We need to know what color to paint a 1930 chysler six cylinder engine.
e-mail romar@mail.usachoice.net
Thanks
Vern.

It is black with A silver cilinderhead.Greetings from the Netherlands

Romar,

In my search for this information I have found there is a great deal of disagreement, though everyone seems to have their own definite opinion of what is correct. The Walter P. Chrysler club publishes a document which lists the engines as black with a silver head (if silverdome) or red head (if red head). However they also list exceptions to this color scheme, in particular they list a SilverGreen that was used on the Imperials as having been used on 'some' chrysler 4's and 6's through the early 30's. I have 3 blocks for a 1930 Chrysler 77, one of them appears to be all original and is silver green. Another one is painted silver green, but this is over red which is over grey. The third one is black, over red, over silver green.

I have been told that the AACA and WPC accept the black blocks as original. In the case of the 1930 Chrysler 77, I have seen a 50/50 mix, however all of the engines that were reportedly original were Silver Green, and all of the engines reportedly rebuilt or restored were black or red. I am no expert, I've been trying to get a definitive answer to this question for over a year.

While it would be simpler to go with the flow and paint my block black, it appears to have originally been silver-green. My personal preference based on this is to paint it back to the silver-green. Unfortunately I have yet to find anyone who has the codes or the paint for the silver-green. I may eventually be forced to live with the black due to my inability to get the proper engine enamel color. If you know where to find the silver-green I'd greatly appreciate the information.

Well I doubt I have answered your question but put simply as I understand it:

Black is universally accepted but may or may not be original.
Silver-Green may or may not be original for a given engine and causes discontent with many self appointed 'authorities'.

For me, I want my car as original as possible to what it originally was, I'm less concerned about the AACA/WPC/VMCCA or any other organization and more concerned with the preservation of the vehicle as it was originally produced.

My two cents (and then some) worth. Hope I've at least helped out some, if not confused a great deal.

Rich

PS: The wpc paint list can be found at: WPC Engine Color Chart

As a follow up to the original post I have located a Dupont color code that is reported to be the proper color. It does closely resemble the color I have found on parts from several engines I have in my possession. Ironically it is known as "51 Ford Meadow Green" and is Dupont 55134. This color is a greyish green. I talked to one of the 'older' folks at the local auto paint supplier and they gave me some insight in to the definition of 'Silver' in 1930. His description of it was that in 1930 they did not typically use metallics, particularly not on engines, the term "Silver" applied to a typically higher gloss grey shade. The grey was more towards white as he remembered it when termed as silver. This would to some extent match with the 'Silver-Green' being a grey-green color. I have no expert proof that the 51 Meadow Green is the proper color. I do know that it closely resembles what I believe to be original paint found under, in and around parts taken from 1930 Chrysler 77's. To this end I believe that it is as close an approximation as we can currently get. If anyone has any evidence to support or dispute this I would love to hear it. Even if it is just folklore any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rich

There was a sales brochure on Ebay a while back that had a 1930 engine that was green. Send me your email address and I'll send you a copy that I downloaded. My engine will be painted meadowgreen with a silver head. wolfe@wesnet.com

Hi Tim;
On my '30 66 the engine appeared to be black but I believe it was rebuilt once. But when I started cleaning the trans the main body was a green color and the attached parts were black. I do believe that is the original color on the trans.

The sales brochure was put back up for sale today. Look at the Ebay auction for 1930 Chrysler and see if the engine photo looks green-----could it be the photo?

Tim. I saw the photo you were referring to. Some time back I used to be a printing pressman. I used to print what is known as 4 color process which is basically a combination of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. With a percentage of any of these four colors you could come up with any color under the sun particularly closely matching colors in still shot photos. The kind you see in magazines.

In any case the photos you see in that brochure was NOT printed in four color process. It looked like they used green, yellow and black. If you look at it it also looks like part of the engine is yellow and we all know that isn't the case. It looks like the designer of the brochure was going for contrast more than accurate color representation. I think it would be a big mistake to make the assumption that the engine was green based on that picture.

I spoke with a retired old timer at the Chrysler historical museum a while back about this engine color issue and he told me that most of these engines needed rebuilding by the time the fifties arrived. At that time no one was interested in historical accuracy so they painted the engines with the most widely available and popular paint of that time which was the green everyone "thinks" is original.
I also have a friend who came across an old Chrysler that sat for some 40 plus years. It had 20,000 original miles on it. When he tore the engine down he said it had the original gasket material and on the block under neath the brackets?? Shiny BLACK paint!! You be the judge!

They may have had an option for ordering special colors but until some one proves it was green, I'm sticking with black!!

Dan

Folks....I'll add my two cents worth to help confuse matters. On both the '28 series "72" Chryslers I have the engines were a dark green when I got them. The parts car I have as far as I can tell has not been dismantled since new. Under the grease/oil and dirt I found this dark green. The car I am restoring had this color also; however, I cleaned and painted it a Ford green some 20 years ago. I plan to have the paint matched off the parts car engine to repaint the block on the '28 I'm restoring after I rebuild the engine. Black and or green may either be correct as I have noted that on the assembly lines of the day substitutions seem to have been randomly made according to availability of paint or parts.

The engine for our car is at an engine shop for a rebuild, they cleaned it with heat and found several small areas of what appeared to be original paint under bolted on items. It was the dark green color an the block was repainted this color.

OK... We have both Tim and Harry saying they have evidence of dark green paint. Harry, you say you have both 72's with I'm presuming is the same identical dark green paint?? And Tim... You say you have evidence of a dark green color on your engine? Assuming that all of these engines were from different parts of the country, if all three paint colors can be compared and are found to be pretty much identical then I think we may have something here! Dark green can be interpreted as a wide range of colors. If Harry and Tim are willing to take the time to closely compare the three different engine colors, I think we may be closer to solving the mystery!!!

People helping eachother... That's what I love about this club!!!


What do you say Tim and Harry?!?!

Dan

My totally original 1930 66 Roadster which has only 68,000 miles on it has a silver head and the remains of the silver-green paint on the block. I know for a fact that this motor has never been out of the car so it has to be the original colour. This is an Australian car but the motor would have been painted in the states before the rolling chassis was put on a ship.
I hope this helps.

Leigh