Was My Car Blue?

[slow8]

I am stripping my ‘31 Tudor and found these layers of paint.

Is the light blue/gray color the original paint? It seems there is a dark gray primer under it. Then a layer of black (which is what I thought was the original color) and then the nasty metallic red on top.

I also see drips of the blue on top of the window sill under the trim that are a similar color.

 

[Cape Codder]

I would think under back of fuel tank would be a goot place to find the color!

 

[kurt v]

pop the patent tag off the firewall color will be under it.

 

[JayJay]

On all the sheet metal the original first layer was a brown “bonderizing” coat. “Bonderizing” was a Ford chemical treatment to fill the pores of the metal, enhancing rust prevention. The next layer above that was the original color paint. On some two-toned cars the next layer would have been the final color. I have not heard of Ford using anything like a gray primer, so if you have found gray primer, chances are it’s a repaint all the way starting with bare metal. I have found the brown “bonderizing” coat on my unmolested ‘30 TS. I do not see it on your photo. In the heyday of restoration in the ‘60s and ‘70s it was quite common to sandblast everything before painting (paint and sandblast were cheap then).