Notice the original paint vs. the mis-colored respray
Here’s an image of what the original “playmate pink” on a ford mustang looked like. This photo was taken during the current dismantling and restoration of my 1965 convertible.
When I compare this original paint to 1957 Ford Thunderbird color charts from Ditzler, the color matches up perfectly to Ford’s Dusk Rose.
It’s my belief that the color on the early 1965/1966 “playmate pink” mustangs was in fact Ford Dusk Rose, but because it was not on any paint charts in the mid ’60’s, combined with the hype that came with the playboy giveaway, the “playmate pink” term has gained popularity in popular terminology and led to confusion as to what the original “pink” actually was on the early Mustangs.
Recent research has brought up another color possibility for the 65/66 pink mustangs. As soon as I have more information, I will post it up here.
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You really have a beautiful mustang! This dusk rose color is just beautiful! I really enjoyed reading your posts!
Cheers
I don’t know a whole lot about the 65/66 Mustangs, but I do know that there was some question as to if Ford actually call play boy pink, playboy pink in 67 because they were a very modest company in the 60’s or if all pink Mustangs in 67 were Dusk Rose. Well I just seen a 1967 Playboy pink Mustang this weekend and I can tell you the colors are definitely different. My Dusk Rose Mustang is a lot lighter in color and has more lavender tones to it. The Playboy is more like a Pepto Bismol pink. I was also told that the only year Ford used Dusk Rose on a Mustang was in 1967. Although The later part of 1966 one was able to order Dusk Rose on there Mustang because the 1967 colors were available. As far as 65 Mustangs that I have seen in pictures the pink has been a lot paler in color than the Dusk Rose.
I don’t think there’s any question regarding the name “playboy pink” or “playmate pink”. The names were never officially used by Ford, period. I’ve heard the modesty argument in the past, but true or not, it’s subjective. Even if the company ever had any interest in the name, they would have needed to license the name from Playboy. If you recall Ford was too cheap to license the name “Mustang” in Germany back in 1965, and instead sold the Mustang’s as Ford T-5’s.
The terms “Playboy Pink” and “Playmate Pink” are used to differentiate the paint colors that ford offered from 1965-1968 that were never formally listed or named in the paint charts. The Playboy color was 1967-1968, and was much closer to Pepto Bismol pink, like you said.
You are right that Dusk Rose was only used in 1967, at least officially. There are 1967 dusk rose cars that were not given paint codes, however. These cars can be easily confused without a Marti Report to verify the paint code properly.
So, with the 1965-1966 pink (playmate), there is a lot of dispute regarding the legitimate color. Because I have one stripped down to original paint at the moment, I am working to show the original paint decisively. Bear in mind that the paint for special order colors was acrylic, tended to fade, and original paint cars look ligter now then when they came out of the factory. There have also been several inaccurate restorations of 1965/1966 cars. Joyce Epperson did a great resto on her 1966, but her paint is lighter than dusk rose, and that may be due to the fact that her car was rescued from years of neglect in a junkyard and she did not have a great source to match a paint sample to.
There were also 3 cars painted in unique “Tussy Pink” lipstick shades, I don’t know that they have ever been found, but I know of a few people that have painted to try and match those shades.
The question that needs to be asked is did Ford mix a special acrylic enamel paint for their ‘65/’66 Mustangs that was never in any paint books, or did they use their 1950’s acrylic enamel dusk rose without publishing the name until mid-1967? My suspicion is the latter, having worked on 1950’s dusk rose cars in addition to this 1965 pink mustang.