what color were the first SBCs

what color were 55 56 57 Vette motors painted , blue , or orange ?

 

Orange.................Chevy had blue SBC's in 77' Vettes.....

 

i thought they where red?

 

1955 = orange
1956 = red
1957 265 = chartuse (early)
1957 283 = orange

Even Chevrolet orange looks like red though.

 

I found a book about SBC casting numbers, which contained a picture I think was a GM press photo of a '55 265. I copied that color scheme on my engine, so it appears to be a 1955 crate motor:

 

That is a BEAUTIFUL mill. I'm drooling here, rest of the car doesn't look to shabby either...

 

chartruse as in lime green? Anyone have a pic? I have to see this...

 

[ QUOTE ]
chartruse as in lime green? Anyone have a pic? I have to see this...

[/ QUOTE ]

I did a search on Chevytalk.com, and chartuse came up more than a few times as the color for the 265s in 57s, no pics though.

 

The 57 283's were not all orange. In fact Maybe none
of them were.
They were a dark red color.
This color is available from Por-50 and others.
I also bought a new factory 56 265 crate motor back in the 60's,
and it was light blue.
--------------------------------------------------------
"OPOSSUM BENDERS"
Central Missouri Chapter

 

im nearly positive that the 1957 265's were a yellow color

is chartruse yellow?

 

[ QUOTE ]
The 57 283's were not all orange. In fact Maybe none
of them were.
They were a dark red color.
This color is available from Por-50 and others.
I also bought a new factory 56 265 crate motor back in the 60's,
and it was light blue.
--------------------------------------------------------
"OPOSSUM BENDERS"
Central Missouri Chapter

[/ QUOTE ]

My 56 Safari had the org. 316 in it that we paint 58 Impala Reo Red, it came out looking like dark dark red......I think its what they casted them, its darker or something.....?

 

55,56,57 SBCs were orange. Late 57 they changed the color to a darker orange/red. 235s were light blue.

1955 235


1955 265


My 56 265


Now that crate motor, was that from Chevy or a rebuilder? Rebuilders usually changed the color. As for instance my Cast PowerGlide was orginaly Cast Iron, the one in there now has traces of baby blue paint (which was a mid-west rebuilder, but don't know which one).

 

[ QUOTE ]
im nearly positive that the 1957 265's were a yellow color

is chartruse yellow?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, they were.

I saw one once at a swap meet... I got into an argument (not really) with the guy about it being a stock color...
Sam.

 

50Fraud what generator bracket are you using? I'm doing something similiar for my 32 roadster and ground off the bracket from the ram's horn.

 

I had a 57 with a 265, at least it was when I tore it down for rebuild, and it was painted red. I have seen the chartruse ones too. Some of the early Chevy truck SBC were painted grey, and GMC used a bluegreen similar to the Buick green. I also bought some military surplus 283's painted OD green, with a cast aluminum cam cover, and pan.

 

SoCal, are those the new 2 1/2" you can get from the dealers? Just with the big triangle hemroid taken off???

I was thinking about doing that.

 

Otto, that's them. The two I got both had the the huge brackets on them. I cut them off and ground down the rest and painted them with POR-15 manifold paint.

 

They turned out real nice. That would make a cool tech post. Did you take pics along the way?

Great looking mill.

 

Smallblocks in the car were orange altho Chevy orange sometimes looks red. Depends on who mixed the paint for that day's production I guess. Or what plant is doing the painting. Lots of variation in Chevy Orange from bright orang to almost red. Replacement engines were probably a different color just like they do today. Mexican made replacement engines used to be easy to spot because they were black. The blue engines were the "Blue Flame 6" I would imagine if you had a fleet of cars ordered like for the government or say Yellow Cab, you could probably specify the color you wanted. My 57 pickup had a grey 6 engine. It started life as a U.S. Navy truck.

 

Where can you pick up some Chevy Orange Paint? I'm rebuilding a motor for my father-in-law and that step is going to come up. Thanks.

 

[ QUOTE ]
1955 = orange
1956 = red
1957 265 = chartuse (early)
1957 283 = orange

Even Chevrolet orange looks like red though. [/quote
----------------------------------------------------------
AND.......
For the rest of you that still believe that all chevys
were orange.... go to www.justchevys.com/classic5.htm
and check out the judging outline.
Good info on the valve cover script colors and
a whole lot more.
----------------------------------------------------------
"OPOSSUM BENDERS"
Central Missouri Chapter

 

From the link...

All 1955 V8 motors are CHEVY ORANGE with BLACK valve cover stencils. All 1956 V8 motors are CHEVY RED, with BLACK valve stencils. A few EARLY 1957 265 V8 engines (standard transmission ONLY) were painted chartreuse (lime green) by Chevrolet, and they had BLACK stencils on the valve covers. After about November 1956, all 265 engines were CHEVY ORANGE (as are the 283 motors), and the valve cover scripts were SILVER.


I've got to see one of these early chartreuse motors...

 

not all came with painted script though...

 

My information is that the chartreuse 265's were painted that color to identify them as 265's at the start of the '57 model year. There wern't very many of them as they were leftover engines from the '56 model year and when the 283 production took off they were the only engine used for the rest of the year. This was told to me by the man I rented an apartment from while attending General Motors Institute. He worked at the Chevrolet V8 engine plant in Flint, Michigan during that time so I took him at his word.

Frank

 

SoCal.....that motor is spot on! That is a nice job hitting the era right on the head.What is the coating on the ramhorns? Wondering how well that holds up?

 

Roothawg, Thanks, the coating is POR-15 Manifold Gray. I haven't had a chance to run the engine yet so I don't know about how well it'll look after that. The engine paint was also POR-15.

If anyone knows where I can get another Corvette 9-fin valve cover without taking out a bank loan, let me know, I have one on there now.

 

I have the POR-15 Manifold Gray on a pair of repro Ram Air exhaust manifolds that are bolted onto my daily-driver Pontiac 455. After 25K miles and over four years of driving they still look great, it's a good product.

----- Bart -----

 

My 55 265 is Blue/green

 

my referance material says that a very small number of 265's were painted yellow in 1957 the rest were orange.

 

[ QUOTE ]
I have the POR-15 Manifold Gray on a pair of repro Ram Air exhaust manifolds that are bolted onto my daily-driver Pontiac 455. After 25K miles and over four years of driving they still look great, it's a good product.

----- Bart -----

[/ QUOTE ]

Man that is good to hear. I didn't wanna hafta fork over the bux to have mine powdercoated. I really was looking for a dull satin finish and I think that fits the ticket...is it pricey ?