VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 engine paint color for a 48

The paint on the motor of my 48 stylemaster is a very faded pale blue...does anyone know what the correct paint color name is and where i could order some new paint?

Thanks in advance...

The engine paint/color has been discussed many times on this site.If you do a search you should come up with many discussions and facts.

Yes, this subject as been beaten to death over the past several years. At any rate, the correct color is dark blue-gray, and the paint is available either from The Filling Station or Chevs Of The 40's.

...and ONLY the 2 places named by the JYD.

Some (errr, many) folks don't endorese the Bill Hirsch (NJ) color.....

Bill.

Actually, the color of Bill Hirsch's paint is just fine.....if ya want to paint a gas meter! :eek: :eek:

..Or a Navy surplus boat anchor!

JYD or Chevnut:
Do either or both of you gurus have a engine color chart or list for the 235, 261, 265 and 283 engines from 53 to 62, that we could post?

There was or is one on the Internet but I don't have the URL any longer. Maybe ChevNut has it.

styler,

to read some of the previous posts about these vendors of engine paint, click here ...


epi

Hey Dawg, guess what? I just answered my own query!

I went to the Filling Station's web site catalog and just kept changing the year in the search feature for engine paint and found:

dark grey(FS 359) from 1929 up to 1952

blue aerosol (H-5) from 1951 to 1962 I assumed for six cylinders

orange aerosol (FS 2405) for V/8 from 1955 to 1962.

I think that there is more to it than what they list. :confused:

MM:

IMHO your 'list' MAY not be completely accurate. I seem to recall there are different colors for the 235's in the early 50's for the PG cars vs the stick shift cars.

I also seem to recall an 'orange-ish red' vs a 'real red' for 265's vs 283's; or possibly '55 265's vs later 265's.

I'm HONESTLY not POSITIVE about which is which and what is what; but if I was getting ready to paint, I'd suggest the painter do more 'research' than MM provided.

I think Skippy is on the right track..... "there (may be) more to it than what you list."

Bill.

MM's on track..He is even spelling GREY the Chevrolet way!

Colors from 1929-62-from my info. as well as what Bob Hensel has complied-

1929-52 ALL the usual - blue gray

1953 all cars (except PG) and all trucks-blue gray

1953 Power Glide cars - blue

1954-62 235 cars-blue

1954-62 235 trucks-blue gray

1954 261 truck -green

1955 -62 some heavy duty 235 truck engines -green

1955 -62 261 -yellow

1955 265 car - orange

1956 265 car - red

1957 265 car - early chartruse

1957 265 car - late orange

1957-62 all 8 cyl passenger car - orange

1955-62 truck base 8 cyl blue-gray

1958-62 truck-283-heavyduty-4 barrel-green

The truck list is a bit "condensed" but the common 1/2 thru 1 ton trucks in this time zone were blue-gray for 6 or V8.

The 1962 Chevy II 4 and 6 were orange as were passenger car 6 cyl. engines from 1963 -76.

Every meet I have attended someone has a 1951 or 1952 6 that they swore was blue from the factory.....not true....often caused by the colors Bill Hirsh advertised as being correct years ago. Also there is a misconseption that the early 1957's with a 265 used leftover 1956 engines....all 1957 265's had the 283 block under bored to 3 3/4" and 283 heads and all other 1957 improvements.

See Macky Wacky.....I told ya the list wasn't complete.

Thanks ChevNut for the list of engine colors!

Great list, Chevgene!!

A bit off the paint question, but what is the difference between the blue "62 Chevy II 235 and the green "heavy duty" truck 235
Thx,
Wenatcheewalt :confused:

Thanks, Gene for the complete list I didn't find the standard truck engine colors there, I think American Classic may sell the truck paints.


There is a Quite a bit of difference in the car blue and the truck green!
Bill I searched engine color for cars from 1929 thru 1962 and that is what The Filling Station has, that is good enough for me....since I only want paint that is for sale, if I need another color I will go with that Krylon stuff Walmart and Pep Boys sell, I kinda like that Pontiac blue.
The Filling Station only listed one orange listed for 55 to 62 for cars other than the same old blue. Trucks weren't on my search list.....57 Chebby was Early Chartruse??? WOW! I wonder what Late Chartruse looked like ....probably fadded out just a bit or maybe Metallic???

