ConcoursMustang Forums

1st Generation 1964 1/2 - 1973 - Questions & general discussions that apply to a specific year => 1968 Mustang => Topic started by: 68 S Code on June 04, 2011, 11:07:33 PM

Title: 68 GT grille color
Post by: 68 S Code on June 04, 2011, 11:07:33 PM
NOTE: The following 21 replies are from various individual threads that have been merged on Jan 19 2022

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This is the last big piece to repainted. Did the SG paint a long time ago and heard it needs to be two tone. Need some direction as to the paint mix for the blue/grey color. Is it more blue or more grey? Is it a metallic or solid. Getting ready for final trim assembly. Regarding assembly do I want to have grille and all trim in that area done and bumper goes on last?
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: mach1one on June 11, 2011, 01:25:27 PM
I believe its a dark blue metallic
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: 68 S Code on June 11, 2011, 11:29:29 PM
So it would be like 68 Presidential Blue?
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on June 12, 2011, 01:20:29 AM
The grill out side of the large corral is black and the area inside of the small corral is black. The inside of the large corral is grey metallic.  Just remembered there was a thread here a while back with a pictures. I have the grey color custom mixed. The steel braces are semi gloss black and the rivets that held them were natural and are available from AMK. Marty
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: 68 S Code on June 13, 2011, 10:08:10 AM
Marty I will try to attach a pic of an NOS grille which was up on eBay a few months ago. It seems to correspond with what you describe. If you have a mix number than i will try to see if I can get it mixed around here. Thanks for the information.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on June 14, 2011, 12:13:16 AM
What I used was
Sherwin Williams
ACRYLYD
JS7130SG Blue - Gray
I had it matched off a original 67 grille. Marty
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: 68 S Code on June 14, 2011, 12:18:31 AM
Marty so the center of a 68 Gt grille is the 67 grille color? Thanks for the info and the SW color code. Is it metallic in nature?
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on June 14, 2011, 09:03:36 AM
Yes it is the 67 gray metallic color. Do not forget the the center of the small corral is black. Marty
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: 68 S Code on June 14, 2011, 09:51:37 AM
Marty I have the center noted. The brackets behind need to stay black with no overspray as they would have been installed after painting? Touch up rivet heads with silver. Backside off center coral is just overspray and not thoroughly painted? Is this correct? Thanks.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on June 14, 2011, 08:14:53 PM
You are correct. Marty
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: 68 S Code on June 14, 2011, 09:31:43 PM
Thanks Marty.
Title: 68 NOS GT grill
Post by: ruppstang on April 22, 2018, 09:30:38 AM
I found this 68 NOS GT grill for my current project and thought I would share some pictures with you. I have never seen a NOS GT grill and thought it was cool to see the different colors and poor quality of paint work on the back. I was lucky to find NOS parts for every part of this grill assembly.
Title: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: TLea on May 06, 2021, 12:58:55 PM
What is the correct finish for 68 GT grille? I assume brackets are black and rivets natural? Dearborn CJ if it matters
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: ruppstang on May 06, 2021, 08:51:22 PM
Tim brackets are sg black, tubular rivets can be black natural or brown. The grill mesh is black out side the large coral and dark argent inside of it and it is black inside the small corral.

Here is a picture of a NOS grill I used on our 68 S code.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: TLea on May 07, 2021, 08:41:58 AM
Thanks Marty. Interesting for sure. Was there hard tape line behind chrome?
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: ruppstang on May 07, 2021, 08:50:50 AM
Yes there were hard tape lines. I have been told that the idea of the two tone grill was the make the running horse appear to be floating in the grill.

A side note, the 68 GTCS and HCS grills mesh are all dark argent with no corrals or running horse.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: TLea on May 07, 2021, 04:21:54 PM
Thanks again
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: J_Speegle on May 07, 2021, 08:39:35 PM
 Past threads

https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=931.msg5076#msg5076 (https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=931.msg5076#msg5076)

https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=2374.15 (https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=2374.15)
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: TLea on May 08, 2021, 10:31:12 AM
The threads link by Jeff seemed indicate it?s more of a blue gray color? I think of dark argent as a gray black color like the 70 mustang rockers.
NPD has a color but it seems like it?s more for 67 grills?
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: ruppstang on May 08, 2021, 03:08:16 PM
Here is a picture of our unrestored 68 HCS. The dark argent has faded over the years but is clearly not blue grey. In my opinion the 65 cars used a blue grey. I have a original portion of a 67 grill and it is not a real blue grey either. I will try to post a picture of it latter.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: J_Speegle on May 08, 2021, 07:51:50 PM
When the discussion is done I'll be merging two of these threads (one being this one) so that new, updated findings and opinions are combined with the older possibly dated information to keep things all together

