Topic: Late '68 Dearborn undercarriage primer colors

[CharlesTurner]

I'm restoring a 68.5 cobra jet fastback for a friend, May '68 Dearborn car.  Unfortunately, was not able to clean and look for original primer colors before it was stripped.  Getting to the stage soon where the body shop will be needing to know what colors to go with underneath.  So, hoping to get some help here.  Doesn't have to be a CJ car, although would be a plus.  Any April-June '68 Dearborn car would be a good reference.

Thanks for any help.

[J_Speegle]

During that period (April to June) Of course I only have projected build dates at this time and limited amount of samples. So far March-April Red oxide and June with a dark gray batch

Hopefull others will have some original cars to fill in the gaps

[Laurie S.]

My June 2nd built coupe has the dark gray underside with a bit of sparkle.  The paint for style steeled wheels is an exact match.

[CharlesTurner]

My June 2nd built coupe has the dark gray underside with a bit of sparkle.  The paint for style steeled wheels is an exact match.

Thanks.  Were you able to determine if there was a different shade of primer under the front engine bay area?  Guess you're referring to the 66/67 charcoal gray wheel paint?

[Laurie S.]

No, it was a pretty consistent color throughout.  Yes, that would be the paint.  I discovered the match accidentally when I was trying to touch up an area near the rear and grabbed the wrong can.  You can't tell the difference between the primer and the spray touchup.

[Bob Gaines]

If the gray was like the gray used in the 69 Dearborn cars it varied (sometimes dramatically) from one batch to the next . Sometimes with metalic sometimes without. Sometimes light sometimes dark  but always a gray like shade. interestingly the begining of production in 69 saw some red oxide shades before changing to the slop gray paint in the Dec time frame at Dearborn. I havn't studied 68 Dearborn cars but it reads like there was a change over pattern in 68 from red oxide shade to gray also. Maybe a build up of excess waste paint which prompted use? or ? Just some more observations for the decussion. 

[68 S Code]

The attached is a pic of a june 24th Dearborn built CJ. This car has been owned by the same guy since the spring of 1969 and he reassured me the undercarriage was never touched. I've compared this to Metuchen slop gray and it looks to be black in my opinoin. Kind of a satin black. I feel the flash on the camera is lightening it up to look less true black. It was also pretty dirty and I just tried wiping it down quickly with a shop rag before snapping the pic.

[J_Speegle]

The attached is a pic of a june 24th Dearborn built CJ. ........................

Thanks - from the samples I have sometimes you have to clean them well (even wax a small area) and take a strong light to see the differences in the very dark products. Again thanks for posting

[1Hotboss]

My 68 built Dearborn car has a june build date, so I am going to say that the undercarriage should be slop grey...it currently is red oxide...I may want to change it to slop grey if I decide to go more to original with the car.....if so can anyone please tell me which paint code has anyone used to obtain a close match or consistent match....

Thanks

[CharlesTurner]

Think that there won't be a specific paint code as there is variance.  Maybe starting with something like Laurie found... 66-67 styled steel wheel charcoal gray and then tinting it dark or light from there.  Maybe doing without metallic also.

[J_Speegle]

I've used a late model Volkswagen (2000+) dark gray and simply added a little blue or green to tint it a bit. Came out fairly dark- with a little metal flake and in the last application very slightly bluish. Pretty close to a number of original Dearborn samples I have