VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc Engine colors

Can someone fill in some more of this? I'll explain why afterwards.

USA engine colors:

1926 -
1927-
1928 - Green
1929 -
1930 -
1931 - Gray
1932 - Gray
1933 -
1934 - Green
1935 -
1936 - Gray
1937 -
1938 - Gray
1939 -

Add other years, before and after, if you know.

--Bill B

33 was blue/gray. Actually, I thought 34 was also..Joe

'37 and '39 grey or is it gray....

1929-1952 car and truck engines were the same dark bluish gray color.....that was easy.
The 1953 standard transmission car and all trucks had the same gray.
The 1953 Power Glide and all 1954 -1962 car engines were blue.
The 1954-1962 base 235 and 265 and 283 truck engines were gray.
Optional heavy duty and larger displacement truck engines were various colors.

1929, 1930 and 1933 were Dark Blue-Gray. 1934 was also Dark Blue-Gray.

Although I realise this is for USA engines the 1935 Masters engines and I am pretty sure 1934 and 1936 (masters)sold in Australia were green. I think this may have been done to make them a little bit more colourful than the Standards. This may have been done in Canada but have not heard of it.

So... the question for the day is "Why do so many ads from the early 30's show a GREEN engine in their advertisements?"

EXHIBIT A: Feb 6, 1932 The Saturday Evening Post

Also shows the steering column clamp green. The magic of marketing...Joe

For the same reason they show tan in the 1950 other later literature.
Gray wouldn't look good in a pretty picture.
Thats called an artist's deception.

In market advertising, artist conceptions depicted in the ads often used various vivid colors to enhance the features and hype of the featured product. In restoration, never ever use an artist's conception featured in ads as fact.

Another example would be the 1930 Sports Coupe shown in the 1930 sales brochure. In that treatment, the roof on the coupe is shown as purple instead of Beaver Brown Dark as it should be. Just another artist's use of a vivid color to help to promote the product to the consumer.

Information taken from Tech Talk:

Engine Colors

Ah, yes... I remember seeing the tan... And it DOES look pretty cool.

Thanks Gene.

And Ray, thanks for the link.

===Now, Part II. There are "some" guys in a land, far, far away (think AUS and NZ) who say that they had Chev engines in the 30's that were green!!!! I find that to be an interesting statement, since, all Chevrolet frames and engines where shipped (finished) from Michigan!!! So they SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRAY. Right?

Comments?

Actually Bill, Australian running gear and chassis came out of Canada and I think the Kiwi ones did as well.I have seen a few 35 Master engines with the remains of green paint. I also have a 34 Master engine with a little bit of green still on it. Havent seen a 36 Master engine lately so I am not sure about them. 1934 to 1936 Stadards are definently grey. The green appears to be about the same shade as used on Pontiacs of this era.

I believe the engines were shipped from Canada.

I believe Canada produced a Pontiac using a Chev engine as early as 1937 with the engine bored to 224 cubic inches. I wonder if the engine was green or grey or maybe another colour?

Yes, of course, they were exported from Canada. (Too much going on this weekend and I typed that response too quickly. Sorry.)

Q1:
So, is there any possibility that ANY Canadian cars used an engine color at any time that was different from US-production cars? Or are we convinced that they were ALL painted in lock-step with US production colors?

Q2:
Is there any possibility that engines destined for EXPORT FROM Canada, were painted a different color? Maybe for installation control or inventory purposes?

Here are my 2 cents......

So we know that engines all came from Flint, or at least for the USA cars and they were Blue/Grey. For the 30's that is.

We also know that casting numbers for the blocks were different in Canada from the USA. I have had blocks with different numbers on them, remember Bill?

So if these so called green engines did come from Canada, they would have a different casting number from the USA engines.

We also know, at one point in time, Canada ran out of front axles which were going to Australia and they used Pontiac front axles on Chevrolet's. They had bigger bearings then on a Chevrolet axle.

So the next question, why would Canada paint the engines which were going out of country a different color then they were using? They would for sure not be changing the color in there guns all the time. Also what about cars/frames which went to South America, South Africa or Europe? Would these cars not also have green on them? How would Chevrolet tell if a frame which was coming down the line was going down under? Why would they care?

By the way, 34 master is blue/grey!

Canadian Chevrolets used the same dark Blue/Grey as USA cars from '29-52. Pontiac Sixes were green. Maybe an Aussie member with a green block could post up a casting number, and we could see if the block is in fact a Pontiac block?

Well, it's not a "Why would they care?" situation. I hinted that it could have been an inventory kind of control. Any thing like this that affected a huge number of cars would have been done for a reason. Even if the reason is "We ran out of xyz". Most times though, it would have been to prevent mistakes from happening.

