There was no standard. The radios were never left in the vehicles to prevent theft. But anything left bolted in the vehicle would get sprayed over. This included trays, cables, remote speakers, cockpit map lights. Of the 30 vehicles I got from shilo in the late 80s, they all sufferred from the overspray. They would paint the rollbars, but just to the point where the tarp was left on the roof. Remember that the vehicles I bought were primarily artillery, and they were nuts about making things look spiffy, with no regard to the long term effects of the paint on vinyl, plastic or rubber.
On the bases I worked on, painting was usually done at the unit level, by the combat arms guys themselves. If they managed to get a hold of a paint gun, then away they would go. If there was a paint party going on (ie, a change of command parade coming up) then the vehicles would go through an assembly line process, with some guys greasing the lenses and headlamps, then one guy painting the black, one the light green, and one the dark green. They would overspray the seat cushions, the turn signal controller, and just about anything else in the way.
When I got to the artillery in 96, they actually had a section in transport that was supposed to paint vehicles. But by then the CARC warnings were coming in so they became redundant. I remember getting flack from them for painting my M113, cause that was supposed to be their job.
|