|
|
Posted by HLW on Monday, November 03, 2008 at 22:26:44 :
In Reply to: 1952 Factory Original M37 posted by Rob Young on Monday, November 03, 2008 at 18:02:38 :
First of all, like others have stated, it's an absolutely first class job and you should not second guess yourself.
I have owned four M37's - one of those was a really pristine original '63 that had gone straight from Civil Defense to a volunteer fire department. It showed no trace of ever being painted OD (unless someone took the time to scrape every inch of the truck then paint the frame and underside black). The body was painted white over a yellow chromate primer and did not have the usual 20 coats of paint. This truck had many plated fasteners in various locations that were not painted and which had oxidized to that chalky white that zinc does over time. However, the bulk of the parts were painted black so those were probably subassemblies that were painted last.
On the other hand, my current M37 also came from a VFD and has no plated fasteners that I can tell. I have pulled a few bolts for cleaning over the years and there are no traces of anything on them but OD paint.
It could be that Dodge built them to different specifications over time and any two trucks could have come out of the factory with plated or painted fasteners. Unless you found someone who actually worked on the line, it would be pretty hard to know for sure but I will say that most of the pictures in the manuals seem to show painted parts so that may be most accurate for an active service vehicle.