[LILRED66]

Originally Posted by RWilliams

It looks like you guys are close to wrapping up the project. Everything looks great.

I wanted to ask you a couple of more questions on my '65 project. Its a '65 work truck. I beleive that it was probably the most basic truck you could purchase at the time; one sun visor, no cigarette lighter, even has only one outside mirror, short bed / step side, 230 - 3 speed on the column.

The truck has about 50,000 original miles, and I am building it back to its original specifications.

The fire wall is painted the same colour as the interior, which from what I understand was done on trucks produced at the Atlanta, GA Assembly Line. Have you seen this painted in this fashion before?

Also, on your restoration, on the backside of the hood, is this the same as the vehicle colour, or is it painted a semi-gloss ( flat ) black?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Thanks for the inquiry and the nice compliments. The highest production numbers were the lwb fleetside trucks, followed by the lwb stepside trucks and the swb stepside trucks and the swb fleetside trucks, so you have a more rare version, due to yours being a swb step.

In the sixties, trucks were very utilitarian and used primarily for work, versus pleasure, therefore lwb fleetside beds had more hauling volume capacity and were more desireable. Although many of the factory/dealer options were relatively cheap, compared to today's standards, a $30.00 dealer option was 1.5% of the total cost of the truck of approximately 1,700-2,100, so finding a well-optioned 4-5-6 Chevy Truck is a worthy purchase.

According to factory/dealer literature I have, the entire exterior of the cab, including the firewall was painted the body color. If you have an unmolested survivor, the paint code will be hand-written in wax pencil, and visible on the firewall, adjacent to the brake master cylinder. I have a few with the hand-written paint code still very visible and ledgible.

The underside of the hood is painted a semi-gloss/matte black/underhood black, the same as the inner fenders, radiator support and the backside of the grille support.

There are a number of good books, with prime examples of 4-5-6 Chevy trucks, in pristine condition, clearly identifying the factory paint breaks. If you are restoring a 4-5-6 Chevy Truck back to original, I suggest you purchase the Encyclopedia of Chevy Trucks, I believe it is titled, and it will be a wealth of knowledge for you during the restoration process.

Thanks again for the kind words and keep us posted on your progress. I hope this information is helpful for your during the process.