I must be gettin' old...

[Dave Suesz]

All this time I've beem moanin' I can't go look at the 50's era wrecks in that old junkyard I knew anymore to check engine paint color. There're bits of orange on my old parts but I know that my Dad kept his engines clean and painted back in the day. Well...

Last night I found, in the garage, a carefully wrapped original '55 water pump, which I removed from a car which was wrecked around 1960 (based on the tree that was growing through the car). I got the original fuel pump now on my car from that same car. Saved the water pump for a future replacement swap and never used it. Now I know that the engine plant used whatever color they had, which has produced a wide variety of "original" engine colors (no consideration at all for future restorers!). Under the grime, the remaining paint is a pale pumpkin orange, much lighter than the Chevy orange now on the engine. I have three different cans of Chevy orange paint, and they are all kinda red next to this pump. I was planning to detail the engine this summer. Now if I could find a "light" Chevy orange...

[Duke W.]

Re: I must be gettin' old...

I think the "reddish orange" slowly turns more "pumpkin orange" even if the
part sits in a box for 40 years. Of course, heat will accelerate the color change.

Duke

[Michael H.]

Re: I must be gettin' old...

Dave,

I sure don't know much about 55 engines but I thought they were originally painted red, not the moly orange that later engines had. Hopefully, one of the 55 guys can help here. Way out of my field but I do seem to remember the red.

Michael

[Roy B.]

Re: I must be gettin' old...

The 55 engine was RED , not orange color at all "any shad".! Look up the chevy guys or talk to their judges because all V8 55 cars are also RED.Many early 56 engines are RED too.

[Dave Suesz]

I thought this might stir things up...

I remember way back the blue engine color was controversial, finally a guy from the engine plant said "we used whatever we had!" Someone once tuned up a pair of NOS 55 spark plug wire guides with original "apple green" paint instead of black!

The pale orange paint on this thing is the same on the bare area behind the pulley as it is under the thick grease layer, and none of it has been hot for 40 years!

You would think the 55-56-57 Chevy guys would have this color thing straight, but they don't either, and there was a lot more than a few hundred of them!

No way I'd ever match this color anyway.