VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Paint Colors for 1930 Rolling Chassis

Can anyone tell me what colors to paint the running gear and frame for a 1930 Chevy? I know the engine is grey, but not sure about the transmission. Would also like to know what color to paint engine parts that attach to the block including the intake and exhaust manifolds. Thanks.

Engine minus distributor, starter, generator & carburetor are the grey/blue that the filling station sells.
Chassis should be gloss black, but not so glossy that you could shave by the reflection....Joe

The transmission is black and the transmission support is engine color, which is dark blue-gray. The intake and exhaust manifolds are also dark blue-gray.

The starter, electrolock, distributor, generator and carburetor body are black. The fuel pump is natural. The oil filler tube, the water pump and fan blade are dark blue-gray.

Thanks Joe. I appreciate the help. Rick

Thank you Junkyard Dog. Glad to know the color of the transmission and the support. That is extremely helpful. Someone said I should not paint the exhaust manifold as the heat will burn off the paint.

Joe recommended using Filling Station paint (thanks Joe), but I was considering using Bill Hirsch paints instead. Price is much better and they make great claims about the quality of their product. Any thoughts (Joe your thoughts would be appreciated also)? Rick

Filling station color is correct. When the engine was assm it was painted as a unit with the items Skip & I mentioned. Everything was painted & what burned off, burned off. The other components were supplied by other plants thusly they were either not painted or painted another color. Make sense?...Joe

If the transmission support is engine color then did they mask the transmission before painting the transmission as it bolted to the support from the inside. It has been stated that the engine was painted as an assembly? It would make better production line sense to have the flywheel housing with lower cover mounted to the engine and painted as an assembly and the transmission support mounted to the transmission and it painted black as an assembly. Does not make sense to bolt black transmission to bare support then bolt to engine to spray another color?

The bell housing was attached to the engine when it was painted. Here's a picture of how my 33 was. I don't know the term transmission support Skip refers to. Skip, could you enlighten us please?..Joe

That one makes sense as the transmission is bolted from the outside. 1929/30 had a two piece bellhousing, a cast piece bolted to the block and a stamped cover (transmission support) bolted to it. The 1929/30 transmission was bolted from the inside of the support that resembles a bellhousing. So I wonder why they would paint the support endine color only to remove it to bolt the black transmission on? Either the front half of the bell housing was engine color and the back half transmission color or all the engine/transmission assembly was one color?

There was no "bell housing" used in 1929 and 1930. The narrow cast iron piece that was bolted directly to back of the engine block was called the "clutch housing". The stamped steel piece that the transmission was mounted to was called the "transmission support".

It would seem logical that since the transmission was bolted to the transmission support from the inside that the transmission support would be painted black. However, Chevrolet did some goofy things. Some of the literature for 1929 and/or 1930 indicates that the transmission support was painted engine color. The original transmission support on my 1930 was painted engine color as well. So, that indicates that the transmission support was painted separately and then the transmission was bolted to the transmission support and then the entire unit was mounted to the clutch housing on the back of the engine block. Up, I know....that doesn't sound logical.

Here is another "goofy" thing for you to consider. Research indicates that the generator pulley was also painted engine color......which means that it would have to be painted separately before it was installed on the generator. Totally not logical.......however, I have found numerous original 1929 thru 1932 generator pulleys with the remains of the dark blue-gray engine color. Go figure!

Thanks for explaining that Skip....Joe

that comes under WTFudge...

but would make sense IF they sent all the metal parts through the paint shop, then out to assembly. Paint everything Chevrolet Gray then put them together.

one may ask why they painted the transmission black ?? unless that was painted elsewhere and shipped over for the driveline assembly.

Hi, when cleaning my clutch cover I found two brazed cracks. Put an ad in the parts wanted but wanted to say here I could not find any remnants of paint on it.