What were the original 72 factory paint jobs like

[IT Cowboy]

My 72 c10 has a lot of orange peel to it and it was painted with acrylic enamel and it has scribbling of numbers on the firewall. It was re-painted about 10 years ago and I am wondering if the person who did it was trying to recreate the original factory look and finish. The factory used single stage but how rough were the finished and gloss, according to ChatGPT they were shiny but not glossy and had orange peel to then.

I doubt there are too many original survivor trucks with nice paint as I guess that single stage would wear quickly. I am wondering if maybe some of the older members here can tell me what the finishes were like. I am being indecisive and might leave mine alone and not wet sand it out.

There is an auto museum near me though that might have some nice original vehicles from the 70s. I wonder did GM not put as much effort in the truck paint line and process


Edit

I found the Martin Auto Museum site and they have several pics. If you zoom in these look like they have a lot of peel and are not really reflective finishes. You can see the lights reflect but you can’t see the light fixture. One post I found said that for a while some car shows were handing out trophies to some cars with orange peel finishes IDK?

[IT Cowboy]

Saturday I did quite a bit of cleaning and repair to my paint. I used an iron remover and clay bar to decontaminate it and then I used a cleaning compound with a random orbital polisher to revitalize the paint and bring out some shine. I do not have pics but what surprised me is that the truck color looks quite a bit lighter now and is like the first pic above and it looks like its factory light yellow paint code. I think the paint was pretty dry and just tired and the previous owner never polished or waxed it.

I put a coat of OptiSeal on it with a top coat of Collinite wax and it looks and feels much better now. It has a bit of reflection and is shiny but not glossy like a modern truck.

[scott123]

My buddy runs his own body shop and for years and years he (and his father) would say this 'paint job is slicker than factory'.

As a young person I thought he was basically bragging about his work but years later I learned he was mostly talking about the orange peel and 'imperfections' from the factories way back when.

Scott