Harvest Tan

The right color for a '46 CJ2A

UPDATE 1-28-06: Photos of Ricks headlight ring, compared to the rest (separate web page)

UPDATE 1-27-06: First match attempt. Jump right to the results

As most of you know, all the "usual" paint suppliers no longer have old Willys paint codes in their databases.

PPG still lists the original PPG/Ditzler code with this claim on their website: "PPG Car Paint provides cans filled with only genuine DuPont and PPG production formulas that were utilized when the vehicle was manufactured".

So I decided to test their claim, and got a pint of PPG #20422, "Willys Havest Tan". The result is disappointing.

The images here show comparisons between PPGs 20422, 3 different paint manufacturers color chips, and an original piece of Harvest Tan steel cut from a '46 CJ2A (courtesy of Tony Morreale, thanks Tony! see his Harvest Tan CJ3A).

Seeing how far off the PPG 20422 Tan is from the chips and original piece, I dug deep into PPGs catalogs, and found a Fleet color which is a very close (but not exact) match.

I will be using the Fleet color as a starting point, and adjusting it to get as near perfect match as possible, and will report the final mix formula here.

All images were scanned, not photographed. All color samples were scanned at the same time for consistency, none of these images are composites.

The actual colors you see may not be accurate, since that depends on your monitor settings and calibration, but the relative differences will be accurate.

Period color chips from 3 manufacturers

Sherwin Williams chip, 1949	DuPont chip, 1947	Martin Senour chip, 1949

Actual paint samples. The "new" PPG color is obviously wrong.

Tonys actual piece from a '46 CJ2A	side-by-side	sample of PPGs new "20422" Harvest Tan

Note: The yearly PPG database distributions (which auto body shops use) lists #20422 as being "offset" to #25674 (lighter). "offset" apparently means "substitute".

#25674 is called "Dark Almond", and is listed for 1985 AMC, and 1942-46 GM vehicles.

The PPG Car Paint online web site makes no mention of this "offset", but is apparently making this substitution, which contradicts their claim of using original formulas!

Actual paint, new paint, and color chip comparisons. The chips don't match the actual paint precisely. This might be due to aging of the actual paint, or simply the difference between being on paper vs. on steel.

Sherwin Williams chip	DuPont chip	Martin Senour chip

The mis-match from the new PPG 20422 Harvest Tan was too much for me. I had access to 4 massive PPG paint chip catalogs, so I dug through them for a better color.

I found PPG "Fleet" # 23013 (no color names are given to fleet colors).

Original chips compared to Fleet # 23013

Sherwin Williams chip	DuPont chip	Martin Senour chip

Original chips, Fleet # 23013, and actual piece compared.

Sherwin Williams chip	DuPont chip	Martin Senour chip

From these comparisons, it's fairly clear to me that Fleet # 23013 is MUCH closer to correct than the new #20422. I would certainly choose to use 23013 over 24022 if I simply wanted and over-the-counter paint.

My body shop guy says it will be easy to tweak 23013 to get the correct match, so that's what we'll be doing in the next week or two.

1-27-06 Test Run: (thumbnails all link to higher res. images)

Started w/ the 23013 formula and made small adjustments. Got 3 samples, 2 of which are very close. Still needs a final tweak though.

Test samples compared to the 3 manufacturers chips.

Sherwin Williams chip	DuPont chip	Martin Senour chip

and compared to Tonys actual piece: