I read that the landing gear struts on most Corsairs were painted grey, but no mention of what shade. (that I could find. ) Late war/ replacement struts were aluminum lacquer. What about linkages and tail wheel. Out of shear curiosity, what did the “salmon” (SUUUUSHI!!) primer used on “birdcage” F4Us look like.
Standard USN WWII practice was to paint the undercarriage and wheel wells in the colors of the adjacent area. On the early war scheme, this was light gray, on the tri color scheme this was white, and on the late war scheme it was gloss sea blue. Of course due to sub contractors and stockpiles of their components, during the time periods shortly after the change overs, components built during the older specs would be seen on aircraft wearing the newer schemes.
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Info I read … I believe it was from Dana Bell … said the 1Ds went straight from grey to dark blue (nearly post war.) with some that got replacement parts having aluminum. I get the impression the grey was the same as the underside color used up till the tri-color scheme. "With the advent of the tri-colour camouflage on F4U-1A the same principle was applied with white replacing the Sky Gray with ANA 601 Non-specular Insignia White, and the However, the undercarriage legs remained grey throughout the production of this model, possibly due to the failure or indifference to notify a subcontractor about changed colour specifications. For the record, some photos of -1As seem to show silver undercarriage legs, but it could not be established to what extent such finish was applied. One theory is that Aluminium lacquer was applied on these assemblies during field depot overhauls.
In October 1944 the new factory instructions for the F4U production called for application of Interior Green on all internal surfaces including the cockpit. As an anti-glare measure, all cockpit panels above the lower edge of the instrument panel were to be painted matt black. Curiously, the new directive did not explicitly state what was to happen with the cowling’s inner surface. Thus, subsequent machines showed either Zinc Chromate or Interior Green cowlings, until the last standardisation of colour post-war whereupon black was introduced in this area.
During that period, the wheel wells were also painted Interior Green. Undercarriage legs were initially still finished in light grey, but as existing stocks of parts were used up at the factory, the overall Glossy Sea Blue finish was carried over to the undercarriage legs and wheel hubs."
Not sure what colors William Reece used but he was one of first people to talk about it 20 yrs ago.
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