I dig Yellow for a 261, I had one of these, it was almost Canary yellow, terrible mismatch for a Green or red Dump truck.

The list from the Filling Station is not complete.....and they are only listing the paint colors that they sell.....not all of the colors that were used.

I'm sticking to what I said. MM's list didn't seem to me to be 'complete.' And per ChevGene it wasn't.

I don't think I've ever seen an early '57 265 in Chartruse. It would seem like I'd remembered THAT if I'd ever seen it.

Great list Gene. Thanks for helping out once again with great info!!!

Bill.

I need to clarify, I meant the difference in the engines not the paint. What is the difference between the blue 235 and the green 235? It was mentioned the green one was a heavy duty truck engine. The reason for my prodding is the Aero I bought came with a green 1962 engine. I thought it was a car engine,but it is definitely green factory paint. Is this engine "OK" for an Aero?Or shall I search for a new motor?
Thx,
Walt

The years and engines that I'm familiar with are in line with ChevyGene's list. Seems to me that
there was a '57 150 2door at Downington with a
yellow engine. I may have been a best of show
winner or other high award.

Correct-there was a 1957 265 at Dowiingtown with the chartreuse engine....caused quite a stir until the owner produced documentation .The chartreuse engine (yellow/green color) was used only in the passenger car with a 265 - and was the only V8 available with a stick (with or without overdrive) and a 2 barrel carburetor.This was a very limited engine'transmission combination.The 283 with and automatic or 4 Bbl. with a stick was much more common.

The change from charetruse to orange took place on Flint produced engines on 12-12-56 and Tonawanda produced engines on 1-11-57(engine plant production dates)...as per Technical Info. bulletin 3-29-57

Green 235's...........

1954 Truck Engineering Features-All 1954 truck engines are of the 235 displacement and replace the 216 used in 3000 and 4000 series trucks used in trucks in 1953....the new engine is painted gray
They will have thriftmaster 235 on the valve cover...Series 5000 and 6000 will have Loadmaster 235.
The new Loadmaster is available as an option on 4000 series for more heavy duty operation (had exhaust valve rotaters ,better valves,chrome compression ring)

Optional for the 5000 and 6000 is the new larger displacement 261 engine.It is identified by the Jobmaster decal on the valve cover and is painted green.

1955 Truck Engineering Features-The Thriftmaster is painted gray...the Loadmaster is painted green and the "new" Jobmaster 261 is yellow-also the new heavy duty 265 Taskmaster is yellow (used in larger trucks only).the small trucks had the gray Taskmaster 265.

Same for 1956

1957 trucks 3000 thru 4000 used only the Thriftmaster 235 engine.(gray) and 6000 series had the Jobmater 261 (yellow)--this continued on thru 1962.Paint colors get very confused for 235 larger tuck engines after that time....I doubt is there was a green version as there was only the standard Thriftmaster version.

To identify your green 1962 engine post the casting number and the stamped engine number.If its a truck engine it will have a hand choke and the gas line will enter from the front of the carb....all 235 trucks had solid lifters and cars hydralic (except some rear Fleet specials )A heavy duty 235 or 261 will have rotators on the exhaust valves-replacing the solid type spring retaining caps.

There were also some odd engine/color combinations used on step vans with up draft carbs....did not get into all of these....and Bob Hensel's chart get very confused also after 1957

This green 235 of mine is stamped on the pass. side, to the right of the distributor and directly under the grounding bolt. #3769716 It is the only number, other than GM24 on the block.The fuel line does indeed go around the front,right at the head/block seam.
What I also found very different (at least to me) is that the intake and exhaust manifolds are attached to each other. They share a common gasket which directly under it is a spring loaded baffle of some sort.It is easy to tell that the intake draws from the exhaust under certain conditions. Also the exhaust header is one piece but has dual ports, with the forward pipe about 1-1/2" and the rear 2" in diameter.
The car does have full length dual exhaust with no mufflers.Hey thats the way I bought it!
Anyway I have a 1962 something engine, a 1950 tranny,and a 1948 truckstell after that. I wonder what the rear is?
Hopefully my description will help someone identify this motor.
Is there a way to post pictures in this forum? I'd like to show you this intake/exhaust set-up.
Thx,
Walt
PS: The exhaust had this casting GM4-3535687