Colors of the Bumpside F-100

The factory palette for the bumpside generation

Ford's color offerings across the 1967-72 F-100 run changed from year to year: the 1970 chart, for example, included Harbor Blue, Sky View Blue, Boxwood Green, Yucatan Gold, Mojave Tan, Candyapple Red, Wimbledon White, and Raven Black. Two-tone combinations were available as well, and factory two-tones were finished with trim along the beltline to cover the point where the two colors met. For the broader history of how the generation developed alongside these color options, the full story of the 1967-72 F-100 covers the full context.

Factory two-tone schemes included one with white above the trim and the main color below, and a simpler one with a contrasting roof, and Ford offered this combination across multiple trim levels rather than restricting it to the top-tier Ranger XLT. That accessibility meant even a modestly optioned Custom cab could leave the factory looking sharp, provided the original buyer checked the right box on the order form.

Reading a truck's paint history

Original paint, where it survives under a layer of primer or a hasty repaint, often shows up in wheel wells, door jambs, and under the bed rails, spots that later owners rarely bothered to strip when they refreshed the exterior. I check these areas first on any truck I am asked to evaluate, because a jamb color that does not match Ford's documented palette for a given year is the fastest tell that a truck has been repainted, sometimes more than once, without any record of the change.

Fading complicates this detective work considerably. A green that spent forty years under direct sun can shift enough that it reads as a completely different shade than what left the factory, and I have seen owners genuinely convinced their truck wore an off-catalog custom color when it was simply a documented factory hue that had faded and oxidized over decades of exposure.

"You can tell more about a truck's honesty from the paint in the door jamb than from anything the seller tells you on the phone."

- Jim Vasquez

Repaints, fleet colors, and spotting a mismatch

One of the more common issues I run into is a truck that left the factory in one color and was later repainted in a shade the owner liked better decades ago. This kind of repaint is not malicious, usually just a previous owner chasing a color they liked better, but it does mean the truck's current finish tells a different story than its original build sheet. A careful buyer checks both the visible paint and any surviving documentation before assuming the two agree.

Spotting a mismatch takes practice, but the tell is usually consistency. A factory paint job, even faded, shows uniform wear and color transition across every panel because it was all sprayed at the same facility under the same conditions. A later repaint, even a good one, almost always shows subtle differences in texture or gloss between panels that were masked separately, especially around trim pieces and door jambs that a repaint shop might rush through compared to the visible exterior surfaces.

What matters to buyers chasing originality

A truck wearing its original factory color, even in worn condition, generally carries more value among serious collectors than a truck resprayed in a color that never appeared on Ford's period order sheet, regardless of how good the newer paint job looks. That preference runs counter to how a lot of casual buyers think about classic trucks, since a fresh, glossy repaint often looks more impressive at first glance than a faded original finish. Collectors who understand the generation know better, and they will pay accordingly for documented originality.

For anyone shopping with color authenticity in mind, cross-referencing a truck's paint code plate against Ford's published palette for the specific model year is worth the extra effort before committing to a purchase. Buyers can start that search by looking to classic F-100 for sale listings and asking sellers directly whether they have documentation for the paint code, since that single question filters out a surprising number of trucks with undisclosed repaints.

None of this is about chasing perfection for its own sake. A truck that has been honestly repainted in a close but not exact color, with the change disclosed, is still a good buy for plenty of owners who just want a solid driver. The distinction matters most at the top end of the market, where documented originality separates a genuinely correct show truck from a good-looking truck wearing a story nobody can verify.

Sources and notes

• 10 Best Ford F-100 Colors
• Ford F-100 Paint Codes (1948-1984)
• History of the Bumpside: 1967-1972 Ford F-Series Trucks
• 1967-1972 Ford F-100 Bumpside Identification and Builder's Guide
• 1972 Ford F-100 factory color example - autoevolution

Updated November 4, 2026: Corrected: the color table now lists actual Ford factory colors (such as Harbor Blue, Boxwood Green, Yucatan Gold, and Mojave Tan) instead of generic names, and two-tone trucks are described as divided at the body-side trim. Removed claims about fleet and regional color preferences.