MTFCA Forum

Good Evening everyone and a pleasant Sunday to you all!
The 1927 model T that I’ve been mechanically restoring is just off for painting…. I think I’ve come up with the color of hunter green as the original! Wondering if anyone had a paint code that would still cross match as closely as I can to the original……and I get it, the paint is pushing 100 years old…. I’ve come up with PPG numbers, old Ditzler, etc… if anyone has painted a car in Hunter Green (or a close approximation in the recent years)…..and could offer the paint code number that they used … I would be greatly appreciated!….
Cheers!…..
Ed “Scotsman” Douglas

Edwin, here in Australia and probably in USA, paint shops can computer match an original sample. You can forget searching for a paint code in a particular paint brand/system and have some paint mixed to your sample. You just need to have a non faded area at which they can focus their equipment, perhaps a door jamb.

I have done this twice, on two different cars. Ask them and they will give you the formula for the paint they have mixed. The second of my mixes did match an existing colour. When they handed me the can, written on the label was "Army Olive Drab". They could at least have called it Imperial khaki or something a little more desirable than Army Olive.

Allan from down under.

From the Forum's Encyclopedia --
Other sources

I used Valspar Hunter Green of these buckets. Had some Rustoleum Hunter Green in a spray can that was a shade darker than the Valspar
Cameras & individual computer screens render colors slightly different. But the Headlights displayed on my computer screen match to the real ones

Excellent advise all…
I’ve been given some excellent information here, and will confer with my paint shop!
Sincere thanks!

Edwin, if they mix the paint to your sample, you can call it Douglas Green

Allan from down under.

That’s an excellent thought Alan…. It has a fantastic ring to it….lol

Ford pryxolyn paint did not last. There are no known surviving paint samples, chips, or paint codes. All paint codes widely accepted as the official color are somebody's best guess. If you think you have an original surviving patch of paint, take that part to a paint store or try to match with paint chips, otherwise, find a color you like and use that and call it whatever you want because nobody can prove you wrong. Decades ago, Les Henry, the head of the Henry Ford Museum, wrote a book on Model T restoration. It has been THE handbook and was considered an infallible reference. Les guessed at the colors, "matched" them up with Dizzler model A paint codes, and published what became the official color. In the 1970's, a time most people claimed all Model T's were painted black, I, and a handful of young purist authenticity or nothing restorers, painted my 1926 coupe Les's model A kewanee green as "deep channel green". Disliked the color then, absolutely hate it now that I know Les was guessing.

I know someone was talking about rustoleum hunter green I went to the paint store and had a batch of ppg paint made up to match it for the painter to spray on the body, I did the frame in oil based brushed rustoleum hunter green. Here’s how it came out, it does look maybe a touch light compared to what the later green cars seem to normally be.
Matt

I have difficulty choosing paint colours from the small chips in the catalogs. With carte bllanche for bodies built on Australian T's, I could choose a colour which I liked, as long as it was not to garish. I base my choices on seeing the colours in use that look old time.

My chocolate van body was a colour used on a 1960's English Woolsley The maroon on the fenders and running boards was a GM Holden colour, but it was too red, so I knocked it back with 16% deep black. The green on my shooting brake is used on a chain of liquor stores. I asked them for the Pantone code for this and they were forthcoming. I was considering a deep red on another, but had my doubts about it, until I saw the colour I was considering on a modern car, which just happened to be two toned black below the belt line. My T ended up with the same combination.

This gets around committing to a colour and then finding it varies from expectations when you see it in large in life. So, if your original green is too faded/aged/milky, just select from what you see on other cars or whatever.

Hope this helps. Allan from down under.

That looks like what I've seen labeled "Machine Green". The same shade of green might be sold under 100 different names over a period of years.

A spectrographic analysis of some original paint might reveal the pigment formula.

You have permission to use the image of my 1926 Touring above. No extra charge.
That photo was taken back in 2000 when I first bought the car. It was photographed in the driveway of a 1920s Spanish Revival style house near where I live in the city of Downey.
I've since put a different pair of YOM license plates on it. I've seen that photo used many times.

A paint source (colors don't always show correctly on computer screens)
https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/pages/1927-Ford.html
https://youtu.be/Qqnp-JBko0Y

As Frank points out, colours on computer screens often vary from reality. The green tourer looks nice on my screen, but if it is compared with the green lawn, the lawn keeper has a problem. There is no real alternative to seeing the colour you want in real life, somewhere and on something.

Allan from down under.

Oh my…. sorry about that picture of your car sir. It’s what came up on the Internet….. you’re famous…. And I plagiarized….lol
Thanks for being such a good sport

You're quite welcome, Edwin. I always enjoy having a reason to electronically puff my chest out.
Cheers!

Mike "Modeltspaz" Spaziano.

I own a 1926 fordor that came to me out of Pennsylvania, by way of Valdosta, Georgia. I don't know who restored it in Pennsylvania, but while the paint job is of nice quality, if I had chosen the paint color, it would have been gray or maroon; anything but green. While i have nothing against John Deere tractors (my Dad owned plenty and combines, too) every time i look at the car, I think John Deere green. The car is going to be for sale when I get around to fixing a thing or two on it. The car 's paint looks blue due the the light in the storage unit, but it is Green.