Gull Grey

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

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Bruce Fenstermacher
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Gull Grey

Post by Bruce Fenstermacher »

In a previous post some time ago George suggested that Dupont Imron 55137u was a faithful replication of the Cessna Gull Gray used in landing gear and other exterior steel parts.

Krylon is my go to rattle can paint but it has been letting me down lately. I've been using Smoke Gray for Gull Grey and I've found a few other colors that seem to match standard Cessna colors. How ever of late when recoating the Krylon after 24 hours of drying it has been wrinkling causing me to completely remove the paint and start over. Also it is not the hardest most durable paint. So I've been thinking of another brand of rattle can paint such as DupliColor or simply breaking down and buying a quart of auto enamel. This lead me to do a search on Dupont code 55137 to find other equivalent paint. I found this info and find it interesting as we know Cessna did not invent a lot of things such as interior parts and they probably didn't with paint either. The Dupont 55137 it turns out is 1947 to 1954 Ford Birch Gray used on Ford Fleet vehicles. So the time period fits. It was also used later in '71 and '84 but the electronic color samples I've seen don't match (but that doesn't mean much really). Here is the info I found online with various cross reference to other paint manufacturers color codes
Screen Shot 2013-09-02 at 3.50.17 PM.png
Don't know how long the link will work where I found this but here it is: http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedi ... rch%20Gray

What paint have other used that might be readily available for Gull Gray?
Also makes me think perhaps a few other Cessna colors might be found on the Ford paint cards of the time.
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Bruce Fenstermacher, Past President, TIC170A
Email: brucefenster at gmail.com
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Bruce Fenstermacher
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Re: Gull Grey

Post by Bruce Fenstermacher »

Checked with a local auto body supply who is a PPG dealer. He said Ditzler PPG 30153 '47 Birch Grey is available in lacquer, if you can find anyone still mixing lacquer, or urethane. He says it is a lower quality urethane than the best stuff used on cars today and is only $80 for a quart kit which includes the thinner and hardener required. (the better stuff if it was available is $200 quart)

Still looking for a color chip or sample of Cessna Gull Grey (Ford Birch Grey) so that I can match it to other paints (rattle can stuff) that might be available.
CAUTION - My forum posts may be worth what you paid for them!

Bruce Fenstermacher, Past President, TIC170A
Email: brucefenster at gmail.com
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ssell39
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Re: Gull Grey

Post by ssell39 »

For a 1948 170 are the struts originally gull grey?
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