Sun bleaching, does it turn paint...white?

[Gunfreak25]

I just bought this 1954 GMC and I am having a hard time figuring out what the heck happened to the paint job on it. It's lived in AZ all it's life and has been sitting in the sun for the better part of 25 years or more. It's pretty sun bleached but I can't figure out the odd white striping all over it? Looks like someone went crazy with a rattle can of white paint some years back? The original factory color was semi gloss OD. Is it lead based or did GMC use a bake on enamel of some sort?

What's odd is the white ARMY star on the hood has also been covered up.

Here's some pics.

 

[NDT]

Not sure about the exterior, but the inside of the cab is original 24087 after years of exposure. Nice truck!

 

[jasonjc]

A lot of those truck went to the civil defence and other agency. They had to repaint them and white was one of the colors. The truck was most likly all white but most faded away. The white that is still there stuck better or was thicker than the rest.

As a side note on one of my M135 I found the factory color to be 23070. RAPCO calls this WWII semi-gloss olive drab and says it was use thru 1955-57. Which is when these trucks were built. I matched this color to some paint on the frame when I removed some parts that have not been remove since new. The paint has never seen daylight.

 

[Gunfreak25]

I think you hit the nail on the head! The truck was originally purchased by a guy named Jack, owner of Jacks Government suplus in Tucson. He bought it back in 1985 from Luke Air Force base and said when it picked it up it had no bed, axles, motor or tranny. The data plate shows it was built as a M220 shop van, which the air force used a lot from what I have read. The axles, bed and other parts added by jack do not have any of the white paint.

In any case, I'd like to just clean up the inside of the cab with armor all or something to bring back the deeper green color of the semi gloss OD. As for the outside, I was thinking of wet sanding everything with 800 grit to bring back the semi gloss OD.

I'd like it to look something like this, but I may just have to repaint. What do you think? If the paint is in decent shape I see no reason to completely remove it.

 

[Atomic]

I like it. Not a big fan of the dark OD more of the faded paint kin of guy. I'm looking at a M211 here in GA and you are indeed lucky. You're having to worry about fadded paint. The one here is has a nice coating of surface rust. Fantastic southern humidity.

 

[topo]

when working on my 53 m211 I tried to remove decent military paint . it can be done by sand blasting but not worth it . I even socked small parts in brake fluid some times it worked to remove the paint some times not . I found the best thing to do is clean the old part with hot soapy water and pant over the old paint its toughest under coat you can find .

 

[donttreadonmebmg]

I was kinda wondering the same thing. I noticed a lot of white on my truck. Turns out the truck had been snow cammoed at one point and it was showing through lol. see my avatar.

Anyway I went to Lows tonight and bought some exterior paint and had it tinted to a olive color and it looks good. I had the wife and kids outside painting the truck today and they will finish it tomorrow. just a quickie paint job with a brush and roller. It will be good enough for now just to make it all one color but I would like to half-a$$ restore/modify the old M52A2 to a insulated quad cab with a winch and a short 8'X8' bed in the back.