60 Paint colors - metallic or non-metallic

[Keith R.]

Re: 60 Paint colors - metallic or non-metallic

Thanks all for your advice and pics. That really helps me with "the detective work". I did manage to speak today with a past owner of the car who purchased it back in the 70's and it came to him in white with silver coves. He said that it had been repainted white to hide body flaws since it had been hit low in the front. He proceeded to sand down the paint and recalls seeing black and red paint underneath. He believes that the combination was a black body with red inserts and was told at that time it was a very rare combination. He claimed that I should be able to get the original factory paint combo by tracking the VIN number but I didn't want to argue with him. By the way, I thought I was on to something by pulling off a wheel weight off the rim to discover the body color however I ran across a photo of the car from 1981 in my files and it shows the car with late model rally wheels. He hunted down some replacement rims so that theory went out the window.

The JM says that exceptions to the standard color combinations can be made only with thorough factory documentation. My questions are: did the factory keep any records at all of vehicles with unusal color combinations? If I do happen to discover the factory crayon colors, is that good enough to support the unorthodox color combo for judging purposes? And finally, did the factory crayon marks specify cove color?

[Edward L.]

Re: 60 Paint colors - metallic or non-metallic

The crayon markings specified the exterior color of the car. If the car was to have the hardtop option, that would also be noted. For example, Red/HT.

The cove color, if it was to be different, was not indicated.

Ed

[Garry B.]

Re: 60 Paint colors - metallic or non-metallic

Unfortunately there are no records to verify how you car was originally equipped or what color it was. The only two colors listed as factory "cove" color were Sateen Silver or body color. To my knowledge red was never listed as a cove color choice. Could the red the previous owner spoke of be in fact the red oxide primer under the black paint?

Are you looking to take this car through high level judging? If so, unless you find the crayon markings in the back that shows a body paint color different than Black, I would stick with standard colors of black with either black or siver coves. I don't believe that you will ever find proof enough to show that it came from the factory with red coves.

When it is all said and done, make it the color you want if you don't plan to have it judged. If you do, pick from what was available and be proud that you researched as deeply as possible. Does it have it's original drivetrain? That would make the decision much easeir. Good luck!

[Keith R.]

Re: 60 Paint colors - metallic or non-metallic

Thanks to all for your input. Finally pulled out a quarter and found the crayon markets on the rear divider and behind the passenger seat - "Black" and "HT" respectively. The interior of the center console (glove box) is also black. I truly appreciate everyone's help. All we have to decide now is the cove and softtop colors. My question now is if the interior color was black and exterior black, were they different shades of black??

[Ted S.]

Re: 60 Paint colors - metallic or non-metallic

Both would be the same shade of black. The only difference is the exterior got polished and the interior didn't.