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Paint Colors for Classic cars from the 20's and 30's

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  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Middleburg Heights
Paint Colors for Classic cars from the 20's and 30's
Posted by JimD007 on Monday, July 3, 2023 1:10 PM

Does anyone have ideas on what company I could use to closely match the body colors for cars from the 1920's and 1930's.  Mainly interested in the colors for the following car companies:

Auburn

Cord

Duesenberg

Packard

Stutz

Pierce-Arrow

 

TIA

 

Jim

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  • Member since
    November 2018
Posted by oldermodelguy on Tuesday, July 4, 2023 3:46 AM

What I do is get the color charts then closely match in acrylic, most often mixing a tweak into it myself. But you can get a dealer to mix PPG or Ditzler paint as well. A lot of those old cars use Dupont Duco paint, no longer made. If you can get a good sized screen shot of the chips MCW can probably mix the color for you in either lacquer or enamel. As mentioned I mostly use acrylics now.

Napa store can mix the same way, a sample bottle you need to thin yourself with the cost being around $12 for an oz or two of paint. MCW is pre mixed for lacquer, mix the enamel yourself for about the same cost as Napa but shipping tips the scale big time.

I've spent 8 years perfecting acrylic airbrushing. The old car colors aren't too difficult as they for the most part are not metallic. And buffed up Createx 4050 clear looks an awful lot like nicely buffed lacquer. Still sometimes you hit on some enamels you can mix up easy or see a spray can of Rustoleum 2X you can decant, use a bit more thinner in it and airbrush that.

Here is one example of color chart for 1929 Pierce Arrow, you will need to click the link to get the entire picture: https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedisplay.cgi?make=Pierce-Arrow&rows=50

If you search around at that page you can find more years, more car manufacturers etc. I got there though by simply typing into my browser Color Charts Pierce Arrow. I've done it 100 times if once for 1940's cars, model A's 34 Fords and so on, so knew the page to look for next.

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: USA
Posted by keavdog on Tuesday, July 4, 2023 3:28 PM

Check out MCW

https://mcwfinishes.com/shop

 

Thanks,

John

  • Member since
    March 2022
  • From: Twin cities, MN
Posted by missileman2000 on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 7:22 AM

I would guess auto paint companies would have packard colors if you are willing to try lacquers.  I use Auto spray touchup cans a lot on model cars.  Even if I caan't get an exact match, because there many colors available I can usually find close-enough.

  • Member since
    November 2018
Posted by oldermodelguy on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 2:17 PM
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