The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Are those Painted Letters, for Real???

Been lookin for old pics of 1950 tailgates to see if the letters were ever really painted white from the factory. Do we have any expert opinions out there? Better yet do we have any documentation out there?

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

No, the Chevrolet Advance-Design (47-55) trucks never had the tailgate letters painted from the factory. What documentation do you need? Pictures of unpainted tailgates in factory documents? It's hard to prove a negative but I bet it's harder to find a factory document with a 47-55 Chevrolet pickup with painted letters on the tailgate.

Many guys would paint the embossed CHEVROLET themselves. You may be remembering seeing that.

That's what I figured guys. Just wasn't sure cuz ya see so many that are painted.
Denny G

No paint, but I'm happy with these. Ed

I know these days you can buy decals for the front "Chevrolet" letters and bowtie, but I wonder how they originally painted them from the factory? Did they mask it off first or did they have someone with super-steady hands paint it by hand? I can't imagine having to hand paint that many cars and trucks...

I did both on mine.
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2143877990092261295Fvdwnc
It's kind of hard to see in the pic, but there's an outline of a darker blue around the letter decals.

Hey Greg, I though the general concensis was that the letters weren't painted from the factory, what, we steppin backwards here???
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Isn't Greg referring to the hood lettering (and maybe also the front emblem) on a '54? I bet they were originally hand-painted.

Yes, I was referring to the hood lettering and front emblem. Since the original sales booklet shows them in contrasting colors (white letters, blue bowtie) I guess they had to be hand painted. Can you imagine having that job? Thinking that something mass-produced had portions hand painted raises my eyebrow--but then again, perhaps I am showing my [young] age.

The Chevrolet tailgate letters were painted 1956 and later. However the GMCs were painted starting in 1950

Glad to have that input WD, I'd like to add that to my research library. Can you share the source of that info with us?
Yep, reread Greg’s reply, he wasn't referring to the tailgate.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

The source is me, my dad worked for a GMC dealer and we had new trucks around most of the time during those years. Dad owned a 1949 model that we used on the farm when the 1950 models were introduced the new demo had the tailgate letters painted so he painted the letters on the tailgate of his 49 to update it. There has to be some advantage being this darn old and remembering things like that is one of them.

Thanks Old timer!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have a '54 GMC 1/2 ton with original paint and the tailgate letters are painted with a reflective paint and the outside edges of the letters have a pinstripe that is not reflective.

The stick-on reflective letters were used on the 1954-1955 GMCs