What does it mean when the paint code is blank?

The area for paint code on the cowl tag is blank. I know the car was ordered with a special Bronze Red color. Was this common with special colored cars? And how do I find the correct color when it's not on their stock chip chart?

 

David,

Isn't yours color code "Q", Fire Glow Orange Poly, or something like that?

 

I'll take a snap of it tomorrow. But the paint code spot on the tag is blank. I just went out there with a flash light and checked again. There is the 2 dashes but no letters or numbers next to them. weird. o No:

Decoding body tags.

 

Here's the cowl tag and there is no paint code letters or numbers where they belong. You can see the dash marks where it's suppose to be. Hopefully someone here may know how they painted special order cars. I looked for the build sheet in the car and haven't found it yet. I need to take the back seat out and see if it's there. Might shed some light on this.

 

David,

what does the tag say after the "TR 188"?? I can't quite make it out. is it 880?

Thanks, Chris

 

It says B80. And the description in the tag decoder says thats the seat configuration.

I just found the rear end stamp. Driver side tube underside about halfway between the cast and the spring holder. Has an LB. 10 bolt 2.93 rear which most had.

 

Another view.

 

Another thing I'd like to know Chris is what that hand stamped number "2" is for. Right above the BDY PNT. I've look at all the cowl tag pics on that other thread and none of them has any hand stamps.


Curious and curiouser. o No:

But I love a mystery. :laugh:

 

SHEEEEETT! I Found The Build SHEET!!! Clipped to the Back SEAT!!! :laugh:

OK.. It says:

SEQ NO. S/T 434
MODEL 4463
TRIM 188

77 B
78 E
79 KBK
83 CB
84 CF
85 BXTO
86 BTL Or BTC

SERIAL NO. 3799

A OPTIONS 51

D OPTIONS 33 55

TRANSMISSION 40

 

From my days in working in a corvette restoration shop, here is what I remember:

GM would allow you to special order colors on a car if you paid for all or most of the car in advance. If you did special order the car you could have any color in the GM paint book or you could order the car in primer for the dealer to paint (GM for a while in the mid 1970s didn't paint corvettes black even by special order). Dealers didn't usually paint the hard to reach jambs of the cars when this was done (because they didn't disassemble the cars) so they are easy to tell from special order GM paint applied at the factory. Depending on the plant the tag would be either blank, stamped with dashes, or stamped with two X's. Most examples of cars I have seen painted special order have used cadillac colors, as Cadillac did not to share a lot of paint colors with the other general motors brands. The problem with special order paint colors is unless you know the history of the car, there is no way I know of to tell what the original paint was. In the case where you have the color but don't know where it came from, know that GM 90% of the time limited their special order paint to what was available from other GM lines (so the paint could be shipped fast and not disturb the assembly line), rarely, in the case of cars built for GM executives who had access to the design studio paint center, would they go outside their own paint book for custom mixed colors. If you are trying to find out what the color on you car presently is (provided you can prove it's the original paint) I would look at the Cadillac, pontiac, or Oldsmobile color guides as that is your best bet. They aren't many paints that aren't shared between the different brands (chevy, olds, buick, pontiac) so your search isn't going to be over a lot of different paints. Sometimes special order paints used paint from a previous year for sale to the public so check prior years as well. If you think the car was made for someone at GM check the previous years and next years model's paint books as well, as sometimes GM execs would use the leftover paint or paint that wasn't set to be released till next year. A special order paint outside of the GM catalog isn't proof of the car being owned by a GM exec, but it would real rare for something like that to go to the public.

 

I don't know that much about build sheets but that looks like the interior broadcast sheet - used by the assmebly line workers when installing the interior, not the build sheet which I think are printed (or computer generated) and not hand written.

 

Thanks GEETO..

The car is a repaint about 10-12 years ago. (Chris can probably attest to this because he's seen the car up close..) But it was done with the same color and a very nice job at that.

You can tell it was originally a factory job and same color because of the black over spray onto the inside front fenders.

But you've given us another avenue of investigation and for that I am very greatful.

Thanks

David

PS.. You're right about the sheet. It is the trim sheet. I have never seen one so I assumed it was the build sheet. Oh Well I'll keep lookin' :laugh:

 

1970 Opel had a Coppor Bronze Poly

It's close but I can't tell. What do you guys think?

 

top of the gas tank is a place to look. seen a few there on Gm cars.

 

I think it looks close, but you can't always tell from the computer, I think you would need to go to your local paint supplier and hope he kept his GM books around (some do) and look at it in person. GM didn't like releasing colors a year before their regular production to the public, the public would not have any way of knowing about that color anyway, so there is the potential that the color was chose by a GM insider or dealer with clout, or that the color doesn't match. It is unlikely that an executive would order a car with a special color and not have it fully loaded as well (since they got the cars for next to nothing anyway), so I doubt it is the 1970 opel color.

Chris brought up an interesting point in suggesting that your paint might be Q code Fire Glow orange. The paint book lists this color as a mid year introduction. As I understand it, it was uncommon for GM to introduce a color mid season unless there was a problem with the paint supply. It could be that your car was an early Fire Glow Orange car, sprayed before GM had an assembly line code for it, or possibly as a test car for the paint. This too would be difficult to document.

What you need to do is go to a lot of shows with the car and compare it to other GM cars of a similr vintage and hue. The more original car the better.

You might want to look at the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado Color "Ember Firemist Poly" - It looks a little dark in the chart but I have seen that color in person and it looks similar to your car. Also look at the 1968 Pontiac Color Autumn Bronze Poly.

 

You may be correct. The car was a mid-year delivery. 7-3-69

 

No paint code on the tag indicates it was ordered with a special order color.

Could have been anything, and they were all factory painted cars, as far as the Buicks go.

I know this to be true due to the fact that a good friend of mine worked for one of the biggest metro Buick dealers, and his dad was the GM.. one of his jobs was to order the cars for the dealership's "Rainbow of Colors" promotion they had every spring. They would order all kinds of different colors, some were from other GM cars like Caddy colors, but they also ordered Ford and Mopar colors.. He distincly recalls a Hemi Orange Stage 1 car in 70 or 71..

The trim tag would have the paint code left blank on these cars, and they all were sold to the general public. They weren't just "brass hats" (executive cars) so they were not always loaded to the gills.

The only way to find out what color your car was orginally, would be thru the documentation, or possibly a copy of the orginal order form, if it exists.

JW

 

Thanks Jim.. We're narrowing it down a bit.

 

I had no idea about the ability to order special paint colors from other manufacturer's books but the more I think about it the more It makes sense since the paint would already be prepped in batches and not have to be custom mixed. I'm sorry if I was unclear, I didn't mean to suggest that all special paint cars were "brass hat" cars, in fact very few were, but those few were usually loaded cars, and they would get pre-production or custom mixed colors. There are quite a number of special paint cars but the only one's I have ever seen personally have been chevys and pontiacs, and I have seen at least three cars (all corvettes) that were delivered to the dealer in primer to be painted. I have never seen a mopar color on a GM car that was done at the factory but I don't doubt that it happened, Most of the cars I have seen have been camaros firebirds, chevelles, and GTOs, painted Cadillac colors. Thanks for more info on this....you learn something new everyday.