1966 Sunfire Yellow paint question.

[Mark F.]

Restoring my hardtop and thought it was a shame to put the pieces back together on a so-so paint job. I always wanted to get into painting so thought I would get me feet wet on a small job like my hard top.

Its paint is Sunfire yellow trim tag code 984 and PPG code 81540. Turns out now PPG only offers that paint now in a water base. I was wondering if anyone has used a water base paint on their cars, if they were happy with it and if not what paint would you recommend.

Thanks; Mark

[David H.]

Mark

Possible to get your car to paint store and have them match current paint color?

With partial repaint, new paint color might be different than aged paint color.

Dave

BTW CF "General Corvette Topics - Paint/Body" has a lot of paint information. Searching there may prove helpful. Yellow can give problems. Example: scroll down to "DUB" posts.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...questions.html

[Mark F.]

Hey David. I took my hardtop to the paint store in the back of my pickup. The paint star clerk had a special camera for matching paint color. He came up with a Mazda color of "Honey Yellow".

Not sure I want to do that.

Thanks for the idea, though. Cheers. Mark

[Mark F.]

Mark,

The 1989 NCRS '53-'72 Spec guide lists the following paint codes for your color (984) on page 153:

• DuPont 4711-L
• R-M (Rinshed-Mason) A-1828
• Ditzler (PPG at the time) DDL 81540

[Mark F.]

Thanks Mark F. I will research those manufactures/paint numbers. Cheers. Mark

[Gary B.]

Mark,

David’s point is that using the original paint numbers to mix new paint is guaranteed not to match the rest of the paint on your 59 year old car.

Gary

[Mark F.]

Gary and Dave. If this goes well, I am planning to do the rest of the car. I should have made it more clear in my original post. Thanks for bring it up. Cheers. Mark

[Duke W.]

Mark,

The 1989 NCRS '53-'72 Spec guide lists the following paint codes for your color (984) on page 153:

• DuPont 4711-L
• R-M (Rinshed-Mason) A-1828
• Ditzler (PPG at the time) DDL 81540

These sound like the OE acrylic lacquer numbers. I know DDL is the Ditzler prefix for acrylic lacquer They could be out of production or may not be legal for use, like in California, or paint shops just won't use lacquer anymore. Your choices are single stage paints like acrylic enamel, polyurethane enamels (like Imron) or base coat clear coat systems that are used by most OEMs and are usually water based color coats with a urethane clear coat.

In many cases exact color matches to the old acrylic lacquer may not be possible, and the surface sheen of each is usually different.

If you're looking at an "NCRS" job with minimum deduction you need to do some homework. For example, original lacquer jobs were not buffed out in the door jams or hood gutter but modern single and two stage systems will end up shiny. There are ways to make them look more like lacquer, but you need a painter who understands this AND how NCRS judges paint... preferably a guy with EXPERIENCE!!!

There used to be a "body and paint" contact listed on the inside front cover of The Corvette Restorer, but I don't see anyone listed in the most current issue.

It sounds like you want to attempt to do the job yourself and start with the hardtop as a test case, and then maybe do the whole car. That's a decent plan, but you've got a lot of homework and experimentation to do, and hopefully you can find someone who knows all the tricks to make a modern single or two stage paint process "appear" to be acrylic lacquer if that's the way you decide to go.

If you can still buy the OE lacquer doing the job yourself in the garage is viable because it flashes rapidly, so dust wont' adhere and is forgiving to repair, but I've heard over the past few decades that even if you can get an original code mixed the original pigments may not longer be available and the binders are not as good so the paint is softer and less durable the the original acrylic lacquers from back in the day.

The modern systems are much less forgiving, so you might not get good results without a professional downdraft booth.

Duke

[Thomas H.]

Recently had an experience with trying to match Sunfire Yellow with todays paints. I built the rolling chassis for a 66 L36 car and the body was to be Sunfire Yellow. The painter (very experienced in Corvette painting) had a hard time matching to original overspray sections or color we found inside the car with todays paints and paint codes. We even got John Ballard involved.

After 10+ spray-outs we finally found one that is real close and that is what was sprayed on the car. Many were either too tan, too green or too yellow. What we decided on was just right...... (to our eyes).

The car came out great, but I'd bet if you had five Sunfire Yellow cars all in a row, they'd all be a different shade..........

[Mark F.]

Thanks Duke. Yes, have a lot of homework to do. That is the plan, do the hardtop first, evaluate how that went, lessons learned then decide if I want to hire out the entire car or take it on myself.

Attended a Texas NCRS event in Houston about factory techniques, methods and procedures in the last year or so. I realize you have to more than just attend a seminar to be proficient and am doing homework in all the other areas I can think of. Luckily, I have friend who has painted many cars, (none to NCRS standard) so I have some people sources also.

Will post some pictures of the hardtop when I get it done, may be a while though.

Got to run, taking the hardtop to a recommended paint store after dropping my daughter off at school.

Thanks for your help. Mark

[Mark F.]

[QUOTE After 10+ spray-outs we finally found one that is real close and that is what was sprayed on the car. Many were either too tan, too green or too yellow. we decided on was just right...... ([/QUOTE]

Thanks Tom. I appreciate what you went through. I was wondering if you have the manufacture name and number (I believe they call the number an "off-set") of the final paint you were happy with. If you have it, I can go get a color sample to confirm. For the hardtop I am planning a quart and so far, PPG Deltron (sp) is what I am thinking of using. Its $300 a quart so want to avoid resprays if possible.

Thanks Mark

[Patrick H.]

After 10+ spray-outs we finally found one that is real close and that is what was sprayed on the car. Many were either too tan, too green or too yellow. What we decided on was just right...... (to our eyes).

We tried about 30 (3 paint companies, 10 tests each) for a 1963 in Silver Blue. None of them was close to the repaint on the car we were trying to fix.
Finding the right one can be frustrating.

[Thomas H.]

I'll check with the car owner, who dealt directly with the painter, and see if he will share his "formulation".

Tom

[Mark F.]

Thanks Pat and Tom. Took the hardtop down to a paint store that supplies the paint for a large corvette painting shop in Houston and using their "off set" got something that looked exactly like the painted underside of the hardtop once the weather stripping was removed. Will go with that. Turned out it was a Mercedes color Brand code 27912, OEM code DB691. According to the paint store has to be painted with a white sealer first then base coat over that to get the correct color. I will post pictures once done. Thanks for everyone's help.

[Duke W.]

What manufacturer and paint type?

Duke