Follow up from an older thread. I've got a 64 F100, color code Y. Ive usedIa second vendor to try to get the correct color, and it seems it was wrong again (or maybe my trucks wrong?).

Using this link:

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?color=Skylight%20Blue&tditzle r=12850&rows=50

I got paint code 99046 from Sherwin William's and just got finished painting my tailgate as a temporary solution until I can afford to paint the whole truck.

I understand the trucks paint is faded some, but it still seems like it's a different shade. When googling skylight blue, I see the same color as my truck and the tailgate.

Which is the proper color? The one on my tailgate or the truck?

 

I am not the expert here at all. For the 66 year paint code Y is silver blue metallic. I know you have a 64. I also have a parts truck 66 that is paint code F which is Arcadia Blue. This colour appears to be what you are looking for as it closely matches your pics. I do not have pics with me as I am out of town and I only have interior pics as the trruck was painted on the outside.

 

That tailgate looks nice.

Why not just install it while you continue driving and working on your truck, then when you repaint the truck, re-paint the tailgate to assure everything is correct. That will give you time to research the correct paint a bit. Really, though, the truck will look so good when re-painted, no one is going to notice a variance in color from the original if it’s off a bit

 

The only reason I went ahead and painted the tailgate for now was because I had two decent sized rust holes on it, one in the bottom right corner and one on the bottom left corner. I bought an outter shell for the tailgate and replaced that and it was bare metal, so needed to do something to protect it in the meantime.

 

Not sure if you realized this but your tailgate shell is for a newer truck. That's the 1967-1972 style of lettering and around the lettering is a raised area.

 

Yea, unfortunately they dont reproduce the ones for a 64, I wish they did. For a permanent solution, I think I was considering cutting part of the panel put to re-expose the origina l 64 lettering on the tailgate. I wish I could find an original tailgate in decent shape that was reasonably priced, but those are few and far between.

 

As far as automotive paint matching goes I've had some odd experiences, too. I went into my local PPG paint supplier and asked for 1966 Ford Wimbledon White. The manager of the store and I looked up the code in their books and no problem. So he tells his flunky to go mix that paint and put it into some spray cans. I take it home and start to use it and it is way too yellow. I notice one of the cans has the full mixing formula on it so I grab that can and start reading and what the flunky did was mix "Corinthian White" and put it in the cans. I zip back down to their shop and start talking to them and the owner calls out the flunky from the back room and sure enough he admits to it and says "It's close enough". I about came unglued. Anyway, they ended up mixing me up a new batch of Wimbledon White and I take it home and it's great.

Point of that is - there are numerous things that can go wrong when ordering custom mixed paints. If their scale is even slightly off (hope not) or they transposed two digits in the formula it can throw it off from being correct. Also, everyones formula is a little different - pigments can vary between manufacturers. New paints are different than older paints. Most professional body and paint shops have the ability to mix their own paint and they can experiment some with a little more of one or other base colors and tweak a formula to match a car better than buying something mixed today to match 50+ year old paint.

The good paint scales are extremely sensitive - down to a tenth of a gram typically. Just breathing on them causes them to fluctuate.

If you've never seen a mixing formula here's what that "Corinthian White" I mentioned above uses.

They start with 648.1 parts of STR WHITE
To that is added 23.0 parts of one yellow
Then another 8.2 parts of a different yellow
Followed by 2.7 parts of red
and 1.6 parts of black

For a grand total of 683.6 parts. If we are talking grams you can see how you have to get down to the tenth of a gram. Trying to pour 1.6 grams of black paint is not easy. If you put in a little too much black or any others then you have to go into "compensate mode" where you readjust the scale to reflect the mistake and it tells how much to add. But, you have to figure out the amounts of each to give the new total. And then add tiny amounts of white, both yellows and the red. It's a real hoot.

Also, if 683.6 grams were to happen to be a pint, say for example, then a quart you'd have to double all of the values. Any slight miss on the math and you've got the wrong color.

So, they are concerned with Cumulative Parts and Incremental Parts and then hand pouring the ingredients. No much room for human error.

 

This was the paint I got from a different vendor, and that's a 3rd color in my opinion, a little darker as well. Only difference is the fuel tank is base + clear and the tailgate was a all in one spray.

 

The gas tank color looks more like the 1966 Skylight Blue to me. Yet another factor in paint mixing - getting the correct formula to start with.

Color Codes - Skylight Blue Paint Cross-Reference

Last line in that column

Another factor to consider - the paint on your truck is a bit faded. A good polish can sometimes change how a color looks and can darken it up some. Consider this thread post and then go to post #35 also.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post18674884

The polishing being done on the old paint of that truck is shining up pretty good and makes it look a bit different shade.

 

For the gas tank, pretty sure that was what happened with that one. Noticed that after I'd already sprayed it, but it's a gas tank, so it doesn't matter too much. I want to say it was sold as either a 65 or 66 mustang color I believe.

 

My vote would be to go with the tailgate color. Looks the best to me.

 

I do really like the tailgate color alot too, it didnt come out too shabby for an automotive paint rattle can job. I'd just really like to redo the whole thing in the true color that it was from the factory. Will be putting the Wimbledon white bumpers and grill back on it too - the chrome one is just temporary.