What Color Are Your Engine Mount Wedges Supposed To Be?
Bilge color wedges?
Engine blue wedges?
Here is a geek fest story to have some fun with, or not, possibly some big gun will chime in and make a definite answer. It does make sense to be either color, and we certainly have seen enough of them in the blue color. But is that correct? Well. See below.
Bilge green, and a speck of blue
That’s right, on Plaidtastic the Plaid Rocket at Katzs Marina, while working in the rare green bilge, they noticed that the paint on the Lead wedges was… you guessed it, bilge green, and that makes sense as well. But is it? Is this something that happened post war, and pre war it was another thing. Was a blue wedge odd looking against the green? And in this case it was painted Bilge Green? So many questions. It does make sense to have them in the bilge and paint it all. but does it really matter? I mean the comment section is the real answer… right? Was bacon the original inspiration for bilge color? mmmmm think about it. Readers want to know!
Yowza that’s one big big piece of bacon!
Depends on if we’re talking world class restoration or Uncle Morty?
HAHAHAHA! Sadly I think Uncle Morty has restored more boats than others..
Was Uncle Morty related to m – fine? Thst would explain the bacon color.
“Uncle Morty” should be the universal name to describe a poorly done amateur restoration. Like, “don’t buy that boat! It’s a real Uncle Morty or,Wow, that’s a beautiful boat. Definitely not an Uncle Morty.” Not that all amateur restorers are Uncle Mortys, but I certainly have my Uncle Morty days. I think I’ll name my next project boat “Uncle Morty”!
Don’t ya know Uncle Morty has a treasure trove tool belt. Deck screws, auto splices, house caulk, baling wire, duct tape, 5200, everything a boat should need to keep going.
Bill
Here is a box of old wedges. Some have absolutely no trace of paint. Some do. Probably depending 0n what day it was assembled.
Some might say that Uncle Morty had a hand in that upholstery selection.
I love an engine mount story as much as the next guy, but when can we get a good Ebay listing? There’s got to be a Gar Wood paper weight, or Chris Smith decoy out there somewhere. Need to finish up my Christmas list.
Christmas you say! what about the annual party no word yet. the rumor is that matt cant afford it with the loss of the major sponsor!
i hope its not cancelled!
This is from a untouched pre-war 19′ Chris Craft Barrel Back, the picture shows the wedges painted and the factory got a little sloppy when they painted the lag bolt. Most of the ones I have seen were painted the engine color but I’m sure there is exceptions to this.
Here is a photo from the Freedom Boat Service Riviara time capsule.. Wedge is Bilge red.. Mmmm.. Post war pre war is playing out as a good reference. You can see the time capsule HERE. http://www.freedomboatservice.com/originalriv
No one should be that worried about the color of engine wedges! Go make some bacon, or go boating if you live somewhere warm.
One should also use the correct lag bolt and set screw in the lag. That is if the owner wants the boat to be judged. Mike’s picture shows the correct fasteners.
I suggest we call an expensive and poorly done professional restoration a ‘P.T. Barnum’. Plenty of those around too.
My general rule of thumb is blue on Hercules prewar, bilge color postwar.
Well, that makes sense. It seems like to speed up production, putting the wedge on the boat first and slopping bilge paint on it might save production time, which would have been learned while building boats durring the war. Maybe? its mesearch not research.
I guess its all in what you have seen of very original boats?
Since the 1980’s, the vast majority of what I have seen showed them painted with bilge paint. Mostly red, sometimes gray (early prewar), I just don’t recall them being blue?
According to Rick Kanipe (son of Forrie Kanipe, Quality Control manager at Cadillac plant), all ferrous running gear that could rust, like linkages, etc, were hung on a wall and spray-painted red bilge paint. He didn’t mention engine wedges?
I believe the engines were shipped from Algonac by truck, did they come mounted on wedges? Perhaps they could have been painted in the engine paint department?
I’ve seen the photo of that paint department, are they sitting on wedges there, although the engines were hung to be sprayed?
Decades ago I saw a photo of a truck rollover, with CC engines laying about the hillside. Who has that photo, are there wedges there?
Since the mid-eighties, I’ve painted them bilge paint, because that is what we found.
Logically, the bilge would be painted b/4 engine install. The wedges would be installed w/ the engine. They should be painted blue.
Matt asked about red bilge paint. This “engineering change No. 598” dated 9-29-39 shows the change to #3-573 mahogany bilge paint (Is this where Interlux came up with #573 CC mahogany stain?), in place of gray bilge paint.
According to Chris Smith, natural finished hulls might bleed the bilge paint and gray would be noticeable?
To show how quickly and easily such changes were made, this “Shop Memorandum No. 618, dated 7-7-39 (also signed by AW MacKerer), and Two Months before the change from gray to red, calls for a change from red to gray?
Its not about wedges, but shows how quickly things could change?
I love the period correct typos in those memos! Crossed words and random superscripts, I can picture the manager typing those out hunt and peck style with two fingers before giving up and hand writing the last part.
You know it’s going to be a long winter when you find the subject of the color of wedges intriguing. Wait – officially the start of winter is still 8 days away – now I’m really depressed.
you had me at bacon. who gives a shit about the color of a wedge? Get another hobby.
I think there should always be a nice pair of legs attached to your wedges regardless of their color.
Those wedges are brown, like her nice tanned legs. Not blue ,red or gray….Devil with the blue dress on.
Thanks Troy for saving this thread! 😉
You are welcome jimmuh! I tried to post the picture this morning but fell asleep since the subject was so riveting.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Trust me Troy, you will enjoy tomorrow.
Comments about Uncle Morty remind me of the famous automotive paint shops of Earl Scheib back in the day. Legendary today.
As a professional restorer, I like to check woodyboater every morning, except on mornings when the lead story is color of engine wedges.
If you are that concerned about points at a show, you’re owning a wood boat for all the wrong reasons.