how brown is mexican brown?

[scott]

i wanna repaint the ambulance. this is not a restore just wanna my it look respectable so when i bring it home from my brother's backyard and park it in my drive the neighbors don't get too upset. it was originally RAF blue/grey. then it looks like it did a stint in her majesty's army as there's a layer of OD green. then it served as a civi ambulance in banbury and was painted white. the white is pretty much flaking off so the truck is as ugly as a rover can get.

i want something that looks like a military sand color. is the rover mexican brown dark brown or light? what color would the MOD desert serving vehicles have been?

[jac04]

The EMLRA has an article on military painting. http://www.emlra.org/articles/articles.htm Unfortunately, they don't really show any color samples.
Check out Gillespie Coatings for US mil-spec paints. I used the 686 Tan CARC Substitute on my Lightweight and I was very happy with the color. I purchased it through Rapco Parts. Lots of other colors available: http://www.rapcoparts.com/padenew.html

[scott]

jac, thanks. how much paint did you use on your lightweight? did you have to add anything to the gci paint? hardeners? or do you just thin it and spray?

[jac04]

I ordered a case of four 1-gallon cans, all from the same lot, to make sure I had enough paint. I used about 1.25 gallons of actual paint. Needless to say, I have a little left over. I thinned it with xylene per the manufacturer's ratio (4:1 IIRC). I didn't use a hardener.

I sprayed it with a Campbell Hausfeld HVLP set-up that I got from Gleem Paint: http://www.gleempaint.com/ch-hv1001-hvlp-system.html
I was very happy with how it worked. About 5 minutes of practice, and I was painting panels.

[Wander]

If you do too good a job your neighbors may fear something bad has happened!

[scott]

If you do too good a job your neighbors may fear something bad has happened!

my plans are for some frames to hold the white panels w/ red crosses. this way i can make it look some what authentic and still pull off the crosses so that it blends in when i want it to. i also plan on making some white squares w/ red crescents. i have a license plate that was once on a defender ambulance belonging to one of those middle east militaries. this part of my plan has my friends thinking i'm sort of losing my mind

[badvibes]

this part of my plan has my friends thinking i'm sort of losing my mind

dude you're way over-thinking why your friends think what they do.....

[yorker]

paint it pink!

[scott]

thanks Badvibes. i can always count on you to point out that i have given my friends infinant reasons to question my sanity.

York, you first

[yorker]

I think I am going with white, cooler- Desert pink has been done before though.

[Momo]

The problem with Mexican Brown is that it's not all that brown, but not all that tan either. It's fairly reminiscent of the contents of a full diaper.

If you want a nice military-ish earth tone, there are some really nice vintage VW colors that would probably look great on a Land Rover.