The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 58 235 original engine paint colors

Hello,
I am pulling the cab off my truck this weekend. I would like to touch up, paint etc the engine. Currently, the oil pan, bellhousing and valve cover are painted this color:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2760002360102641910fRQIeT

While this is most likely not original paint what colors were they originally?
I have seen gray and orange.

Personally I like the blue.
Thanks,
brian

I beleive that grey is correct, however I have seen untouched trucks with blue engines in them. Mine was one of them. It was blue under the crud, engine never touched until I tore it down.

My dad's '58 Chevy Yeoman wagon had a 6-cylinder in it and it was blue... in fact it was a Blue-Flame-Six

That would be correct for a passenger engine, but for the most part, the 235 in the trucks were grey. As I stated, though, there are exeptions.

So was a Blue-Flame the name they just gave the car engines?

yes, I think the blue flame was the car engine, the truck engines were 'masters', like thriftmaster, loadmaster, taskmaster, jobmaster

Bill

So does anyone know what the blue color was and Bill how are the tomatoes???

still seeds ... after december there was some cleanup to do. and am now waiting for a warm enough day to install the plastic, seeds planted right after .... don't know about the shade of blue, but I'd bet the engine colors all varied among plants

Bill

"Blue Flame Six" was the name given to the high-pressure 235 car engines.
http://www.54classicchevy.com/engines.html

The "Blue Flame Six" decal was only placed on the blue-painted car engines.

The 6-cylinder high-pressure truck engines from 1954 through at least 1960 were named the Thriftmaster, Loadmaster, and Jobmaster engines. From 1955 onwards (through at least 1960), the names Trademaster and Taskmaster were give to different versions of the V-8 truck engines.

Just to confused things further, there was a 322 Loadmaster truck engine in 1956 but that 322 engine might not have been called a Loadmaster in 57-59.

The high-pressure 235 truck engines were supposedly gray through 1959. No one really knows how different the shades of blue were in the later (60-62) 235 car (blue) and truck (blue-gray) engines?

Paint your engine whatever color you like - please yourself, because it is impossible to please everybody when it comes to engine colors.

Good info guys... great trivia stuff.
Thank you!

Brian,

This has been a subject of much discussion, with a variety of colors being found on original engines. But my 58 235 was originally blue, and I have kept the same color scheme. I know there are suppliers of the paint out there, and I believe Jim Carter's carries it in their catalog. For the minor repaint work I have done so far, I can tell you that the Dupli-Color engine enamel in General Motors Blue (DE1608) was a close match to the surviving paint on my block.

But at the end of the day, I gotta hold with tclederman...paint it whatever color you like. And the blue ain't bad.