1956 Ford Interior trim paint.

J

judge65

Junior Member
Hello All , looking for some help from the more informed community.
I'm trying to get a paint formula for the colour my 56 Courier interior trim
was originally painted. From what I read the colour is or very close to the 1957 Ford Thunderbird Bronze. It's very hard to find any of the original paint as they've done a fairly good job of covering all the dash and door garnish moulds.
I have been wet sanding the glove box door and getting some success but I'd still like to get hold of an acrylic formula for it.
We have PPG suppliers here but they don't seem to be able to find the 50s formulas.
Thanks for any help.
John...Judge65..
 
The original 50's formulas won't do you much good. Many of the ingredients aren't legal to make or use anymore.

A good automotive paint shop should have a photo-spectrometer that can read the existing paint color and re-create a formula for it using modern ingredients. Take the dash to the paint shop after calling and confirming they have the device.

If nothing else they have lots of color chip sample books you can match it to.
They can also create a test sample of the paint for your approval.

.
 
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Thanks dmsfrr , I'll try and find a sample of the original colour on the dash that they haven't painted and get a paint shop to match it. The colour I need is the same as that 56 Sedan Delivery that sold at Mecum earlier this year.
Thanks again.
 
On the tag that is riveted on the door or A-pillar the paint code should be on it. The paint supplier could mix the colour from the paint code. Is the original colour still on behind the kick panels. If that has not been painted then the paint supplier could use the photo-spectrometer to get a mixing formula. Where I work if an original area of paint is found but is not large enough to use our photo-spectrometer we use our colour variant paint chip book to get a good starting point and mix samples paint until we get a match.
 
Bill Playfoot said:
On the tag that is riveted on the door or A-pillar the paint code should be on it. . . . .
Click to expand...
Isn't that the exterior body color? I've not seen the interior paint color noted on the plate, the interior color 'style' yes, but not the actual paint color.
 
The problem with the old codes is that they list colors by name and many of those names no longer are listed by modern materials suppliers. This makes it difficult to use the old mix ratios. If a person has something the size of a glove box door that still has relatively decent color on the inside then that could be used to get a good color match from a paint shop. I've been fortunate to work with several shops that had mixers with a good eye for color. They could match it better than the optic color reader could.

Ditzler generally had a sheet of interior colors with their chip charts but They don't have one on TCP Global's auto color library. They have one for 1956 Fords but not 1955. This still only lists the original codes for the older materials that were available at the time.
https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/
 
Thanks for input fellas , I got side tracked with other things over the Christmas /New Year holidays. We've got a paint shop nearby that has formulas that were converted from the old enamel to acrylic versions of Ford Paint , pretty good off the formulas , but no trim colours. Australian Fords used mostly occasionally renamed colours that our North American brethren were using , with Mercury colours used as well.
I've had colours eye- matched before by some of the shops , never quite "spot on ".Unfortunately, there is nothing on my dashboard or door garnish moulds that hasn't been painted, although I've since found the door windlace retainer on the A pillar may be useful for a match. I'll check out a larger shop when I get time, thanks again for all your input and have a good New Year.
 
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