British Tank Tracks - painted at the factory?

[John]

Curiosity as much as anything else, but it crossed my mind to wonder if tank tracks were painted or otherwise coated after production to provide a measure of corrosion protection? 

Obviously any such coating wouldn't survive long in use when the tracks were mounted on the vehicle but at least some of them must have been kept in storage for a while before use. 

Interested in any info. 

 

John 

[SleeperService]

I seem to remember tracks in a satin black finish and SleeperDad thinks the same in his time. It wore off contact parts quite quickly but was quite apparent elsewhere even on links that had worn beyond tolerance.

 

On a related note the rubber seams on the road wheel tyres were sometimes removed before they got to us but, if not, they'd be apparent for quite some time.

[Centaur95]

A lot of components for British tanks were actually manufactured in the USA and then shipped across the Atlantic - anything from smaller electrical and mechanical components to complete track sets and turret castings for Matildas, Churchills etc. This was all before the USA entered the war and was straight commercial purchasing, not Lend-Lease. It would seem sensible to suggest that some form of protective coating might be applied for trans-atlantic shipping and paint would make more sense than an oil or grease substance.

 

Cheers,

Centaur

 

[Kingsman]

For something so apparently straightforward, there is little evidence either way.  Spare links were certainly painted black.  Many static museum tanks have had their tracks painted, and so cannot be taken as references.

 

I did a survey of track colours at Bovington a while back and on unpainted (i.e. not painted in preservation) British, US, German and Russian tracks there is little or no evidence of there ever being paint.  Possible evidence of hot oil blackening on some early war UK types.

 

British and US tracks were produced in a high-manganese steel alloy with inherent rust-inhibiting properties.  They did oxidise, but very slowly and to a grey-brown colour.  Worn areas were a goldy-brown metallic color, not silver or graphite.  So painting something that was to be used immediately and where the paint would wear off immediately seems inherently pointless.  The paint would be gone after the first few turns around the factory yard.

 

Shipping as deck cargo might require some preservative treatment.  But in photos of tanks pre- and post-shipping with the various apertures sealed, the tracks don't seem to have been treated.  And Shermans had that little comb device on the nose to allow the brakes to be released and reset from outside using cables through the ball mount.  This was so they could be shunted or towed on their tracks during shipping without breaking the hull seals.  So any preservative on the tracks would have been compromised by the movement.

 

Chieftain and M48 introduced rubber-padded tracks, which have continued with Challengers and Abrams.  The metalwork on these is low/non-manganese, is painted black and does rust in conventional shades.  Russian and Israeli all-metal tracks continue to be high manganese.