Help! Proper colors for 1944 C

Is this a show tractor or a work tractor. If its for show go with a automotive system from bare metal. PPG Omni in 600080 is the correct color. If it a working tractor and saving money but wanting a decent paint job is important, you can go with a industrial rust inhibitive gloss enamel like the Valspar sold at TSC. The AC orange standard color won't be the perfect shade of orange for a 49 C and you may be OK with that. If you want a industrial gloss enamel that matches PPG 600080 you will have to have it custom tinted. Most Lowe's have the Valspar product and the ability to tint it correctly for you. The product is Valspar, ANTI RUST, Oil Based Enamel, Gloss Clear Base. Product #21929. It comes in Quarts or Gallons. The custom Quart tinting Formula is 109-16 111-1Y42 116-36. For a Gallon ask them to shoot this formula 4 times in a gallon. You got to keep it simple for some of the dummies working in the Lowe's paint department. I would recommend adding the appropriate amount of enamel hardener following directions. Lowe's dont sell the enamel hardener but TSC does. Can be brushed or sprayed. I like brushing the cast iron and spraying the sheetmetal. Surface prep is not critical but degreasing and scuffing old painted surfaces and spot priming rust with a suitable rust preventive primer is a good painting practice.

Persian Orange #1 -- used from 1929 to 1960
PPG DAR60080
Martin Senour 99L-3723
TISCO TP280

DuPont's Dulux alkyd enamel went the way of the DODO bird years ago. It has no replacement in the current DuPont lineup. The closest color to the early persian orange I have seen from DuPont is their generic Spectramaster "yellow", code YS074. I understand it is available in all their current chemistries, including ChromaOne. Lacking that, if you are going for an acrylic urethane that crosses directly to that shade of persian orange you might want to investigate PPG's Concept (DCC) single stage urethane in formula number 60080. The Concept would be a PPG direct competitor to DuPont's ChromaOne.

A little up date on a previous post. I had Lowe's paint department scan the same sample of PPG 60080. The formula changed ever so slightly from 109-16 111-1Y42 116-37 to 116-36.5. I could not see any obvious difference in the color. I jotted down the Lowe's Item number for the Quart of 21929 Valspar Gloss Clear Base, it is Item#83062. The Gallon of 21929 Gloss Clear Base is Item#49437. These item numbers may help someone who is having trouble finding the correct Valspar Anti Rust Gloss Enamel tinting base at their local Lowe's. The formulas above are for a Quart. Add the correct amount of Valspar enamel hardner from TSC and get it Orange. Good Luck in your area. It works at Lowe's in East Texas.

Early Persian Orange for all. In an automotive paint, the closest match that I've seen is 60080 in PPG (which I use for my '42B) and YS074 in DuPont. Note that considerable disagreement exists on the color of the rear rims from the factory. There are "shades of correctness" in silver, persian orange, galvanized and even black. Most probably there was no single color standard for the rear rims from the factory throughout the long history of the Bs and to a lesser extent, the Cs. I happen to believe that persian orange was the predominant color for the rear rims in the forties. Others will disagree. However, I think there is evidence that enough of them were persian orange that you shouldn't be called incorrect if you painted them that way. In the end, however, paint them whatever your friend happens to personally prefer. It's his tractor. Or have them professionally galvanized. Personally, I much prefer the appearance of persian orange rears to the silver or galvanized ones so that's how I painted mine.

Rod

Russ