Ned - As a bit of interesting additional info, I've found the Guardsman Blue that AC used was also unique, ie, different than the Ford (US) counterpart. I purchased small quantities of Guardsman Blue paint mixed by distributors of each of the current US paint manufacturers and had sample panels sprayed for comparison to the original paint left on my car and they were all noticeably off. Here is a comparison of what is typically available against the original:
http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/s...=56684&cat=500 The tints will change at different angles, as you can see away from the center of the flash the original color is closer to the new sample spray. Yes, you can get batch-to-batch variations, but the colors are enough different at to warrant further investigation. Heck, is there any car out there that still has the complete intact Guardsman Blue paint?......I figure while I have something to go by I might as well make the best of it before it's sanded off and gone forever. I tracked down the original paint type and manufacturer in the UK (supported by a number of SA records and helped in part by some info that Jim Maxwell had) and the following scenario seemed to have played out:
1) Shelby's people gave AC info on colors that they would like the Cobras painted,
2) AC engaged their supplier in the UK to replicate those colors based on what info they were supplied,
3) AC's supplier came up with their own representation which in the case of Guardsman Blue was listed by this paint manufacturer as an "AC Cars" only color from 1965-'68.
SA documentation shows that Shelby did import at least some paints from AC, apparently necessary to get a proper match when locally repairing cars for transport damage (as we know, was not all that rare!). SA painters obviously procured and mixed paints locally in many instances also, so cars like comp and SC 427 cars may not have matched their AC painted street counterparts exactly, even when they were called the same color (although one might surmise the SA painters probably had enough experience with the AC colors to regularly make their paint match better than the off-the-shelf supplier colors). Anyway, just thought it would be interesting to share that Guardsman Blue Cobra color was distinct from Ford Guardsman Blue.