Classic Ford Deluxe Paint Colors & Factory Codes (1937–1948)
Every original factory paint color offered on the classic Ford Deluxe (1937–1948), with official manufacturer paint codes, hex approximations, and rarity notes. Use the paint code to order a color-matched sample from a restoration supplier.
The Ford Deluxe sat a clear step above the base Standard line, and its paint chart reflected that ambition without ever shouting. Where the Standard car kept to a short list of practical finishes, the Deluxe buyer could reach for richer maroons, deeper greens and proper navy blues like Washington Blue, set off by brightwork the Standard car did without. Even so, the late-1930s palette was restrained by today's eyes: muted grays such as Gull Gray, Cloud Mist Gray and Folkstone Gray, sober greens like Dartmouth Green, and Black underpinning the whole range. By 1942 the catalog had collapsed to almost nothing, and the handful of cars Ford built before and just after the wartime shutdown were essentially black-only as chrome and pigment were diverted to the war effort.
Color returned with the 1946 cars, and the post-war Deluxe and Super Deluxe palette felt noticeably brighter and more optimistic: Modern Blue, Greenfield Green, Dynamic Maroon and the pale Light Moonstone Gray. The closely related 1947 and 1948 catalogs continued in the same vein with Strata Blue, Glade Green, Monsoon Maroon and Tucson Tan before the all-new 1949 Ford swept the old separate-fender bodies away. A note on codes: through this era Ford colors were identified by name and by maker mix numbers (the familiar M-series, plus DuPont and Acme references) rather than the single-letter codes of later decades, so a restorer matches by name and chip first and treats any number as a cross-reference.
Sources:
hdpaintcode.com (1937-1948 Ford paint code & color charts)
paintref.com (Ford factory color cross-reference)
★ Rare / Desirable Colors
Standard Colors
🔧 Restoration Tips: Finding & Matching Your Original Color
- • Match to the original color name and a verified paint chip first; the M-series, DuPont and Acme numbers from this era are cross-references, not modern stock codes, so confirm the chip before mixing.
- • Decide period-correct gloss. Pre-war Ford enamels and the lacquers of 1946-1948 read with a softer sheen than a modern clearcoat; a high-gloss basecoat/clearcoat will look anachronistic on a Deluxe.
- • Verify a wartime or early-1946 car was genuinely black before assuming color. Production records and the body tag help confirm whether the car left the line in the black-only period.
- • Cross-reference any DuPont or Acme number against a current supplier's formula and spray a test panel; pigments such as the maroons and the period greens drift over decades and rarely match the first mix exactly.