Things that aren't what they are supposed to be . . . .

[PetesPonies]

When I bought my '82 Flareside, I believed it would be Wimbledon White. That was the only color in the '82 brochure, that was white and the truck was white  :) You'd think, easy peasy. I have sprayed a lot of Wimbledon White in my life. I would say, definitely the color I have sprayed the most. I can spot it by smell  :) When I got my truck, it was obvious it is not Wimbledon, it is much whiter. My paint code is 9A, should be Wimbledon, but it is either Polar White or Special White ( sometimes called Pace Car white , it was used on the 64 1/2 Mustang Pace Cars ). My truck is the original color, it is the same white everywhere. All my decals are still in place, etc. I know when something is original paint, because . . .  I restore and repaint  :) I have run across things that Ford advertised, but never came to fruition. Certainly things more important than a paint color on an '82 truck  :) But what else have you found not to be as was advertised on these trucks?

[Gary Lewis]

So, what color did the paint turn out to be?

As for what I've found, it depends on what you mean by "advertised". The 1981 literature shows the door locks in both slide and pin versions. But, it shows the turn signals as being amber. However, as shown on the door lock page, the 1981 trucks came with both slide and pin locks, and with both clear and amber turn signals.

[PetesPonies]

And that was probably due to parts on hand at assembly plants. I'm not sure which of the two I listed, it is . . .yet. They both are a bright white. Give me a day or two and I'll know for sure.

[PetesPonies]

If I can believe the literature I'm reading, it appears Polar white wasn't used on trucks in 1982 ( however, it was used  other years on trucks ). So it may be the Special White. I'm going to go get a 1/2pt of each. Since the tag is wrong on the truck, who knows which it actually is  :)

[PetesPonies]

And here you can see it is clearly marked 9A

[Gary Lewis]

As shown here, 9A is just "white": http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/exterior-paint-codes.html.

On the turn signals and door locks, I agree with you - Ford wasn't going to throw anything away. So they appear to have consolidated the clear turn signals into the Twin Cities and Norfolk plants as they were the last to use them. And the slide door locks were consolidated into Kansas City and the Twin Cities plants.

[PetesPonies]

But many places have 9A as Wimbledon . .even the '82 Truck Brochure.

[Gary Lewis]

Ford wasn't consistent with much of anything.  And the master parts catalog, which is what the snippets on my site are from, has contradictions within itself.  So I wasn't trying to make a case or say you are wrong.  Or that the brochure is wrong.  In fact, I'm not sure what I was saying.  

[PetesPonies]

So here is my spray out of the three possible colors. On the right is Wimbledon, 9A, In the middle is 9D and on the left is 9E. 9E looks to match best. It is what is called Special White and was even used as far back as '64 on the Pace Car. The middle is Herron or Polar or even just White. It was used in the '70s and '80s on about everything. It is definitely more creamy than Special white, but still looks very white compared to Wimbledon. So I think I will take my gas door and have it scanned. No where on the truck shows sign of a repaint, but I know it was done. So maybe the color was changed. Under the grime and weathered paint in the engine compartment, it definitely looks closer to Wimbledon. But door jambs, under the jamb label, interior parts of the door, everywhere else shows no sign of a repaint and it's hard to imagine a truck like this having had the "pull it completely apart" paint job sometime in it's life? Engine paint is usually very thin, gets baked and the colors change, so I'm not sure that is a good basis for deciding. I will look closer around the truck and get the lid scanned as was mentioned.

[PetesPonies]

Here is the gas door . . as you can see, no signs of being painted. Sure it could have been media blasted and painted . . BUT is that what people are/were doing to 1982 base model pickups?? I'm taking it to be scanned . . but the quandary remains.

[Gary Lewis]

It does look like the 9E is the best match.  (I like the way you've shown all three colors against the original 'cause even with different monitor setting we can see the difference.)

Have you looked for a build sheet or a buck tag?  The build sheet is sometimes above the glovebox, sometimes in the springs of the seat, sometimes under the carpet.  And sometimes MIA.

The buck tags can be on the firewall around the windshield wiper motor.  And sometimes there's one on the front of the bed between it and the cab.

[PetesPonies]

OK, I have done no spray out yet, but here is what happened. I took the gas door to the paint paint and scanned it. Then I chose the top of the line DuPont Chromabase, rather than Nason, the lower line. Nason and Omni ( from PPG ) are great for overall paint jobs. You can really save  a lot in material cost. But they are not best for matches as they don't use the most expensive toners and metallics, pearls etc ( I have a great story on that for sharing sometime ). So the computer decided, in Chromabase, the color is 9L. This is Ford Oxford White. Now the computer can choose any paint that this one matches . .GM, Jaguar, Yugo :) So interesting that it came back as a Ford color . . good sign. The clerk mixed it up and WOW! I know the spray outs I did before had one color that looked about right, but now it is spot on. Again, I haven't sprayed it, I'll do that tomorrow. But it is an awesome match from my experience. So . . 1982 Oxford wasn't available .  at least from what I can see. But the Special White, or Pace Car White was. This is the color that looked good in my spray outs. So . . perhaps when the truck was resprayed at some point in it's life, the painter used Oxford White . . being so close to Special white, that you really can't tell the difference without some real scrutiny. Oxford what is what most of the Fox Mustangs were, from 83-on.


http://mustangattitude.com/mustang/1984/1984_00005_01.jpg

[Gary Lewis]

Interesting. The plot thickens!  Glad you got a match. But no build sheet or buck tags?

[PetesPonies]

I've finally been over the truck enough to officially be convinced it was Wimbledon White at some time. So the data is correct. I am still totally confused about someone going to this level to change the color on an "old" truck . . .but somehow keeping the door jamb data label ? No paint marks around the label . .the gas door MUST have been bead blasted clean, etc  :) The doors were completely painted inside as well, windows removed from the cab,etc. I wish it was still Wimbledon, but not going through that myself on this ( I have an '83 Bronco and '69 F100 428/4spd, I'm doing now for myself ), so it will stay the Oxford White.

[Gary Lewis]

That’s strange!  Any chance it has just weathered?  I guess not since it did it everywhere. Perhaps it was a repaint by the dealer for some reason?

[reamer]

I say the middle is closer, I'm sure you must have peeled back the rubber gaskets around the windows and windshield to see is there is a paint difference. Remove a brake light assembly? Remove the antenna mount?

[PetesPonies]

Your wrong on the paint match, not the center one at all. As for the rubber, yes I mentioned that . . the windows were removed for paint. But,in my eyes, more than the glass being removed, was the fact that the doors were painted inside and out . . no paint on any rubber. It was all removed. the gas door, just really nice job. I do this on Mustang restorations, didn't expect it on a 82 f100.