The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 1940 Body and wheel paint colors

I am trying to get the original paint color scheme for my 1940 1/2 ton. It is now all black but I can see it was a green originally by the underside of the hood and inside the doors. Were the fenders and running boards the same color as the body or were they perhaps black? What color would have the wheels been and were they pinstriped? I only have the spare tire wheel as a guide and it is black with no stripes. I have now purchased additional wheels from a couple of sellers, but they are a number of colors with some being striped and some not. The pattern I believe I am seeing is the wheels that are known to come off of the cars are striped. The non-striped I cannot say if they came from a car or a pickup for sure. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Just my opinion here, but I believe the running boards were always black. They were on the AD series trucks. Fenders would be the same color as the body. And I believe like you, the body color wheels with stripes would have come from cars, which used the same wheels as the trucks. Truck wheels would be black without stipes, although in later years, the deluxe model trucks may have come with body color striped wheels.


HERE is a link to the Vehicle Information Kit for 1940 trucks.

And for body colors, THIS is a good resource. The green you're seeing is called Brewster Green, and was likely the standard color for pickups.

Thank you Kevin.
I am going to throw one more thing out there - I have one brown rim that is striped and it has a beauty ring on it. My guess is that is again a car thing. Thoughts?

I'm gonna guess that was a car rim. Paintref.com says there were 2 brown, 2 beige, and 2 maroon colors available on 1940 Chevy cars. Trucks had 2 brown and a tan color, but again, I don't believe truck wheels were body color or striped.

From the 1929-1954 parts manual. There's quit a few pages after this one.

Joe, I believe those are all CAR paint colors. I don't see any of the truck colors in those pages.

Thanks to you both. I believe the link Joe provided is 1949 and up. I think the link Kevin provided gives me the correct colors. I believe I have determined that the wheels for the Brewster Green would have been black with no striping. After closer inspection of the spare tire still attached to the pickup, it appears to have been all black and no pin stripe. That is the direction I will go. Thanks again.

If you put "Brewster Green" in the Search box, there are a number of Stovebolt links in there. "Brewster Green" is a memorable color and I recall many in the Legacy Gallery.

I painted my 1940 Chevy KC 1/2 ton Brewsrer Green using PPG ALK-200 enamel.

Let me know if you need a sample.

Mike