Quote:
Originally posted by chris vickery
Now, as far as paint goes, I know this is another point that has be debated over and over again.
In my opinion, and for purposes of practicality as well as speed of manufacture, I would tend to think that the Willys plant would have used the same paint as US spec jeeps and not have changed over to accomodate a few CDLV spec ones here and there.
My reasoning on this is simple; from what I have found out during my recent research, the CDLV 505 contract was carried out during 4 distinct times, April, July Aug and Sept of 1942 with a few built during each of these months as manufacturing schedule permitted. Commitment appears to have been biased, of course, to US requirements first.
Having said this, one would wonder why a plant would set up to change paint lines over to accommodate small runs for a day or two at a time. This would entail painting the bodies separately in Canada's choice of colour followed by a respray of the entire assembly to homogenize all the colours on the completed unit, as surely the drivetrain and other components as supplied would have been in the US choice of colour.
Secondly, on the jeep that I have aquired, it appears that my original paint as found beneath the data plates is indeed close to US 33070.
As is stands, my 505 is going to receive paint in the standard US colour of the period.
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Chris, I fully support your restoration efforts, as you recognise the fact that you own a CDLV jeep and put effort and money into getting it right. But for the sake of history, I beg to differ with you on this issue.
If Canada placed an contract with Willys for jeeps to be built according to their specifications, they had to build them according to these specs. Otherwise they would not be accepted by the customer - period.
Of course, for reasons of practicality as well as speed of manufacture, the paint should be the same on all Jeeps ("any colour you want, as long as it is OD!"), but the same is true for the other typical CDLV specs. Why bother with those pesky details like lighting, axle lamp switch, lift rings on the front bumper? These are exacty the reasons why later during the war Canada did no longer bother and bought its jeeps "off the shelf".
But those CDLV spec jeeps were different from US spec ones. According to
Brian's Military Jeeps (a recognised source), the Canadian MB's were not painted US olive drab, but the darker, browner 'Khaki No.3'. After aging, Khaki No.3 could actually look a lot close to OD, so it might be worthwile to further investigate if your jeep wasn't actually painted Khaki.
H.