55.2-59 Attn Navy veterans or historic USN vehicle buffs

[Patina.au]

Hi all. First of all, to all veterans and families, thank you for your service and sacrifice.

Quick overview. I purchased an ex USN 1957 3100 out if the Pheonix area (from the third owner) that had been sitting for some time. After its navy service, it was owned by Paradise Valley District as a maintenance vehicle. Mileage shown is 40,000 which is believable based on condition. I need help decoding the navy department plate fitted to the door jamb as I want to restore to original externally with color and signage/markings. Under the white paint is the original Battleship grey covering everything - grille/bumpers/headlight surrounds. Anyone with info, historic photos, font type or size that could share would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Neale

[burnin oil]

I can't give you much info as old military vehicles are not my forte. What I can tell you is that the data plate will not have any corolation to specific markings unless Uncle Sam had GM paint them on. Typically the govt orders them and the issuer or the unit will add the unit specific emblems to the vehicle along with the bumper number (govt plate number). At least this is how it has been done the last 20 years. Things like tire pressure is stenciled locally. I would venture that by the 50s the trucks were ordered through an approved dealer and a military depot would have done all the generic stenciling along with hanging the brass data plate. Back around 2000 we used to have to add the SeaBee logo to a good deal op the trucks that showed up at the Command even though they came from the depot.


Just for grins. The LSSVs, Chevy 2500 Duramaxs, are ordered to a dealer in Oklahoma (unless the contract switched) and at that point they are pained green or desert tan since most arrived in black paint. They also receive a lift kit and the off road tire. Additionally things like battle lights (black out) are wired along with extra battery on many models. I almost forgot the canvas seat covers.

[mr48chev]

The tag just says exactly what you see. When delivered to the Navy it was assigned a Navy serial number and a govt number and the specs were placed on it. It doesn't say what unit it was assigned to or what number that unit assigned to it.

A search shows that Civilian model Military vehicles are the poor step children of collector military vehicles in that there isn't much interest by serious collectors. To them they look like civilian trucks with numbers painted on the but don't have
that military vehicle look.

It's going to be Navy gray or blue/gray that is a given. The white was what the school district slapped on it.

I'd gently sand the white off almost like color sanding until I figured out the navy lettering that I'd bet is still visible. Pay close attention to the bumpers as the military usually put unit designation and vehicle number on the bumpers.

[mikebte]

I’ll tell you as a Navy vet that stuff got painted on the regular basis. When a ship has paint it will often times get mixed and extra gets dumped at see or offloaded and used to paint stuff including vehicles , the original numbers prolly changed a lot. As I moved to the Navy Reserves in Tucson after active duty, I’ll look and see if I can find any info in records for ya. I’m close to Phoenix and have records access to the navy stuff. Also the Navy is big into History. Maybe they have a picture or something in the Phoenix area that has the truck in the back ground or a truck that looks the same.

[mr48chev]

Being able to find old photos of very similar trucks owned by the Navy would be a big help as far as being accurate in what lettering and insignia (s) should be on them

That and having someone like Mikebte do some research that possibly will be in a base museum or photo archive.

I spent around a half hour or more just looking for a photo of one or some other civilian model pickup in use by the Navy and evidently they were stealth trucks that were very camera shy. You know they were running around the bases doing day to day tasks but no one seemed to pay much attention to them.

[Patina.au]

Thanks everyone, I look forward to anything you can find.

[Patina.au]

I was able to peel back the white on one door only to reveal the original lettering on the upper only. I then outlined in lead pencil. Can someone help decode the navy plaque?

[bowt1ed]

Neale, what exactly are you trying to decode? As stated, the numbers are merely contract and standard Navy stock numbers, other than the standard Chevrolet data. They wouldn't decode to a color, etc. Although, as retired Navy Master Chief, I would say it was painted "Hazed gray", the color of our great warships. Hazed gray and underway!

Cheers, Jim

[mr48chev]

Looking at that truck again I'd say that the M-3 on the fender refers to the school district saying it was Maintenance vehicle number 3.

[mr48chev]

Those must either have been stelth trucks or they were real camera shy or real boring as far as Navy personel were concerned as I cannot find a single photo. The truck may have come from out of Arizona when it was surplused by the Navy.

[bowt1ed]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

Looking at that truck again I'd say that the M-3 on the fender refers to the school district saying it was Maintenance vehicle number 3.

Agree, the Navy wouldn't have had that marking. Navy fleet vehicles typically were only stenciled/marked (on the exterior) with a Navy issued serial number, merely to identify one from another when multiple similar vehicles were in stock.

[mr48chev]

I still think that gentle (be careful how you spell that) block sanding on the rear bumper and other area like the doors to get down though the school district paint might bring out the original navy lettering or enough of it to figure out what it was or close enough to what it was. I doubt that the school district spent a lot of time or money prepping it for paint. The district that I live in and went to school in used to get those surplus vehicles in the 60's and had a 57 Chevy 4 door that had been a staff car and a couple of pickups. I remember a couple of the older guys in Auto Shop class painting one or two of those trucks school bus yellow. One of them was still in use by the district when I started teaching Auto shop 16 years later. It finally got sold in a school surplus item sale like the one Patina AU has did. They had one 60 something international that had a bad engine and gave it to the Auto shop and we used the engine, trans and front brakes for trainng and made a trailer out of the box. We would throw our scrap metal in that trailer and haul it to the scrap dealer when it got full.

Here is the only Civilian model Navy truck I can find a photo of. Not quite what you are looking for though.

[bowt1ed]

Must be one of those MV-22 Osprey Chevys I heard about!

🤣

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by bowt1ed

Must be one of those MV-22 Osprey Chevys I heard about!

🤣

Actually it is the product of looking for a civilian model truck that had Navy markings after blowing about 3 hours of time and showed up on a Facebook Air medal group that I am on. I looked though photos from the San Diego navy base and not one truck in a photo of maybe 5000 photos. Those trucks really hid from the cameras.