COPO fleet colors?
 

When I was growing up in Saskatchewan, almost all of our cars were "poverty" cars without air, power windows, or most interesting options. The trucks you saw generally had at best a 307 or 350.

There were a few 396 trucks running around, but they were all purple. Legend held that there was a fleet order that got abandoned and they had been built that way as a batch.

Was there a factory purple? I guess that's my first question. Never seen it on a color card.

My more interesting question is if people know of other large fleet COPO orders that we see kicking around today with custom colors.

Up in Sask there were a lot of orange trucks for "Sask Power", the local utility. When they were used up they'd shoot them white, sell them off, and they'd peel 40% within a couple of years!

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

We built some for the RCMP that were purple and red.

Fleet orders could be built in any color the customer was willing to pay for. That was the whole idea.

K

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

Dave, there are plenty rare copo colors seen on our trucks, and yes there was a purple. I believe its in the rare paint schemes thread. Trevor

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

That purple was a Canadian thing. There were other colors seen only on Canadian trucks

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

Back to the original question, around here we had:

Orange - Grand Trunk Rail Road
Light blue/white - Consumers Energy
Bright yellow - County road commision
Dark Blue - Michigan State Police

Each agency had their own specification of what the paint color was to be, and sometimes provided the necessary quantity of paint.

Paint was added to a separate "paint pot" in the paint shop, which was a special set up of lines and guns for low volume production, or loaded into the "repair line" system. This helps mimimize the waste from purging between color changes, as opposed to filling the whole paint system. Trucks were usually "batch built", meaning small blocks of several in a row, until the whole order was completed.

The deviation from production could be not just color but also a deviation in paint breaks and two tone patterns as well.

K

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

These bad boys were not COPOs (they were processed through the regular production order system) but were definitely special paint jobs.

In spite of the way it looks the camoflauge pattern was not random, but specified by the US Govt and described by truck engineering.

A sample panel was hung in the paint booth with the templated paint pattern displayed, and the painter was to emulate the pattern freehand on the vehicle before him.

K

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

http://www.vintagemilitarytrucks.com...1009_New_2.jpg
I ordered some flat spray paint online and noticed that they had templates for different vehicle camo- Thought it was weird that there was a "rule" for a seemingly random pattern for camo but sure enough, the military has a specific way to camouflage anything in the fleet.

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

There was a guy up the street from me when I was growing up that had a 396 purple truck. I knew of a few other purple ones at the time.

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

To add on to the camouflage pattern, it was very specific as tested by the government to best conceal the vehicle/personnel. It's actually a large operation to test, retest, and alter the patterns.

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

There were tons and tons of coca cola red trucks around as service vehicles in almost every state that i know of

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

There was also that lime green, like fire equipment, another green that was kind of trick looking like a candy apple green. There was also pink, such as the one member Already Gone had. They weren't COPO, they were in the line-up, or a factory special addition and only in Canada.

I've had a couple "special paint" trucks, mostly gov't/municipal. One even had the wheels painted a special red. It was a '69 C/20 Stepside 6cyl/Powerglide with AM radio and gauge options. It was a light grey with red wheels. It never had lettering and I bought it from the original owner. But, we have Southern States, which is a farmer cooperative type supply business that always ran those colors. There were markings on the wheels when the original tires were removed.

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

I know of a factory Purple and White 72 C10 BB that is parked in a back yard 5 minutes form my home. I stopped and talked with the owner one day and its been in his family since new. Its a little rough and the BB is gone and he claims he is going to restore it one day. I asked and he doesn't want to sell. I should go back and se if I can get him too let me take a pic of the spid if its still there. Now I have an original factory Purple with white roof 70 CST Longhorn that shows special paint on the spid. Sorry for the bad pics but I haven't taken any good ones of it yet. For some reason I can only up load 2 pics ,I'll try to and more i the box below.

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More Pics,

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Spid. seeing its a Canadian built truck I guess I could write to GM and get the Heritage Info on it but don'y want to pay the 50/75.00 for it.

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I bought a Pontiac 2+2 from a guy in Regina with a purple 396 truck that he ultimately killed someone with in a drunk driving accident. Neil D.

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

Talked with my boss this morning a retired member who worked form 1970 until 2000 but in Western Canada. Theses vehicles could have gone anywhere in Canada when built. Keith do you remember what year and if it was trucks or cars that were the purple and red. Were they purple exterior with red trim or ?

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

Some time between 1979 and 1985 ish.

The trucks were red and purple on the exterior (I don't remember the interior color), with the paint break occuring at the belt line (lower edge of the side window). My recollection is that they were Suburbans.

K

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Following

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

National Truck Rental had trucks built in a green like Sunbelt Rentals uses today....like the green 7-up used.

The yellow on hiway dept. trucks and orange also used on Asplundt, Allied Van Lines, etc were not COPO orders. Those are fleet colors from factory that don't change year by year...been around forever. The dealers have those colors (and a few others) in their selections but they are only available for fleet accounts. I recall red (like fire trucks) and Woodland Green are a couple others. In '92 I ordered a GMC. I had my dealer talk to GMC to see f they'd make an exception and do a truck in Woodland Green for an individual. They said they wood as long as I was willing to wait for at least 5 other trucks were ordered in that color. No problem, I waited. I ordered in January and the truck came in June.

Re: COPO fleet colors?
 

mine was a new york town of hempstead dept of sanitation truck...it was school bus yellow