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Do I paint them- or not?

I love the contrast of shiny bolts, however if you use the truck they will be red rusty in no time. you could do as I did and use a non alkyd clear.





build thread :
http://www.the510realm.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=105

How do you keep from messing up the clear when tightening the bolts?

electrical tape on 6 point sockets, and surprisingly the siloxane clear handled 45 foot pounds of torque

and every bolt is needed! I saw a PW where a guy I had warned about skipping some of the bolts in winch bumpers and extensions had torn the winch off. he thought it would be ok miss a few.....

Hi 06,

They sure do look pretty when new, don't they? Personally, I've never really understood why guys who restore their trucks don't paint them. They were never put into service unpainted, so unless you're trying to replicate the truck still being on the assembly line........it's not a realistic look. If you had them re-plated with Cad or Zinc that coating will wear off pretty quickly. Same thing if they're new. I don't know how long a clear will stick to those coatings, but paints are pretty amazing now-a-days. Your best bet if you're going to leave them unpainted would be to replace them all with 316 stainless hardware and be done with it..........but that's going to be pricey unless you work for a hardware store. Or I guess you could just dip the whole truck in polyurethane. :O)

My comments aren't a slap to those who haven't painted them on their trucks......it's truly to each his own. To me I just don't understand the appeal of not painting them on a military vehicle. To me it's like painting it gloss OD. Pretty, but it's not supposed to be pretty.

regards,
bob

If you will notice in the pic, there some of the bolts that are turning "white"- these were the first bunch I installed. These are US made grade 8 bolts. If they are going to not stay yellow, I'm going to give everything a final coat of good old OD! I am seeming to go thru a lot more bolts and paint than I anticipated.

w30bob wrote:
My comments aren't a slap to those who haven't painted them on their trucks......it's truly to each his own. To me I just don't understand the appeal of not painting them on a military vehicle. To me it's like painting it gloss OD. Pretty, but it's not supposed to be pretty.

regards,
bob

Don't ever look at the M38 here, then. It is shiny and many bolts are not painted. It is SOOO much easier to keep clean than my OD Flat M37. (But it did lose 1st place at the last show because it was too glossy for the judges. We didn't know there was gonna be judging, we were there to look at everyone else's vehicles.)
Like Luke's GPW that was resurected from the scrap heap. It was scrap when it showed up at our place, we used it for a lawn decoration (Planter) for a decade before the edict came down to get rid of it. (Along with a tractor that was a lawn decoration.) {Now, she misses them both. Go figure.} Luke hauled it away, spent a couple hundred getting it running and is driving the wheels off of it. It is only a GPW in general shape after all these years. The rivet counters HATE it, the public LOVES it. And he has a GPW for about $1,000. (The historic MV club tried to keep him out of the show last year, but relented when the convoy of us wouldn't enter if he couldn't. There are no pictures on the website of his.)
I'm firmly of the opinion of "Run what ya brung".
All that said, I have absolutely no plans of ever repainting my old truck or "restoring" it. I'll drive the dirty, greasy, patina encrusted, mismatched paint monster until it rots out from under me. Only do the maintenance and repairs to keep it running well and safely.

06boblee

Looks nice! The motor pools I work in, the order was to paint them. You do not need to be an easy target.

Don

Speaking of being an easy target............I've always wondered why MVs have reflectors all over the place. I guess they're for the enemy to shoot at when they get tired of aiming at the big white stars.



regards,
bob

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