The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Bowtie color? - '54 Radio Blank Out Plate

What color is the Chevrolet Bowtie on a 1954 radio blank out plate? My 3100 has the standard pearl beige interior.

Any suggestion for a brand and color name/number of rattle-can paint for the bowtie? I'll paint the plate with pearl beige 2K urathane to match the interior.

For reference, here is one on Jim Carter's site.

I assume that the raised lip around the bowtie is the same color as the plate, or is the lip highlighted with another color?

Thanks to Larry (nels1954) I have a perfect radio blank out plate and clips for my '54. Much better than the one pictured in the Jim Carter link. Just needs to be stripped and painted.

Thanks for your help,

Lonnie it is black. Here is a factory 1954 photo for reference. I have owned one truck that had the plate in place and it was semi-gloss or flat. On the plate it was just on the top surface of the bowtie not on the raised portion.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2135659920102454676dObmaJ

Thanks, Brad -

Black is too easy! I assumed that it was a shade of difficult-to-match Chevy blue.

Another question -
Was there some type of baffle behind the speaker grill on a non-radio truck, or are the wires and pop-up vent controls visable through the openings in the grill?

Semi-gloss black for the radio opening cover-plate (same as used on the steering column and steering wheel).

You most likely know that there are black-painted "stripes" in the ribs on both sides of the radio opening? Including a few black stripes on the front of the ash tray. These black-painted stripes match the spacing of the openings for the speaker. You can see the black stripes on the left of this radio opening.

I am not sure if anything was put behind the speaker openings, if there was no radio. Nothing is shown in that illustration above at group 16.083 (from the 1954 Master Parts Book).

In the older AD's I have parted a few that had a black muslin type covering on the back of the grill to obscure the underdash. These were all non-radio trucks I am unsure if it continued into 1954 but I did have a 53 with a mostly complete one. I am not surprised that few have lasted some 60 years. It would be easy to reproduce one in a black cloth if you wanted to cover the workings.

Tim and Brad -

I did not know about the black stripes or about the mesh. I'm looking at the pics and writing this reply on my iPhone. Won't be home until tomorrow night to look closer at the pic and diagram.

I'm sure that I will paint the stripes and inert the mesh before I get around to painting the radio plate. I'm still working on creating vinyl "Chevrolet" letters for the dash. It should look "right" when I finish the letters, stripes, mesh, and radio blank out plate.

Thanks for your help.

Tim and Brad -

I just got home and checked out the pics. Thanks for posting them and for the info about the mesh behind the speaker grill. I'll post some photos when I get the paint and mesh completed. Probably be later in the summer for the blank out plate.

Not sure about the earlier models, but my 54, while not having a radio, did have a black square of a cardboardy material behind the speaker grilles that hid the underdash stuff.
This sounds like the same sort of mesh that Brad was talking about. Mine was not a cloth material however.
I dont have it on hand to look at but if memory serves it was about 5"x5" and about an 1/8th inch thick. I know I read about it somewere, believe it also served to hide the speaker from view through the dash grill.

As was also mentioned the solid parts of the grill bar on either side of the open ones were painted black on my truck, as were the bars on the ash tray.

Hope that helps

Chooglin

Thanks for the confirmation, Chooglin.

I enjoyed looking the pics of your rebuild in your signature line. I had seen some of them before. Thought that I was looking at my truck when I saw the pic of your headlight buckets and your gauges! I finished my gauges last year and the buckets this year.

Glad that you posted pics of the ash tray and radio grill. Even though Tim had posted some, yours were a good reminder to only paint every other bar. Betcha I would have painted every one of them.
> http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m013aeQ1GF1qjps02o1_250.jpg
> http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m02739GawO1qjps02o1_500.jpg

Couple of notes after looking at your pics ...

If you want to avoid banging your knee on the turn signal flasher, I believe that the flasher bracket for the factory turn signals was mounted on the "hidden" side of the dash, left of the steering column. The flasher bracket for your after-market turn signals looks the same as the GM bracket pictured in the Acc Manual.
> http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m00z8aAR441qjps02o1_1280.jpg

I believe that your heater or parts may have originally been on an older truck. It was a dealer installed option, so it may have been one that the dealer had in inventory. Older style Recirculating pull-knob. Maroon instead of black temp control knob. Wouldn't change a thing, it's just part of the history of the truck.
> http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m00xukIbSI1qjps02o1_500.jpg

There was a discussion recently regarding the type of retainer that holds the glove compartment lock in place. One was a "horse shoe" bracket that wrapped around the back of the lock. The other was a collar over the lock at the back of the glove box door. You have the collar. Don't know if you posted a pic of it. I'll search for the thread and post your pic if you don't mind.

EDIT: This is just too funny ...
I searched for the glove-box-lock thread. YOU were the original poster. It's plain to see that your question and the discussion in the thread made an impression on me.

Thanks again for your help,

Thanks for the nice words Lonnie,

Ive been meaning to post some more pics onto that site for awhile now as I have made a lot more progress since those headlight buckets.

Thanks for the heads up on the Flasher info too. Thought that flasher seemed like it was in an odd place . Gonna move it for sure now.

As far as the heater I hadnt realized the color of the knobs changed. I pretty much have just removed the whole set up and tucked it away for awhile until i can get the truck running etc. My plan is to reuse as much of my original parts as possible though.

Again thanks for the kind words, in fear of hijacking this thread anymore however ima signoff.

Chooglin

1954 Chevrolet truck signal flasher location.

To close out this thread -

I cut a bowtie for my new radio blockout plate from black vinyl sign material. Looks much better than if would if I had painted it. I summarized it in a new thread about '54 dash details ...

> '54 Dash Letters, Stripes, Grille, Bowtie