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If one or more vehicles were ordered from the factory by a company back in the 50's and 60's for fleet purposes and needed to be painted a color that was not stock, would the trucks leave the factory in primer and be painted elswhere? Did every truck built at GM have to go out the door with color on it or would GM use non-stock colors for certain customers? I remember hearing about musclecars back in the day that were delivered in primer so that the new owner could have a custom paint job done.

everything I've seen points to any color ordered being done at the factory - I'd be a bit skeptical of vehicles being shipped in primer in the 40's, 50's considering they were shipped on mostly open train cars and trucks - aside from the fact that primer wasn't at all waterproof back then, some areas would be next to impossible to paint once the vehicle was completely assembled [firewall!], without dis-assembly - painting on everything was done before any assembly

fleet/special orders in company colors were [and still are] common - my 57 panel was ordered in a non-standard 'emergency yellow' for use as an ambulance - also had some windows installed in the "advertiseing panel" at the factory

Bill

generally a fleet vehicle if not painted at the factory in its service color would be shipped in white, or so i have been led to believe.

don't know how it was back in the day,but when I worked at a Chevy dealer in '77 I spec'ed out a new 3/4 ton four wheel drive,and asked the salesman if I could just get it in primer. (No sense buying a paint job-I'd just scuff it off on rocks and brush,besides,primer is a lot easier to match...) The salesman called me back into the office later in the day and told me the rule was that I could get it in primer and save about $150.00,but I had to order four trucks.
Never found out if that was GM policy or just that dealer's policy.
Speed

in the 1980's I painted cable tv trucks for the local cable company.they were chevy astro vans. they came into the dealership white and I two toned them blue and white.

My understanding of the mfg process suggests that it would cost more to "one off" a vehicle than it would to just take one off the line.

Most of the "generic fleet vehicles" i've seen come in plain white, with minimal glass, and no, or very basic radios.

The idea of shipping a new vehicle in just primer seems a little silly, since as Red mentioned, that would leave everything under the hood in primer.

I'd guess if you were ordering enough of them, GM would be happy to paint them dayglow orange with purple spots right there at the factory for you.

A while back, when my company was going through a crunch, the fleet services department did a study. They found that for long term savings, ordering vehicles without pigment in the paint would save a lot of money. So slowly, our fleet has gone from construction yellow to white. Another thing they found in the study was that ordering vehicles with air conditioning would give a better resale value. At least this is what they told us.

The local high-volume Chevy commercial dealer stocks almost all of their vans and medium-duty trucks in white, since that is the easiest color to paint over.

Kentucky's state fleet has found that buying vehicles with standard color and option packages has lower life-cycle costs, since the manufacturer's don't have to make special production runs, and resale value is much higher.

They used to buy things like stripped AMC Concorde's, but now they get pretty much standard-package family-type sedans such as a Ford Taurus or Honda Accord. I've even seen state Impalas with the LS trimp package, which really shocked me.

Years ago, state transportation department pickups were invariably safety yellow. A friend in the department told me they were amazed at how much more plain white trucks brought at auction. It is impossible to disguise one of the old yellow Dodge pickups, but for some reason, the later white pickups are easier to spiff up.

But the general use state fleets (pickups and cars) come in a variety of colors. Our agency has some metallic silver or tan Chevy Silverado's with nice factory wheels.