Engine paint color help

M

mjm1972

Member
Can anyone here please help me out, I'm banging my head agents the wall trying to find a paint I can use on my engine and not just any paint one obviously that has to resist the heat that would come from an engine and the other that would match the green that ford used in 1930...

I under stand I cant get 100% color match and I know there was variations of the green paint at the time but they was close to each other.

Anyone that knows off hand what color would match it by using a color fan from any brand of paint that would help.. example (if bear paint made alpine green and that match the ford color … I could send that paint sample to my brother N law to get it mixed) I would like a brush on preferably..

Thanks
 
You might be making this too hard. It seems most Model A parts vendor carry the same aerosol enamel spray cans and I used 2 or 3 cans on my stuff with great results.
For better action warm up the cast iron with a heater and soak the spray can in warm water....It will spray twice as good with higher pressure, nicer flow and cures completely.

Shown below is probably a fair example of original Ford green made by PPG Ditzler ...way back when (no date on can)
There's some paint on the label and it matches the vendor spray cans well.
 

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I find what the vendors sell is too blue for the engines we do for judging. I mix the vendor paint with Rustolium Forest Green Satin finish 50/50 and get a nice acceptable green that is not so blue.
 
If you want the paint to stick well, apply 2 coats of PPG DP90 epoxy primer to a clean, oil free engine, then the green engine paint.
 
While Bill's method with epoxy will surely work, I go just the opposite way. Peeling paint is usually finds excessive mil thickness being the culprit. Therefore I choose to apply it thin and without a substrate. I am enclosing four pictures of one where the customer definitely got the engine "warm" after the radiator let go, ...and you can see the paint did not peel although it definitely changed 'shades'! :eek:

Also, the color match is not a problem. Roy Nacewicz sells a paint that he had specially formulated from some original items that he had access to when he was at Ford. His shade generally passes for me at MARC/MAFCA fine-point competitions so the correct color is obtainable. It is worth noting from original photos that the original paint covering was very thin in the day. Look at these last two pics attached. If you are trying to replicate that look, then using thinned urethane paint with some flattener added along with a slow catalyst will likely get you there.


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A buddy of mine just painted an engine with a "recipe" that he found here. Rustoleum (2 parts green, 1 part blue and 1 part black). It looked tremendous to me and if it is good enough for Phil - it is good enough for me.
 
mjm1972 said:
Can anyone here please help me out, I'm banging my head agents the wall trying to find a paint I can use on my engine and not just any paint one obviously that has to resist the heat that would come from an engine and the other that would match the green that ford used in 1930...

I under stand I cant get 100% color match and I know there was variations of the green paint at the time but they was close to each other.

Anyone that knows off hand what color would match it by using a color fan from any brand of paint that would help.. example (if bear paint made alpine green and that match the ford color … I could send that paint sample to my brother N law to get it mixed) I would like a brush on preferably..

Thanks
Click to expand...

I see that just about everyone here is advising to mix your own.
However: we've used for years and had great results with "Bill Hirsch" brand engine paint. It is the right color and is heat and anti freeze resistant. The paint sticks and holds it's color. http://www.hirschauto.com/
He makes paints for just about every engine and we use them all.
He sells them in quart cans as you can brush or spray it,if you have a spray gun. If not he sells them in spray bombs.

www.jandm-machine.com
 
J and M Machine said:
I see that just about everyone here is advising to mix your own.
However: we've used for years and had great results with "Bill Hirsch" brand engine paint. It is the right color and is heat and anti freeze resistant. The paint sticks and holds it's color. http://www.hirschauto.com/
He makes paints for just about every engine and we use them all.
He sells them in quart cans as you can brush or spray it,if you have a spray gun. If not he sells them in spray bombs.

www.jandm-machine.com
Click to expand...

Since the restorers of fine point cars are suggesting something other than the paint offered by the vendors (hirsch paint), does his paint give the user as many points as the the other stuff suggested?
 
After you have your engine nicely painted in the color you picked, then the trick is to keep it looking that way, especially at the head gasket area. I have found that if you take a rag with a little wheel bearing grease and rub it into the gasket edge, it stops the corrosion on the block and the head. After applying, take a clean rag and wipe off the excess. It doesn't show and you preserve the copper look of the head gasket. Do it a couple of times during the driving season. Ed
 
BRENT in 10-uh-C said:
To be honest, I don't think Bill Hirsch's paint is considered correct in fine-point.
Click to expand...

This seems once again to prove that sometimes it is as easy to something "point" correct as it is just to do it. Just get the right supplier, that is of course if the paint from Roy is real high $ then Bill's would be good enough for the average person.
 
Yeah one thing im leaving out is I'm in a hurry and I live in Alaska and no one will send it air mail... and by the time ground mail gets here my summer will be over … trying to get this car to a car show. Also did not mention I don’t have a paint sprayer not yet at least.. I plan on painting it by brush or can at last resort. So was kinda hoping there is a can that Napa would sell or rustolum. Or even a color I could compare it too like from your common house hold paint fans you look at when chosen a color this way I have something to base it off of..


thanks for all your advise
 
Mike,

Sentry Hardware sells Rustoleum DTM (Direct to Metal) for $12 or $13 a quart.
I mixed several colors together to get the color that I have on my Phaeton engine. I used some Japan drier and VM&P Naptha for thinner.
It dries over night, I brushed it on and it levels out perfectly, even the black on the pan.

Darryl in Fairbanks
 
I've always mixed my engine green using Rustoleum. 2 parts green, 1 part blue, and 1 part black. My woody engine has been painted since 1973 and with a little touchupnow and then, it still looks great.
 
I thought that the JS stated that the color of green was fine if it was close but that all the parts should be the same shade. Is that not the case anymore?
 
ctlikon0712 said:
I thought that the JS stated that the color of green was fine if it was close but that all the parts should be the same shade. Is that not the case anymore?
Click to expand...

A rebuilder here painted several car engines with the same batch of paint. When entered in the same event not all received the same score for engine paint.
 
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