Transmission color - Freightliner COE with Cummins NHC-250?

[Goodwrench3]

Hi all:

I'm working on an AMT Freightliner COE with a Cummins NHC-250.

I'm able to find 1:1 pics of the Cummins itself, but never bolted up to (as Johnny Cash says) a trans-a-mission ;-)

The kit instructions show it to be painted the same color as the engine, but I'm not so sure about that?

Thanks for the help. Any pics would be wonderful.

[Old Buckaroo]

Howdy Jeff,

Welcome to a great forum with a lot of truck builders.

Transmission color - I normally use a red , blue or black. Those are the colors I remember from working on class 8 trucks, Sometimes they were painted body color but it was obvious they had been painted with the truck.

[Fat Brian]

Sometimes transmissions were left manufacturer color and other times they were painted with the partially assembled frame, there was really no rhyme or reason as to why one truck was one way and another was the other. So with that being said it's hard to be "wrong" as long as you have a good explanation as to how it got that way.

[Muncie]

in the '70's, Freightliner painted the assembled chassis with the engine and transmission installed - even the air lines and wiring harnessses were installed. The engine and radiator were masked off, but the trans was painted chassis color. Chassis color could be any solid color the customer wanted.

However... The whole transssion couldn't be painted because there were other things like frame rails and crossmembers in the way. In the areas where the paint didn't cover, the transmssion base color showed through. I remember them all being black on the line before chassis paint. The transmssion brochure probably used red because it looks better.

[Goodwrench3]

in the '70's, Freightliner painted the assembled chassis with the engine and transmission installed - even the air lines and wiring harnessses were installed. The engine and radiator were masked off, but the trans was painted chassis color. Chassis color could be any solid color the customer wanted.

However... The whole transssion couldn't be painted because there were other things like frame rails and crossmembers in the way. In the areas where the paint didn't cover, the transmssion base color showed through. I remember them all being black on the line before chassis paint. The transmssion brochure probably used red because it looks better.

Thanks for the GREAT reply !!

You actually answered ** 2 ** questions for me !

1) First the transmission case color - thanks. That explains a lot. So it wasn't really dependent on whether they used a Spicer, etc. Just got shot with the frame color.

2) the frame color itself -- "Chassis color could be any solid color the customer wanted. " I never knew that!

Thanks again !