color of bodys on commercial vehicle

[Jan Arnett]

Iam currently restoring a 1923 dodge screen side pickup that was last used by a hardware company. The inside of the roof is a kelly green color. According to the dodge cub the whole car should have been green. i just finishing removing the canvas top and the bows and ribs are green and have never been any color but green as was the body. They were painted green prior to the canvas being installed. I am the third owner and it has been sitting in a barn for 40 years. I talked to the prior owner and he didn't do anythig but pull it into the barn. What is the feeling on commercial car colors?<BR>Thanks

[1937hd45]

Jan, I think you need to check some original sales literature and see what was offered in the way of colors. Years ago I saw a nice restored screenside and it was a dark olive green. Most early Dodge cars were black with a nice medium blue on the wheels. Good luck with the restoration, always liked the Dodge screensides.

[ex98thdrill]

In our case, we had the original paint color chart, but you can't get lacquer anymore so we were forced to find an alternate means of matching the color. In our case, we were able to take a buffer and rub out the original paint color on the door. From that we took it to one of the larger body shops and had the color scanned into a computer. With todays technology, you can scan the color of anything into a computer and the computer will create an exact match of the color you need with modern paints. In our case we chose to go basecoat/clearcoat so now if we need to touch something up, we can do so with modern paint, and the clearcoat gives the truck a nice shine. After our truck was done, we took the paint chart and in our case it is an exact match. Now if we do need to touch something up, we have a computer print out of the paint formula which allows us to go down, hand them a copy of the formula, and get the paint mixed up. <P>I guess in a nutshell, if all else fails in getting paint samples, you can still get the color you need if you have something that is flat.