Arctic Cat Whisker Paint codes 1971-72

#2
Does anyone know colors or codes for arctic cat whisker?
None have ever been published, and per reliable sources who were working there at the time, the colors could fluctuate slightly by the batch.

I have an original tank in good shape. The bar recess underneath is not too faded and can be scanned. The original was sort of a yellow/orange/gold metallic. It fades out badly to a pee greenish yellow.

If I can find the time, I'll see if I can get a couple of tanks scanned. I've got a Prowler tank that needs to be done as well. Somewhere I've got a picture of a NOS tank that was in the box, shielded from light.

From time to time you can find painted fuel caps that claim to be for a Whisker and are unfaded, however, they never used painted caps that I know of unless they were leftovers from the painting process. I have a couple and need to see how close they are to the underside of my tank. If it's a match, it would be a good original sample to match.
 
#3
Here are a couple of photos of the original color. Obviously camera settings, lighting and your screen temperature settings can change what you see compared to in-person, but these pics are very close. All 71-72 Arctic tank paints were metalic, further complicating the matching process. You might also notice that you can't use the old color literature as a reference. Those old printing methods weren't accurate enough.

The 2 fuel caps I have were an exact match to the underside of one of my 1971 tanks. If your tank still has paint on it, you might peel up the black foam tape they used to put down the center of the hump for cushioning protection. That usually preserves the original color. You can see by the second pic how badly it faded, and this tank is barely faded compared to most I've seen.

IMG_20170126_114638.jpg

IMG_20170126_114730.jpg
 
Top