I can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel...
I've got the MUTT body home today sporting a fresh paint job.
So far it has been Sandblasted, welding repairs, lightly Sandblasted a second time, Red Oxide Primed, very miniscule of Body Filler applied, Red Oxide Primed again. It was then given two coats of the Base Coat Color.
For the Base Coat I ended up going with 383 CARC Green from Tempo Paints. I want to commend Matt B for all of his work on sourcing the correct colors for the CF 3 Color Cam Pattern from the 70-80s. Having spent quite a while comparing paint chips and actual items painted in both colors, it was a real tough decision to make. When the 383 Green starts to oxidize in the sun, it begins to look a great deal like the Field/Pea Green in the old pattern. As I drove down the road between the CTC Schools here on Base Gagetown, I had a long stare at all the vehicles in the compounds. There are plenty in the old 3 Color Cam Pattern as well as in the current mono-tone 383 Green. The big thing I noticed is that there is NO consistency to any of the paint jobs, wether old or new pattern. I begin to wonder why the hell I was getting so frantic with my own paint. In my case it ended up being much more economically viable to go with the 383 CARC Green as a replacement for the Field Green as the Base Color for my M151A2.
So here are the results:
This is a snap that has an item (ROPS ID Tag from the other 151) in the old Field Green laid on top of the 383 CARC Green. Keep in mind that the ID Tag was painted over 30 years ago and has been stored outside ever since, and the paint on my MUTT is two days old and has never seen sunshine other than 15 minutes today.
The remainder of the large items will be painted separately. Once everything is reassembled, it will go back for a 3rd coat of paint, to get all of the fasteners and small parts matching. Lastly, according to my painter, I should be able to put the other paint over the base coat after it has cured for a month. At that time I will paint the Engine Compartment and under the Hood in Semi Gloss OD, and apply the Black and OD portions of the Cam Pattern.