The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop '51 GMC 1/2 ton Truck Paint - Suggestions?

Hi - I have a "new" '51 GMC 1/2 ton to restore. It's been resprayed once, but under the doors I can see that I think it was originally Huron or Narva Green.

1. Would this have been originally a single stage lacquer job?
2. Was the truck painted mounted on the frame, or off?
3. How was the underside of the cab painted?
4. How about the bed? I assume it was painted off the frame because otherwise no paint would get in between the cab and bed?
5. Was the frame and suspension painted? Black? Red Oxide?

I will be repainting it, and appreciate your help in doing it correctly.

Thanks! Dickson

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your "new" GMC. There are a lot of similarities between the GMC and Chevy but there are distinct differences in the areas of engine, front sheet metal (hood & grill) and paint colors and pin striping. As you can tell from the response in one of your other posts, the GMC engine is longer than the Chevy engines and will not fit in a GMC without modification. You may want to visit the Old GMC Trucks forum board and use the search function to answer some of your questions and help locate any GMC specific parts. Here is a link to it. OldGMCtrucks
Under the technical section of that forum is information on some of the paint questions you have. Good luck with your project.

Thanks a lot Huck!

51 GMC