Info needed: 1950 Ford Flathead V8 Engine Paint

[KirkF]

In 1950 all civilian Canadian Ford Trucks (F47, F68, etc) were delivered with a 239 V8 flathead motor and full flow oil filters to meet the Canadian Military Specification at the time.

They were also delivered with a unique cream/beige engine paint which I believe was also part of the military specification.

Despite my best attempts I've been unable to find out exactly what this paint colour is. This colour was used on all Ford Canada engines shipped worldwide, including Australia and New Zealand.

I contacted Ford Heritage Canada and they were unable to answer my question.

So my research has led me here, and I'm hoping someone here might know the answer.

Once I determined the colour might be due to the military specification, I started looking at standard colours used by the British Military, as I believe Canada hadn't moved to the USA military paint spec in 1950.

Standard British camouflage colours such as Light Stone No. 61 or Pale Cream No. 52. look like possibilities, but I've only found reference to them being used in the 1940's. I'm not sure if they had changed at all by 1950.

Attached are pictures of a transmission with original paint still showing. The really clean area might be 'too clean' as I used a shot of brake clean on it which reacted with the paint more than I expected.

If anyone can positively identify this colour, or has a copy of the military spec Ford used at the time I would really appreciate it.



Its become of a bit of an obsession with me to figure this out.

Thanx,

Kirk