g741.org

Chassis Paint... Let's beat a dead horse some more right...

I want to keep things the way they should be so painting all my running gear semi gloss black would be okay in keeping to the OD green tradition... Right ?

I know some of you guys just shoot it all OD green but Black is acceptable as well on a restoration... I hope... My spare rear and front end are all black and I believe the set under my truck are black with Strata blue and OD over spray on them... I guess in a way I answered my own question but somehow feel odd painting it all black again when most of them I seen people doing work on just get sprayed all OD green...

I have to start at back of the truck and pull parts, paint and reassemble as I go... As living in a tract home I have no room to store parts and Code Enforcement in my city did not like my truck sitting on the drive way so I had to stuff it in the garage... So trying to make the most out of the space I have available to me...

I stripped my '54 M37 down to a bare frame, and it was definitely painted black (probably gloss or semi-gloss, but the shine is long gone) from the factory.

When I removed the layers of paint the last one that I found on the frame, axles and springs was a black. This is what I have painted now.
I believe when it arrived to its destination branch of service, they painted everything Strata Blue on mine.

Bert

Hey Bert,
Up a little early aren't you? I'm still at work, ready for some sleep since I work the Grave shift.

I haven't gotten down to the base coat on my frame yet-haven't had a need to, but might next year if I go with a frame-off resto. Still under consideration since I'm just now getting to drive mine after 10 years of work.
Gary

Hey Gary,

This is my normal time, start work at @05:45.

Bert

Odd,

On the AF M it left the Chrysler plant with the frame, suspension, etc painted Strata Blue with a black undercoat. My Army M came with OD frame and suspension...and red oxide primer under OD.

Regards,
Bob

I've seen photos of the assembly line in Hamtramck, MI, and all G741's left there in the 'native' color...either OD or blue, depending. Everything was the same color, with exception of some T-245 power plants being silver.

Factory frame & undercarriage primer was black. Red oxide was done in a depot rebuild, not factory.

The only ones I'm not sure about were the specials, like the R2 crash trucks built on a cab & chassis straight from Dodge.

Dennis

Well guess I'll just go with the OD then and not bother with the Black... Probably make reassembly a bit easier and look better too...

They came from the factory in both OD and black. Not sure as to the reason why. Change in contract? Change in paint supplier? Who knows. My 53 AF truck frame from the metal to the last color is Red Primer, Black, Strata Blue, OD, Red, White, Brown. Red, White and Brown where done after the truck left the service as it was with a FD and then Bubba had it.

PoW wrote:I've seen photos of the assembly line in Hamtramck, MI, and all G741's left there in the 'native' color...either OD or blue, depending. Everything was the same color, with exception of some T-245 power plants being silver.

Factory frame & undercarriage primer was black. Red oxide was done in a depot rebuild, not factory.

The only ones I'm not sure about were the specials, like the R2 crash trucks built on a cab & chassis straight from Dodge.

Dennis

Hamtramck, Michigan was home to the Dodge Main complex, which built trucks up through the 1938 model year. After that date, truck production was moved north about four miles to the new and purpose built Warren Truck assembly plant in Warren, Michigan. After WWII, additions to the plant included a dedicated building for Route Van production, which eventually also included G-741 assembly on the same line. Production G-741 trucks were never assembled at Dodge Main in Hamtramck, although some component parts may have been manufactured there. It's possible that the prototypes were built at Dodge Main, although it's more likely they were assembled at Chrysler's old engineering headquarters in Highland Park, Michigan.

The original Albert Kahn-designed Warren Truck building is still there, buried within the much enlarged Warren Truck complex, and still assembling Ram trucks. The Route Van building is still there, too, I think, although it has been subsumed by the many additions to the complex, which now extends one mile as a continuous structure from Warren Stamping on the north end to the truck body plant on the south end, with the original building about in the middle.

The old photos I saw were in the possession of a retired Chrysler engineer. He gave a lecture to our local MV club some 25 years ago about Dodges.

They were stamped on the reverse with a description, and were labeled Hamtramck Plant.

What can I say?

Dennis

Very interesting. Thanks for that info, Dennis; I wish I could have seen those photos. That's the only reference I've ever heard of to connect Dodge Main and G-741 production.

The old bird passed away about a year later, he was up in years. I never did find out where all his ephemera went, sad.

Dennis