Hey guys, I'm trying to find some paint help, and have posted this over on PY forums in the hope a Catalina guy has some suggestions, So I just copied and pasted it here,
Any ideas of what I should do? What have you done when looking for that certain colour?
Currently in the process of restoring the blue interior in my 65 Canadian Pontiac Laurentian 2 door sedan. Almost identical to the USA Catalina, interior wise. Interior is completely out, seats are getting done. I'm now trying to match up the interior blue paint, and I'm having a tough time. Been to two paint shops for spray can mix, and they can't quite get this blue correct (or even close). Using a reader at one shop (off the glovebox door), paint chips at the other. 4 cans into it now and getting frustrated. I'll keep trying but this is getting expensive.
The idea is to match to the blue that is on the kick panels, door and rear panels. Will be painting the lower and sides of the dash frame, steering column collars, glovebox and ashtray door and window trim. The GM Pontiac Catalina brochure states it as being "83 Blue" in the 2 and 4 door sedan. It's really a distinctive bright silver blue. Quite brilliant. Could it be a blue that was used for many different models through the 60's?
Does anyone know if there is a factory colour that could be suggested that would work here? Or an available off the shelf colour from a vendor? I see Ames has a VDM12 "Light Blue" and VMD14 "Bright blue", and I'm contemplating trying these.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Images below are taken from the web, but they illustrate what I have, Cheers and Thanks, Mark
Mark, I can't say for certain but I think your interior colour is identical to mine. When I put in the floor shift column I got from Ken Yackimec I needed to match it so I took my glove box door to Rondex in Winnipeg. Do you guys have Rondex there? If so, this will help. I got the can from Rondex and sprayed my column. The colour matched 100% perfect. I could not tell the difference between my 3 speed steering column and my floor shift steering column when I set them side by side. I had a great fear it was always going to bother me because my column would not be a proper colour match but I couldn't be happier.
One thing the body shop did whe spraying my dash was to add a "difuser" to cut down the glare off the dash. It did tone it down but it still has not been entirely satisfactory.
Try a paint store and take some interior colour pieces just to get a code.
Wow, you might be onto something Carl! I was sure you had a Teal interior?
Not sure, but if I can find a Rondex here, then this might be it.
I have since learned that 65-66 Pontiac's with the Medium Blue Poly interior, aka Fontaine Blue Poly (probably USA and Cdn), use the Ditzler code 13006, DuPont 4630-L (as crossed on the chevelle page)
I guess that's the code, I don't know. I would think if you show them that picture it must help them mix it. Look at this shot of mine, it's the same as your's is it not?
And ignore the column vs dash hue in this picture, it must be the angle or something. At any rate, when I had both columns on the floor you could not tell them apart.
I tried the reader route on the glovebox door George. The staff were really helpful, it was close, but It came out just a little too grey. Could have (probably should have) tried again, but went the chip route at that point.
And the interior paint is faded for sure. The car sat outside uncovered for almost 20 years.
The Rondex route looks promising.
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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT.
For sure, I hope that works out for you. If I had enough here I would just mail it to you but I have about a 1/4 of a can left. But for me it was perfect, I hope it is for you too.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Went to Rondex this morning. Got a can mixed in the Carl formula.
Looks nice. More silver, brighter and reflective than the original, but will work very well. Painted the ashtray face. I've found you cannot compare colours side by side. You must paint an entire surface edge to edge to really see what you have.
On it's own... the ashtray face looks awesome! Placed it in the opening in the dash, and this colour will look sweet. Thanks again Carl!
The faded glovebox cover on the right shows the test areas past. The upper is the latest. So you can see how a side by each comparo can't really tell you anything. It just seems to confuse your mind. Every change in angle and light and it's a different colour. The image doesn't show how blue the new colour really is.