Look closely at the original paint and it might be more of an orange color than the ’58 and older Gas Tank Red. I think OMC called this color Cavalier Red and it was used for many years. I’ve seen ’59 tanks with both colors so it might have been a transition year for the paint colors used on the tanks.

Under Evinrude, these guys show Gas Tank Red for ’49 – ’58 and ’59 and up so there must be two different shades.

http://nymarine.ca/

http://nymarine.ca/colours.html

Huh? I don’t sell paint so you might have got it from Peter at the link I provided.

I found this post on another site and the guy says he used PPG “Paxton/Urbana School Bus Orange” on his tanks. It looks very similar to the orangie 59 and later Gas Tank Red I had mentioned earlier. The tank in this photo is a single line tank so it shouldn’t really have the ’58 decals on it.

https://fiberglassics.com/forum/main-forum/86223-old-evinrude-johnson-omc-gas-tanks.html

Most of these tanks were painted with automotive base/clear which is fuel proof and the rest were painted with engine enamel, which is pretty tough to when it has fully cured.