VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Trucks and Vans Bolt painting?

I understand that "most" GM bolts are unpainted in that the parts were assembled after paint. Inner fender bolts, etc.

My question is what bolts around the bed are painted (In particular for 54) Rear fender bolts unpainted? Front bed panel bolts unpainted? What about side mount spare tire carrier bolts? What about bolts holding bedsides to rear cross bar below the tailgate? I could see them as painted as the bedsides are actually welded to that cross bar. What about tailgate pivot bolts? I have been studying Roger and Mary James' truck feeling like it was the accepted standard for VCCA but would like other info and reasoning if available.

It looks to me like the bed frame was assembled in the sense of the bed sides, the front, panel, and the rear cross bar. That was all painted as an assembly. Maybe the fenders and tailgate were attached afterwards making for the unfinished bolts holding them on?

Greg,
Most bolts were not natural but coated or plated. If an assembly was painted after assembly or partial assembly then the bolts would have also been painted. Same for clips.

I believe you are correct on the fender bolts painting, etc. Some assemblies were assembled and then painted.

The trick seems to be determining the sequence of manufacturing. My truck had original paint on the bed sides underneath the rear fender lip so my belief is that the bed was painted without the fenders. I had heard that fenders were installed when painted but the evidence points the other direction in my mind. It looks to me like the bedsides were bolted to the front panel and the rear cross bar. Bob Adler said that 54 brought "body colored bed wood" so it stands to reason that the entire bed may have been painted as a whole less fenders and tailgate. But as mentioned, what about the side mount spare tire bracket and hardware? Thanks, G.H.

I just dug through my tray of original rear fender mounting bolts & none of them show evidence of paint on the threads or backsides where the bolt head meets the bed.
They appear to be zinc coated.

I believe the rear fender bolts were unpainted.

I doubt the assembly plants would go through the trouble of painting just the bolt heads to match the bed color before using them on the assembly line.

If the bolt heads were painted to match the bed sides....it was done after assembly.

Folks,
We need to remember that trucks were utility vehicles designed and assembled to do a job not tote momma and the kiddos. They were not status symbols like a new chrome emblazoned Bel-Air or Impala, that you parked in front of the house until all the neighbors had told you what a nice car it is. Trucks hauled manure, hand tools, gravel, lumber, farm products, pulled wagons, helped build fences, buildings, landscaped the place, carried trash to the dump and only on rare occasions the little league ball team in a parade.

My point for all that is nobody much cared if a bolt was painted or plated as long as it was not rusty. They were assembled as economically as practical so the farmer, lumber yard, sheet metal shop, repair shop, etc. could afford a new one every once in a while, painted bumpers and all.

But that doesn't help the person that wants to correctly restore the truck to as new condition.
My thoughts are the box was painted before the fenders were bolted on....otherwise the area that the fender contacts the box would be unpainted....thus the bolts were not painted.
I do remember when the trucks were new there was a paper covering the black wood floor and it had bed side color paint on it. The box was completely assembled and then painted less the add-ons such as fenders, tail lamp brackets, etc.

I agree.

The earlier post provides absolutely no factual technical info. on the original question about the rear fender bolts or the steps involved when originally installing the bed on the truck as it went down the assembly line....
It does provide a rather condescending rant about trucks in general in the first paragraph.....Which seems to state that we are crazy to even question the "correctness" of the rear fender & bed mounting hardware & the processes involved when it was all originally assembled.

"Folks......We need to remember"....{followed by nothing}.


I am working on locating a picture of a truck on the assembly line or on the showroom floor to see if the rear fender mounting screws are painted or not.

Believe it or not, I am getting good info here. This seems to turn into a "forensic" study on how the trucks were built. I am convinced as it seems others are, that the bed was painted without fenders. Common sense tells you bolt finishes after that.

So, that being said, How about this theory on the bed side spare tire mount. I suggest that the vertical rails of the spare tire mount may have been bolted to the bed when it was painted. That would explain the bolts on top of the bed rail being painted although it does not explain how the paint got under the vertical rails. Then the rest of the mount was bolted to those rails after paint.

What about Bob Adler's statement that 54 brought body colored painted bed wood?

I just had a flashback Greg.....

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/200416/Re:_52_3600_Spare_tire_Mount#Post200416 Flas Back






.

I just went back and looked at pictures of my driver's side bed side and it looks like it was painted with the spare tire mount on. Then I looked at Roger and Mary James' truck and it appears to have body colored spare tire mount. I think I am satisfied with that answer now. Thanks!

While I was out at the yard.... I dug out an original 54 bed side that had the spare tire carrier mounted on it.
The original "ocean green" color is still under the area where the mount was bolted on.....

Looks like the carrier was mounted after the bed side was painted.

You're killing me. I looked for pictures of my bedsides before being stripped and the closest I found was difficult to tell if it had paint under it or not. This is going to require much more thought.