Hey guys, How many Cat yellows have there been? What years were they all switched around?
As far as I know, there were only two different yellows. The old yellow was close in color to what most other machinery manufacturers used, I think it was called Highway Yellow. The current color has a little bit of brown in it which sets Cat apart from the other brands. Don't know exactly when the change took place, I think some time during the 70s.
Cat Paint ? The Old Caterpillar HYway Yellow is a lead based paint. Marigold Yellow is a close kin. That is the reason they switched to an unleaded based paint. Hence the New Caterpillar Yellow, sometimes referred to as Mustard Yellow. The Cat D10, 245, 14G,D9L, D8K,etc. were all painted in OLD Cat Yellow. There was a gradual shift to the New Cat Yellow. I can't find an exact time or date, but 1980's ?????? :beatsme
Cat Paint ? Here is the dates Caterpillar Hyway yellow was used. This is from ACMOC.org
Funny what a guy gets used to, As Northart said when they took the lead out they couldn't match the highway yellow with the lead absent. We all thought the new yellow was butt ugly, now every so often you see a machine with the old yellow and it looks odd the new yellow looks fine :beatsme
I used the color "Old Cat Yellow" to paint my dozer a year or so ago. It wasn't a lead based paint. I don't really think that taking the lead out of the paint made it impossible to match the old color. More likely a marketing "upgrade" based on user group feedback, branding studies and other such corporate tools. ointhead