orignal color

[george walker]

does anyone know if these trucks came with the frame and running gear painted od like the rest of the truck or were they black, it appears in some manual pics that some parts of the chassis might have been a different color from the contrast in the photos.

[brute4c]

Frames were black.

[Fastfrankie]

I assume they are a satin or semi-gloss black from what mine looks like? It sure wasn't gloss...lol

So the axels from end to end were black and what about brake drums...what color were they?

[Beast]

Here we go again. Not all frames were painted black at the factory. Very early on they were OD green like the rest of the truck. Once recieved by the Military, they would often have the undersides painted in undercoating for protection. This was done at the unit levels. Later the frames started to come right from the factory in the black undercoating.

I have a pic from my restoration that shows the black flakeing off to show the original OD green underneth it. And as the frame was stripped, it went from black, to OD green, to primer, to bare metal.



So to answer your question it depends on what delivery date your truck has. And it would be correct to paint it either way depending on what level of restoration you are going for. Factory fresh or motorpool ready.


Dave
1967 Kaiser Jeep M715 weapons carrier:http://www.davidallenracing.com/M715.htm
1967 Kaiser Jeep M35a2 2.5 ton cargo truck: http://www.davidallenracing.com/M35A2.htm
Delta Team Decals: http://www.i2k.com/~schwarzd/

[oddave]

My truck was a fairly early model and has a black painted frame, not undercoated.

[k8icu]

I wonder if this isn't a case of Kaiser needing X number of vehicles produced at any given time and only having y number of frames i.e. one in military OD so they grabbed the remaining z number of frames from the civy truck line and there you are a mish mash of OD and black frames.

Example to clarify. Let's say that they had to produce 500 trucks in August 1967. They only had 250 OD frames so the got 250 black frames from the civilan line.....

Or I just had another thought. Did Kaiser produce their own frames in Toledo or were the trucks just assembled there? Is it possible that they sub-contracted the frame production to other companies and therefor some came in black and some came in OD?

Just trying out some theorys here....

[kwai]

The M715 frame is not the same as the j-truck frame. It has extra reinforcements and heavier cross-members.

Just shot your theory down in flames...