Does anyone know what the shade of gray is for Aldershot Grey Metallic which is the original paint code 162 on my 51 or seen a car with this colour. I believe my car has had a paint over with another shade of gray and I would like to restore it back to the original colour. Neither GM or Dupont in Canada could help me with the paint chips for this paint code. Apparently it was a specialty colour according to Dupont and there was no records kept with the formula.
I've got lots of experience in this field having done restorations with tring to find an original color. There are a number of ways of doing this.
1. find a part on the interior in pristine original condition. ie dash, glove box, inside trunk, etc. must be flat with no chips etc. Get a spectrophotometer camera shot oif it which will get you bang on or close. Paint the car complete noone is going to know.
2. Dupont website has a website that has antique colors swatches. you might bew able to get the dupont code and get your supplier to ask dupont to upgrade the formula into todays' paint line of your choice. I would suggest waterborne, spray that and you won't spray anything else.
3. Ask other paint lines you might be surprised with what you find.
4. Get a paint chip book and start finding chips that match. (usually most common but time consuming and a guess at that)
5.Dupont has a world color chip book that is like going to buy house paint where the chips are organized by color and not make, model, year. Real nice for finding a color.
The factory way back then had very poor color match to the chip/code to begin with, what did they care, they were spraying the car complete and so are you. No guy is going to be able to tell you it is the wrong color. If you want, keep proof of it, with a picture of your sprayout card compared to the original paint.
Good luck
I enclosed a pic that was done of a 55 fargo I did with the camera and it was a bang on match I have a pic or the spray out card just not with me here on this computer.
Hi Laurentian....I did exactly what you said. I found the original paint under the 6" chrome strip running down the truck and took a spectrophotometer camera shot of it and got the colour match. I'm just waiting to compare it to the original colour chip I sent away for from Ken McGee Autobooks. I also found out that it was a Sherwin Williams colour not a Dupont colour, even thou GM said it was Dupont.
Compare your sprayed and cleared sample to the car. That is what the camera is trying to match.
As far as the paint brand used on vehicles changes every time a paint company can offer a better deal to the manufacturer. Today there are multiple paint companies spraying different types of the same body style depnding on when and where the vehicle is made. Ie ext cab pickup in Texas and regular cab in Michigan both made in January will have different paint manufacturer's product on them. On any of today's color book chip there can be over 60 variants of which we only get to see at most popular even or eight. The rest are hidden in the computer only accessible by the camera.
Don't be surprised if the camera gives you a formula for '87 range rover(eg.). It is choosing the best match and then tweaking it to your color. The colors on the Fargo pic I sent previously are from (Grey) Volks code 97d5 and (Green) Peugeot 7m. These were tweaked by the camera and were a perfect match.
Furthermore the color book chips then and for the most part today are INK REPRESENTATIONS, not actual paint samples. Back then as you know there was only maybe two silvers, three blues etc. and very easy to find which color was on your car. My advise after that long explanation is, compare the card to the car.
Good Luck A complete always matches Below is my car 70 Impala Rag top (my Mom's First car and My Wedding Car)
-- Edited by Laurentian on Tuesday 27th of July 2010 10:58:21 AM
-- Edited by Laurentian on Tuesday 27th of July 2010 11:47:44 AM
