During 1940-46 the Chevrolet GMC trucks came standard with an unusual interior paint. It added a little extra appearance with minimum extra expense. This has been referred to as "Hammered Paint". While drying this paint develops a fish eye appearance. This helped make up just a small amount for no cloth door panels or related extras found on GM cars. After all, trucks were for work.
On these years of GM trucks all removable interior sheet metal is given this hammered paint. It includes the dash, windshield posts, door panels, rear cab sheet metal, Etc. The specialty paint is available from Jim Carters Classic Truck Parts and a few other full stocking dealers as follows using our part numbers: Chevrolet PT106 - GMC PT133.
Here is the story on our 1940-46 interior paint. Thought I should share some of the facts of how it happened. About 25 years ago I purchased a NOS glove box door. If I was ever going to match the color, this is what I would need. (Possibly just setting in a dark store room for 50 years might cause a chemical change to the paint pigment. Don’t know) No other parts supplier, then or now, wanted any part of making hammered paint. No takers when we ask anyone to do it. Finally, the Randolph Paint Co. in New Jersey almost 25 years ago, offered to try to produce it in quarts with very high quantities.
The product they created seemed to be very close. Maybe within 10% of the NOS glove box lid. Our relationship lasted well until 2014 when they either went out of business or just no longer had an interest. The paint hunt was on again!
By then we discovered a national brand starting to produce hammered paint in quarts in several colors. One they called it bronze and we used it! It later was found to have a little too much silver but it was all there was. We marketed many quarts for several years, however some perfectionists made negative comments about the extra silver in the hammered texture.
One last attempt would be made to be correct: Then a new idea emerged. A quart was taken to a local auto body paint store with a slight color change in mind. The employees had not heard of hammered paint and wanted no part of the project. Fortunately, the owner was in and we had bought from him for 30 years. So at our cost, he would give it a try with an additive.
Wow, with added tints, we at Jim Carter Truck Parts met with what we felt was a success. The NOS glove box door was sold almost 20 years ago however, the color seemed very close. No perfect examples we can trust remain that we have found.
So this is what we market today. Much better than the Randolph Paint Co. days. Is it perfect? Probably not. Seventy year old NOS parts could have faded slightly even in a box. It is all we have but we think it is near show quality. We have made quantities in quarts and now spray cans. It only receives compliments from our customers! It is just “slightly” darker than the two photos of the old Randolph Paint shown in this article.
NOTE: It appears GMC wanted to be just a little different on their interior color. We finally created this tint in a separate part#. See Above.
