Engine color

This may be complete folklore, but I had heard that left over paint was mixed together to not waste paint and the mixture, which made green, was then used for the engines. Since Henry was pretty frugal, this makes sense. Don't know if this is fact however?
 
Never heard a reason, but I will say there is no evidence of them mixing random paint to create the color or using shipping crates for floorboards!
 
Studebaker engines were green because of left over WWII paint, so the same may be true for the Model A and WWI, but the mixed left overs sounds very likely.
 
Remember that engines were sprayed in alkyd enamel. Initially, the only other enamel paints used were black until the plants started painting wheels in colors other than black in 1930. Bodies were painted in nitrocellulose lacquer.
 
Well, Petty Blue was the result of mixing two paint cans together, and Henry Ford was a notorious penny pincher so stretching paint seems like a good possibility.
 
Gary Karr said:
Remember that engines were sprayed in alkyd enamel. Initially, the only other enamel paints used were black until the plants started painting wheels in colors other than black in 1930. Bodies were painted in nitrocellulose lacquer.
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Gary is correct with regard to mixing. You cannot mix lacquers into enamels for coloring.

With regard to engine paint, it takes pigments from two different primary colors to make green. The 1928-31 Model-A was not the first Ford vehicle to have a green engine. Ford also used green on the New Improved Ford.
 
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