Orginal Paint Color

Is there a way to tell what the orginal color of a 1974 CJ-5 was by its VIN? The past owner of the CJ I am going to have restored said it was orginally a brown/tan color. It is now a metallic chocolate brown. Is there a part number/paint spec/color number that would get me the orignal color?

 

Not sure what year it changed, but by 1977 the paint and trim code were part of the VIN plate. If 1974 has this too, the middle number will be the paint code. If the older style VIN plate, there'll be a separate paint&trim plate on the PS firewall. Then look here http://autocolorlibrary.com/cgi-bin/search/searchpic.pl?1974-jeep-pg01.jpg - no metallic brown that year, although there was an attractive "Copper Poly" (Poly == metallic).

 

On the plate mounted on the firewall their is a trim code. I think it is a 3 digit number. You cross reference this number to the service manual for 74 (their is a list of codes and there corresponding colors in the manual). I did this on my 74 CJ5 and my color was Jet set Blue. The bottom line is the color definitely can be determined from the firewall plate. If you want get me the number and I will get you the color as I still have my service manual.