Colour inside a WC54

[Steve]

Can anyone confirm what the colour should be inside during WWII - When I got her the business side was dark green with a white roof, the cab had a virtually black roof with green doors and an olive dash. I have now scrapped off the white and it is now totally green. I need to get the colour correct for a WC54 whilst serving during WWII.

[Phil P]

Hi Steve
Check out Florence posting January 24 ref Ambulance colours. Nice pics on this posting.

[Mark GB]

Should give you some information

http://home.zonnet.nl/dodgewc54/

[Florence]

Hi Steve,
after doing a lot of research I'm nearly sure that the WC 54 were painted in matte olive drab all over.







But otherwise the Ambulances were sometimes presented in white interieur in Military Museums, too. Heres a pic from the one in Diekirch:


After all I decided to paint my WC54 Florence with olive walls and white ceiling. Because:
I found old white painting on the ceiling,
it's more easy to show the inside of an Ambulance on meetings,
the drivers compartment is more cosy for long rides in the summer,
using the back is more comfortable whithout using too much light.

Florence interieur:




However if I will repaint her one day from the outside in matte OD I will also paint the whole interieur OD.
Sylvia

[Ugg]

Steve:

If your goin for the "Factory Fresh" look, ALL Dodge body parts were painted OD, EVERYWHERE! That's the flat too, not semi gloss.

Sylvia:

Thanks for those pictures.

Later

[Steve]

Ugg/Sylvia - thanks for info especially photos which have given me some ideas, not sure it is going to be factory fresh but will be olive drab of a sort, no white.

[Gordon_M]

(never having owned one) is that there was a lot of discussion some time back about the body floor.

Apparently it was some sort of green linoleum, not OD, and difficult to match today - presumably a cleanliness thing as it would be easier to keep disinfected.

Gordon

[wc 9 and 12 owner]

In one of my 9s there was a ruberized mat that had burlap in between

[Steve]

I still have the green lino that you are talking about on the floor I would agree that it is probably nigh impossible to get anything like it - it is certainly green with a matting backing - however I bet someone somewhere has it! I was going to replace it as it has seen better days but might just change my mind

[Jim_n_Tx]

Does anyone have any information on the floor mats that were in the front of the WC-54s (color, material, pattern)? According to the parts listing there was a front floor mat and a front floor mat extension. The extension covered the area under the seats (the picture of it in the parts list matches the shape of the floor with cut-outs for the seat mounting points). There is no info that I can find on the other mat. The parts list calls for linoleum in the rear but no reference to color. I have Wayne Works numbers for these, but, alas, Wayne Works no longer exists. Any info on the floor mats would be appreciated.

[wc 9 and 12 owner]

Steve can you take a picture of it and post it. all the ambulances where the same in the rear so it would have to be same with my 9's

[Florence]

Would be also happy to see the vintage green Linoleum.
I have seen two Ambulances with old Linoleum. Don't know if it was the first floor lining but it was very old. (one has had a greyishbrown and one has had a redbrown floor).

I used real Linoleum in the back of Florence, too.
Most shops today only have PVC, it's horrible. The big tool and room shops called me crazy looking for such an uggly old pattern
Than I found Linoleum as a modern high end natural floor lining, but that has a different shade which can't be used in the 1940s because of its different shades from production (the modern one looks like clouds for example).

From an elderly room Designer/painter I got the information that the older German Linoleum has some kind of stripes in it from production line. He told me that it is sometimes still available as the cheapest floor lining used in schools for example. There I got the brown one which I used in Florence.
BTW a square meter of the modern Lino cost about 50 - 80 Euro. The simple old pattern is about 15 - 20 Euro a meter.

EDIT: The information regarding the stripes in the Linoleum is for German (maybe European) Linoleum and NOT for the 1940s US! In the meantime I got the info that the US Linoleum has is kind of clouded!!! So I deleted the pics to show nothing wrong.

By the way - Greg - did you find some Lino in Missouri?

Sylvia

[Florence]

BTW be very carefull when using paint or thinner for example - Linoleum is very sensitive for it, and the surface will be assaulted.
There should be a kind of sealing wax for Lino but as it is not sensitive on normal use I did not seal it until now.

[Steve]

Will do - I have just moved so will have to find the digital camera - just out of interest my 54 came with front mats however cannot be sure that these were put in by the Norweigans. The ones I have are a very light colour grey I think - if useful I will post pictures of these as well.

[sgtpeter]

Hello All -

Many thanks to "WC 9 and 12 Owner" for letting me know about this site.

As near as I can tell my WC54 has the original linoleum floor in the patient area of the truck. Its a normal rainy spring here in the PNW so I'll try to get a couple pics loaded later.

A simple description is that the material appears to have initially been a primer red color and then painted OD later. The design is a series of ridges and valleys that run the length of the truck. Each ridge is 5/8" wide and each valley is 1/8" wide. The linoleum is about 1/8" think and rests on a tar paper like base.

Hopefully, I will be able to get some photos in the next couple of days for everyone.