Trying to think if I have a good picture from an angle that shows the color and difference in the paint colors
Title: Re: 68 GT grille finish
Post by: ruppstang on May 08, 2021, 09:30:56 PM
Here is the sample of the original 67 grill color. It is defiantly a different color than in my 68 GT grill. It makes more sense to me that Ford would have the 68 dark argent on the GT grill rather than using the standard 67 grill color. May be others with original GTs will post some pictures to compare.   
Title: GT grill color
Post by: Kascus on January 19, 2022, 02:52:11 PM
I have been reading past post about the color of the 68 GT grill inside of the large corral. I can?t find any agreement on which color closely matches the original.Some say it has a blue metallic tint while others say it?s a darker grey metallic with no blue tint. Does anyone have a link to a color chart or spray can of it?
Thanks
Title: Re: GT grill color
Post by: carlite65 on January 19, 2022, 03:17:53 PM
what specific year are you asking about?
Title: Re: GT grill color
Post by: Kascus on January 19, 2022, 03:26:58 PM
1968
Title: Re: GT grill color
Post by: J_Speegle on January 19, 2022, 05:19:06 PM
There is an established thread that merged a number of threads on the subject. Found them by using the words "68 GT Grill" in the search tool

Going to merge this thread with that one to keep these together

Just to help there is a related thread that touches on both GT and non-GT grills

https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=2374.msg12395#msg12395 (https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=2374.msg12395#msg12395)
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: Kascus on January 19, 2022, 06:39:43 PM
Thanks guys, the paint mix code from Ruppstang was exactly what I needed.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: Anghelrestorations on November 11, 2023, 08:50:56 PM
Adding some photos here of what I think the correct look for a 68 grill would be based on an unrestored grill I have and a new one I just refinished to match this week.  Hard to get the photos and lighting just right but in general the difference in colors should be very subtle.  If you are standing 10 feet away you would not really notice, and if you do, then the colors are not correct.

For the rivets I myself prefer to see the natural rivets when you open the hood for that contrast.  I dont believe that all grills came with them being natural and have seen some where it is mixed and matched on the same grill - natural and dark but I prefer to see the time and effort taken to change out the rivets so you can see that.

Original unrestored grill:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53325934804_65242d57f7_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pfemz3)20231025_121712 (https://flic.kr/p/2pfemz3) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53325593001_d67f3120aa_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pfcAXT)20231025_121708 (https://flic.kr/p/2pfcAXT) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53326051925_1ff6c248f5_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pfeXon)20231025_102857 (https://flic.kr/p/2pfeXon) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr



Taped off areas:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53325934784_c2ee7e674e_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pfemyG)20231025_185838 (https://flic.kr/p/2pfemyG) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr



End result:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53325592971_19699a61a6_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pfcAXn)20231109_105741 (https://flic.kr/p/2pfcAXn) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53324719527_bac6a11fc5_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pf88iZ)20231107_123453 (https://flic.kr/p/2pf88iZ) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53326051905_5030f53f50_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2pfeXo2)20231110_170923 (https://flic.kr/p/2pfeXo2) by Marcus Anghel (https://www.flickr.com/photos/154714213@N02/), on Flickr






Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on November 11, 2023, 09:04:29 PM
FYI the argent painted center was only for the GT and sprint grills. The standard grills are all black.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: dave6768 on November 12, 2023, 02:21:26 PM
Here was my attempt using 67 grill color.

(I have since put in the correct color lights)

Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: dkknab on November 12, 2023, 06:51:05 PM
What Silver Argent color paint are you using?
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on November 12, 2023, 08:11:31 PM
It should be a dark argent color. 
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: dkknab on November 12, 2023, 08:32:09 PM
It should be a dark argent color.

What about the silver wheels? Isn't that a lighter silver? I need to get some spray paint to do them.
Title: Re: 68 GT grille color
Post by: ruppstang on November 13, 2023, 12:32:07 AM
What about the silver wheels? Isn't that a lighter silver? I need to get some spray paint to do them.
Yes the 68 styled steel wheels used the light argent.  There is not that much contrast on the grill, that is why Ford used  dark argent. I once built a car that we found a NOS grill for. If I can find a picture of that grill I will post it.