My project is getting pretty close to being ready for paint. My plan has been to take it back to it's original Sheridan Blue. The recent article in Vintage Truck magazine with the Marmon Herrington F1 now has me wondering a little bit about the color.


The article indicates that the truck is Sheridan blue, however it is quite a bit lighter than (what I thought was) Sheridan Blue. I have been to Auto Color and some of the other sites with paint chips and they either don't have Sheridan Blue listed, or the paint chips didn't scan well and pretty much look black.

I did go through the galleries and found a few other trucks that are Sheridan Blue. These trucks all look very similar (and very similarly darker) that the MH truck:





Anyone have a suggestion, short of buying the paint, as to how I can verify the color?

Thanks,
-DV

 

Your local ppg store or automotive paint mixing store can verify the color.
Also,there is a hand held computer to set on the paint and it snaps pics of the paint and converts it to a paint recipe. I mixed and matched by eye....but I am old-school and remember how hard it was to match silvers and golds and foreign car colors in the 70s and 80s.
I like the color and my 53 was this color.
Bill

 

Thanks Bill. I should have mentioned that my truck is red now, and I can only find a small spot of blue underneath the cab... not suitable for color-matching. I don't have a Sheridan Blue truck to match to, other than the pics that I find online.

I guess the other thing that I could do is just go pick a color that is close to what I want and not worry about whether it's "Sheridan blue" or not.

-DV

 

We may be seeing the effects of digital photography here. I went back and looked at the photo of the MH truck on the cover of the magazine, and it looks much closer to the other trucks than the digital photo posted above. It could be due to the exposure used when the photo was taken, or someone could have "tweaked" the photo afterwards.

The question of how to verify these vintage colors is still valid. If the paint shop has a chip, then you're good-to-go. Otherwise, I guess you'd have to get them to mix a small amount to verify the color.

-DV

 

DIGITAL PICS ONLINE LOOK MUCH DIFFERENT THAN IN PERSON.
There is an ad for a medicine with a green 56(meadow green) and it appears to be brighter,due to pics.

 

I've been real frustrated with that for a long time. None of my digital cameras correctly capture the blue of my truck, if there is any sunlight at all. It appears to be the "white balance" or "color balance" characteristics of the CCD that captures colors, it makes the blue look much lighter and greener. With ABQ being up high, there is also much more UV which seems to confuse cameras, always meant to try a UV filter.

DV, unless they did a really thorough job of painting your truck red, there should be virgin, unfaded blue under the dash, behind the seat, or on the back of the cab where the bed front covers it.

 

Ross,

I've been over the truck pretty thoroughly (there's not a square inch of the truck that we haven't disassembled at this point). It appears that the previous owners did it right in that they took the truck apart when they painted it red. As I said, I can only find a small area underneath the cab where the blue shows, and it's not large enough (or good enough paint) to use for color matching.

-DV

 

Ditto the others. Plus Sheridan Blue to me seems to change shade in different lighting. If you've got the original paint code you should be in good shape I'd think. Here's the Dupont code for it. The Duco is #864. Dulux is #93-81501. The Dulux is the enamal product.

Here's another one that I shot at an EFV8 Club show. It's a Dearborn Award winner, so the color should be correct. Stu

 

Yeah, see... that one looks identical to the MH photo at the top. It's a beautiful color no doubt, but it's just a shade lighter than I was expecting.

Mileage may vary with lighting...

-DV

 

Try Ford "Washington Blue"

Also - search the HAMB for "Blue" there is a thread with photos of about every blue ever made

 

Another thing that is going to affect the digital photo's is what type of paint the truck was painted with - enamel, laquer, epoxy, acrylic. This is because of the way the paints dry (and how fast they dry) dictates how the pigment lays down - and the amount of gloss floats up. So light is reflected differently. And your eye will pick this up differently that the digital cameras.

Also the age of the paint job will make a difference. New paint will not "hard dry" for almost 6 months and that also affects how the pigment lays down.

 

Jim Welch emailed me tonight asking that I add these pics of his trucks, and the following statement about the Sheridan Blue color. Jim is the owner of the blue Marmon Herrington, and of the below 1950 F-1 that has itself been featured in Vintage Truck magazine. Jim hasn't gotten the knack of doing pics yet so I'm glad to help. Jim wrote:

"It is definitely the digital camera, the flash, the angle, etc. that make it look lighter. Most non-Ford folks would consider my trucks almost a navy or dark blue. The attached picture is closer to what it actually looks like. I also have a 50 F-1, Sheridan Blue. Thanks, Jim."

 

Man....I really love looking at pictures of what my truck could look like....Thanks! By the way...My truck is a lexus blue color that was put on by the PO. I don't like what he did with the white on the front but this blue is nice. Check out my gallery. I have the codes for it if you are interested.

 

Thanks Jim (and Stu)! Yes, those photos look like to color that I'm looking for. Does Jim happen to remember the type of paint/paint code on his trucks?

-DV

 

Hey Jim, glad to see that you frequent ACE Hardware. That's one of my favorite places too. :-)

-DV