Oil fill tube color

[pfarber]

Was told that my oil fill tube was the wrong color. I was in a hurry to make a decal display for a show and so I painted the tube and air filter black, which I know to be wrong, the fill tube proper should be engine color (the famous 'wet olive'). I was told 'No, it should be 'Terne' color' and that he had photos showing the color in DUKW photos (which I never saw).

First, TERNE is not a color, its a mix of lead and tin that is hot dipped (later electroplated) onto parts for corrosion resistance:

"Terne is an alloy coating that was historically made of lead and tin used to cover steel, in the ratio of 20% tin and 80% lead..."

http://www.hlinstruments.com/RoHS_artic ... 20uses.pdf says:

terne1.JPG (41.85 KiB) Viewed 8607 times

So, lead is a dull gray color, generally tin is shiny. Go to any hardware store and buy a lead paint test pen... scratch the oil fill tube and test for lead. Easy peasy.

But food for thought.. here are two Photos of CCKWs, one still in the box.... look at the fill tubes.

The radiator pipe and oil filter are clearly not wet olive. The fill pipe is either black or engine color. These are closed cab trucks that predate the crankcase ventilation system so you will not see the crankcase air filter, just the fill tube.

[pfarber]

This is a really, really crappy image, and there is little to no color information that can be gleened, but you can tell that the breather, oil cup and cast top are not the same color as the fill tube.