy useful factory bed photos/illustrations, I'll see if I can post a few 1954 photos.

(please forgive my rapidly failing memory - getting old has its problems, but, getting old is better than the alternative)

Ron, I have PDF's of '53 and '54 Truck sales brochures, but neither of them have color photos of the beds. The black and white photos of the beds in both don't show much detail.

Let me know if you'd like to have either or both of those brochures.

It would be interesting to see Tim's illustrations.

Tim , its absolutely better than the alternative! Hey, if you can copy / share those illustrations that would be wonderful. If not, that's ok too! We appreciate your input and thanks for sharing your knowledge.