Topic: Paint Color for Front End of '70 Dearborn Car

[mechachy]

Need some help for the color of the primer for the front end of my '70 Boss 302, Dearborn built, November 12, 1969 build date.  The forensics are pretty poor as the car has been sandblasted.  If this helps, the underside of the car was painted with what I would call Army green metallic.  My car has the deluxe interior and I've read that the dealers put on undercoating on deluxe trim cars and such was the case on mine.  When I chipped away the undercoating, which was about from the transmission tunnel back, the Army green paint was pretty clear. 

In trying to determine what might have been applied to the front end, a few things were protected from the sandblaster, one of which was the frame behind the rubber insulators where the strut rods go.  No sign of red oxide paint and it seems like there may have been some green paint a la the underside of the car.  Behind the coil spring covers was somewhat protected from the sandblaster and there may be traces of green as well.  Perhaps complicating things is my car is Lime Metallic so not sure how much was green overspray and how much is the power of suggestion that things were painted green.

Any help is appreciated.

[J_Speegle]

First thanks for providing your cars info - makes it easier and we can get right to the point

For you plant and time period (from what I've seen, have in note form and in pictures) it was not unusual for the same color paint/epoxy primer sealer that was used on the floor from firewall rearward to have been applied to the frame (firewall forward) and the inner fender wells on both sides.

In the front wheelwells over this I typically find the exterior color being up to the leading edge of the shock tower inset maybe 2" forward of that edge rearward. Its not like its a straight paint line downward  on every car on some instead it looks like the painter shot the inside of the shock tower then angled the paint application from the rear lower corner back towards the toque box along the outer surface of the front frame rail

At the front (directly behind the radiator support)  and along the top of the wheelwell (under the inner fender lip) you can find black overspray from the painting of the front of the radiator support and those upper edges.  Sometimes the black at the front will extend back towards the shock tower area by a foot or so.  SO before the sound deadener was applied (way later in the build) covering allot of these details, Looking at a wheelwell from front to back you would see body color then batch then a light black overspray at the forward end, Body color then black at the forward edge when the painted applied more black on the leading inner fender panel or somewhere in between


Understand the light contrast between your cars batch floor color and you exterior color. This happened from time to time  (other times they really CLASH)  and when they were close often restorers just assumed that the exterior and the floors were both the same paint - leading to what you can see on older restorations

Hope this helps

[mechachy]

Jeff,

This helps a lot.  Everything you say is what I figured but before I got out the spray gun and fired up the compressor, I was hoping to hear from an expert like you.

Thanks again.

[J_Speegle]

Jeff,

This helps a lot.  Everything you say is what I figured but before I got out the spray gun and fired up the compressor, I was hoping to hear from an expert like you.

Not sure I'm an expert at anything - but thanks. Just someone with some experiences and allot of collected data


Glad we could be of help and that you could confirm that what I found matched your car