I don't think that they would have been changing paint in their guns all the time, since a batch (eg. large number) of "offshore" engines would all be painted at the same time, the same color.

Now, here's another possibility. As stupid as it sounds, I think that the RHD configuration is the key. If you mixed RHD along with LHD vehicles going down the same assembly line, then having different colors would make sense. Obviously there are a LOT of parts that are going to be different, OR, are going to be installed differently (ie. on the RIGHT side of the car, instead of the LEFT side of the car). Painting them a different color would be a pretty simple way to keep track - and make installation easier.

We had garage nite last week and saw a '66 Corvair restored to factory "perfection". One of the things that the owner did was to reproduce the cloth/paper tags that were on the axle springs!! The oversize letters on them helped the assemblers know that they were installing the correct springs on the car, since YOU COULDN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE JUST BY LOOKING AT THEM.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone OUTSIDE North America that has a 30's car and what they believe that they found to be the original engine color.

Than cars in South America, South Africa or Europe would have green engines if it were for RHD cars. But your right there is a reason.

The only RHD green engines I have seen were on 1934 and 1935 Masters. I suspect the 36s were as well. My thoughts are that they were done that way to distinguish them from the cheaper Standards which are definently painted grey. I have never seen green on a 216 engine but maybe the 224s used in the Canadian Pontiacs were green. The green engines may be an Australian only idea but it would not surprise me if it was done in Canada as well.

Hi. I have A New Zealand 34 master engine complete with bellhousing with remnants of green paint. It looks original paint, the engine has been in my care for over 30 years. the green I would describe as a greener shade of Turquoise. I have taken a partical photo of the unit. the photo has developed out pretty close to the actual colour. Unfortunately I am still to learn how to place a photo on to this web site.
New Zealand RHD chevs came to NZ from Canada.

I have been told Chevs came to Aus in 3 forms (1) as complete driving car (2)chassis and driveline only with the body built here (3)CKD in a box to be assembled here.
I am not sure which way mine arrived but I have found GMH cast into the front shocks which puts a ? on some of what I have said above.
Tony

Hi Paul,

Can you give us the casting number for your 34 engine which is or was green? It would tell us if it was made in Canada or the US.

Hi Tony,

So I'm wondering, what years are we talking about which Chevrolet imported a complete driving car to Australasia? From what I understood, in the 30's there was a tariff on complete car coming in. That is why Holden came about. Also again, if Holden was stamping body parts, why would they ship CKD's down? Just wondering.

This is a very interesting topic to me.

GMH on a shock may be on a replacement shock. If the frame was sent from Canada, it wouldn't have Holden parts on it, but Holden sold complete cars in Australia as well, so would have reason to manufacture replacement parts that would fit Chevrolet's and Holden's as well.

Right through the thirties the occasional Fisher bodied car was imported, (Chev, Pontiac etc) but there were not too many. The shock absorbers and springs were made in Australia in these years and were not imported with the running gear. Another thing that may be of interest is that General Motors bought Holden Body works in 1931 but part of the deal was that Holden were to be allowed to continue to make bodies for other manufacturers.These included Dodge and Plymouth, Willys, Austin and a number of other makes.Seems strange that GM were making bodies for their competiters and that they actually made all steel bodies for Plymouth in 1935. Would love to be able to go back in time and see how the did all this and in a country that had less than 7 million people in 1935.

I have a 1949 engine cylinder head casting number 8385409 made in Canada ,and it is paint green and unrestored. also has the casting date 1- 1 9 (without the serrief on the 1)(which people say I was not used)
I will post some pictures tomorrow when I can take them in good light.

Mistyped the casting number, should read 3835409

32 Confederate
I dont know any more than previously posted and I havent got any documented proof either way.
My 38 had a badge on the left lower cowl (and plate under the hood) stating "Holden Body" but doesnt mention chassis or driveline. Admittedly I havent looked at the engine but the gearbox and differential castings bot are "GM" as opposed to the "GMH" on the front shocks. It is not beyond possibility that the shocks have been replaced prior to me acquiring the truck.
Tony

I have posted pictures of the 1949 green painted head , Made in Canada.
https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/galleries/343312/1949_Green_painted_head_GM_Mad#comments

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/galleries/343313/1949_Green_painted_head__2#comments

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/galleries/343314/1949_Green_painted_head_3#comments

I have 2 1/2 engines for my 38 so will have a look at the color
Tony

HI Tony. The 34 engine casting no is 473741-1. The stamped engine no is RM110582 I am still to work out how to posts photos

Paul
All of my engines at the moment are positioned so I cant read any numbers but I do know 1 is out of my 38, another is out of a 39 and the 1/2 is somewhere about the same vintage but I dont think earlier the 37. They all appear to be the same colors grey and rust after the dirt and grease shifted.

As for posting pics I have done it but not for some time.

Tony