Info needed: Ford Instrument Cluster- Correct Gold Colour

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Jaques,

Possibly not much help to you in Oz, but I used:

Ace hardware Brite Gold Metallic spray can
Testors Dark Red barcode 0-75611-11040 (red stripes)
Rustoleum Gloss white spray can (for the back & interior)

Best regards

Mike

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for that info. Can get the last two in Oz anyway. have the Testor's red already and a good spray epoxy white for the back.

I "let my fingers do the walking" as they used to say in the Yellow Pages ad.

Went to Carsales.com and searched for gold coloured cars only. Over 60 types of gold colours were listed.

I was able to eliminate a lot of colours (and save me from looking suspicious while lurking around carparks!)

A couple of recent Ford colours, Acid Rush, and Victory Gold and Toyota Aurora Gold may be contenders. Surprisingly I found a 1975 Ford colour, Tropic Gold might fit the bill but doubt if DupliColor still make it.

I then remembered I helped sell an elderly friend's 1975 Fairlane back in 2006 and it was painted Tropic Gold. A search through my archives and I found photos I took to put in the ad for him. See attached. Might be just a bit too reddish gold however.

Getting warmer.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

Your reply got me thinking. Rust-Oleum is sold her in Australia and as it is American they may supply ACE Hardware with their home brand. I know one paint supplier here in Australia supplies a number of companies with their own branded paints.

Perhaps I am drawing a long bow but looking at the Pure Gold image attached it could be a contender.

Will check it out next trip to Bunnings.

Cheers,

[Mike Cecil]

Rustoleum is the same as Ace Hardware's Brite Gold, near as anyway.

I've used both on the fence & gate caps and fancy bits (it's a very swish fence & gate!) and you cannot tell the difference when dry, and cannot tell which parts were painted with which paint even after several months. Cleaned out the local Ace hardware of gold paint, hence the different brands used.

Rustoleum is very good paint: I use their rusty metal red primer a lot, followed by their grey (gray) metal primer.

The spray can image has the really nice hand grip, too: much nicer to use than a standard push-the -button spray pack.

Mike

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Mike,

Ace = Rust-Oleum: That is great information! Thank you.

Will get the Rust-Oleum Pure Gold at Bunnings. If my panel comes up half as good as yours I will be happy.

A very fancy gate I can imagine!

Many thanks again. A bit circuitous route but a good answer in the end.

Cheers,

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

Revisited this recently. I wanted to get as close a colour match before reassembling the cluster. I also looked at other thirties Ford car instrument clusters as I would imagine Ford would not have changed the gold colour in the pre war years.

Looked at about a dozen gold colours, automotive and hardware brands. Narrowed it down to these three. Many automotive golds were too reddish in colour or too light a shade of gold.

As half-predicted the Rust-Oleum looks the closest allowing for aging of the original gold paint. Dupli-Color Goldrush is a bit too yellow. White Knight is an Australian branch of the U.S. PPG company and is is too bright.

The test sample sadly is the fascia I spent a few hours refinishing; primed, spray puttied and wet sanded a few times. The strip brass patches I soldered behind the fascia to fill the holes, as thin as they were, were too thick to allow the bezel to properly seal. Kindly Euan McDonald supplied me with a good restorable one, free of extra holes.

Plan to spray that with Rust-Oleum next nice day- whenever that occurs this winter.

Bet I'm not the first person to spend hours restoring something only to find their efforts were for nought.

Hope this is of some interest.

[David Herbert]

Jacques,
Could you very slowly grind the surplus thickness off your patches with a small grinder. It should be possible to do it without overheating the repair or doing secondary damage. It seems such a shame to waste the work that you have already done.

David