Highland Green?

[Flyingpiper59]

Good afternoon Forum Chums,
I would like to seek your opinions….some might think this green too dark….
I know this subject has a lot of varying opinions, but I will say that I think Steve Watson, my body guy has hit a home run here in my humble opinion ….according to him, he looked at the old paint codes… He’s done some historical restorations and he is well familiar with the type of paint used in 27…fading characteristics ..etc….He painted the dash first and called me down for a consultation…. Initially, I thought wow that’s dark…. He then opened one of the doors where the paint was fairly intact, but faded with age…. He proceeded to wet his finger, apply to the door jamb…and say well what do you think now?… I don’t know if all things were being equal, but it was a perfect match!
WOW…. I THINK IT’S REALLY GONNA POP WITH THE BLACK FENDERS ON IT… so?.. thumbs up, thumbs down, not sure!
What do you think?

[Rich P. Bingham]

To me, that looks perfect !! Good for you and your painter !!

[Humblej]

Nice green!

[Shannon_in_Texas]

Edwin, that looks like a really nice green! If possible, could you share the paint details and formula? I think that information would really be appreciated since there have many discussions about recreating the 1926-7 colors on the forum over the years.

[George Mills]

Edwin,

I have spent literally man-years trying to reverse engineer colors that Ford actually used. Even had friends at a national paint supplier lab use their fancy scopes and personal knowledge to look at old actual pigment and back out pigment aging (earth tone pigments age yellow all by themselves, called oxidation) and back out any resin vehicle yellowing. Like most things T lost to time, there is always that one elusive pickle in the barrel and therefore...room for folks to dismiss any findings. (Like the same group determined that 1909 T red was most probably nothing more than McCormick tractor red in depth and hue...but I sure do like the Coca-Cola red everyone restores the 09 to! )

For what it is worth...here is one of the last chapters on that work that was done but never finished and I'd say your guy is pretty darn close as I have always said to those interested, reality is somewhere in between! I gave up on using RGB as a basis reference system. I long ago moved into PANTONE. Yes, PANTONE is for printing today...but a whole lot of real world things are also based on the PANTONE system. I'd say, take a look at PANTONE 627C in google...I think you be really close.

[JohnM]

This is what was left of the original paint on my 27 Tudor. I think you nailed it! As was mentioned already, you should post the code or formula on this thread. Someone would just have to search, mtfca highland green, to find it. Looks great!

[Flyingpiper59]

Thanks guys, I will check with Steve Watson tomorrow and I will get the “Highland Green” formulation out here for you all!

[Flyingpiper59]

George Mills…..Indeed! Very close…..prodigious close….well done and researched Sir!

[Allan]

I had a free hand when painting my 1917 custom built shooting brake. The green colour I chose was that used to paint the buildings of a national liquor chain. When I phoned their customer help line the young lady was stumped by my request for the Pantone number of the colour. To her credit, she persevered over the next two weeks and came up with a result for me.

As advised, the Pantone system is used in the printing industry, as a standard measure for colour duplication. Soils scientists have a similar system for describing soil samples by colour, Munsell soil charts.

Allan from down under.

[600wt]

I agree with the color. I once had a '26 coupe painted the same color. On a cloudy day- it almost could have been mistaken for black.

[Steve Jelf]

Read Bruce's comments in the Model T Encyclopedia for a good description of paints. The early green and blue were so dark that without direct sunshine they looked black. Many of the"restored" cars you see today are much too light. Don't be dependent on the names different companies used for their colors. Highland Green could be called Novice Green or Envy Green by other companies.

[Russ_Furstnow]

Check out the comments about paint finish used in 1927. This is from a Ford booklet dated 1927.

[micshotrodgarage]

Having had a 1928 model A pickup painted rock moss green, I always throught this to be a carry over color from the 27 Model T's

[George Mills]

Hey Allan,

If you ever run into needing a PANTONE equivalent for a color in the future...just shout out...

I DO take color way too seriously...the master references for most systems are never far from me...