Carolina Blue
 

Anyone that remembers a previous post about my Chevelle, it's originally Carolina Blue.
I'm painting a 72 El Camino now and I think I see a window of opportunity to get one of my own in the booth soon. So at the paint store yesterday I was discussing my options. Of course no one out here in Arizona seems to have heard of the color, and the paint store that has been in business for decades of course has never had the need to mix that color. Obviously there is no paint code on the car.

Anyone have a good known paint code from any brand of paint that is a good starting point? Or someone that has painted Carolina blue that knows a paint code used? I primarily use BASF products here so I can cross reference just about any brand. Mix formulas are different among the brands but would at least get me close.

My only other option would be to recover a good section of color left on the car and have them color match it. I'm trying to avoid that option for a couple reasons. One, I don't know yet if I can recover the paint left that would be good enough for a match, or whether it would be on a piece small enough to leave at the paint store. Second, they take FOR EVER to do any color matching of any kind. Last time I did that for a customer it was a month before they finally got something for me. So the wait time is ridiculous and something I don't really have time for. So I really prefer to avoid this route at all costs. If I get a window, chances are it'll be a small one and I can't waste time getting the car done with paying jobs waiting.

Thanks,
Larry

How about Duke blue ? :eek:


Discussed here -> https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=80500

.

Thanks for the link. Seems there are quite a few people that can't agree on what Carolina Blue looks like and quite a few paint codes thrown around.
I'll have to research some of those codes and see if I can come up with a match.

For the record, that 70 Chevelle in that thread is the "exact" same shade of blue on my 72 Chevelle. I have - - for a paint code, I've always known it to be a special order paint car (bought it when it was 15 years old), just never cared what it might of been till now.

I've found several areas of nicely preserved original paint that is not faded (under the original door jamb stickers for instance)
That is definitely the correct shade of Carolina Blue. Mine was sold new in Winston Salem, NC at Modern Chevrolet.

I just really prefer to not go through a custom color match deal with the paint store and would rather present a code that will get them there.

FWIW....

paintref.com/colorcodedisplay.cgi?color=Carolina Blue

And....

paintref.com/cgi-bin/year=1969 model=Chevelle

That second link might be what I needed, thanks John.

I see Carolina Blue listed with the old Dupont number 926-98371

That's the same code found on the buildsheet of the 70 Chevelle that rlw68 linked to. Just so happens I have a big picture of that car I can blow up and it visually appears exactly like the blue on my 72. So I'm pretty confident that is the shade I need, and I should be able to cross over that old Dupont number.

:biggthumpup:

I had a LS6 that color and I think the build sheet had it as a Cadillac blue ?

I have a copy of the sheet somewhere.

Found it.

Charley, is this the same color?

This sounds like the LS6 I seen at Legendary Motorcar years ago? I thought it was a survivor car original paint! Was told it was 1 of 2 Carolina Blue LS6 produced.

Thanks Charley. That's the Dupont paint code written on your build sheet I think I'll try to use since the color of that car looks identical to mine.

What do you think the A.L. means??

And thanks Mr. Stewart for the pictures. You always seem to dig that stuff up.
The picture of the 69 Camaro and that 70 Chevelle look spot on. The blue I can see on mine is such a light blue I almost mistook it for a primer, almost a robin egg shell blue. The Pontiac looks to be a shade darker.

You cannot use pics and monitors to accurately evaluate color.
Have some mixed and see if it matches your car. Or have your paint scanned and see what it really is.
There's also a Buick Azure Blue, code 80, that was used.

Thanks Kurt,

As long as that Dupont number can be crossed I can have them mix a small amount for a spray out. Only thing I'm worried about is that some old numbers like that they have been unable to find or work with in the past. Fingers crossed.

At this point, I don't know if they can scan it, what I have showing are in precarious spots. The door jamb would be the best bet as I slightly peeled back the original tire/load decal to reveal the blue behind it. I haven't peeled it back enough for a scan, just some photos for myself to document this thing as I go. I've sent a few pictures to a friend that posts here, and have had a few others actually look at the color in person.

I've known of this for quite a while but didn't really put it all together till recently when I sent out for the NCRS, after almost 35 years of ownership lol, and found the car sold new in Winston Salem. I had my suspicions though, I found the car in Charlotte back then. - - on the cowl tag so I always knew is was a special paint car. Put 2 and 2 together and realized I've been looking at Carolina Blue.

I'll document more of the car when I tear into it with plenty of pictures, and hope that I can find a large enough section to reveal that I can polish up for good photos and color matching before I completely strip it, but I'm 100% sure at this point that's what I have.

Same car but transporter leaked brake fluid on the orig paint so they added stripes.

It’s definitely worth shooting test cards until you get something you’re happy with, modern paint technology won’t look like it originally did, even with the same mixing code.

That's why I really prefer to use the BASF products when it comes to original colors and paint codes. That's been the best system I've found that really gets the original colors nearly perfect. I also use PPG occasionally but the colors have been hit and miss with that system depending on the color, and sometimes need monkeyed with for good results. Sometimes it's okay. If it needs monkeyed with that opens a can of worms I'll explain in a minute.

With a color like Carolina Blue, with no metallic and kind of a basic pastel color, it shouldn't be too difficult for them as long as that old Dupont number can be found. I can do a spray out with it and most of the time I don't have to change anything.

If it gets into tinting and custom mixing, that's where things get too difficult. Takes these guys way too long and hard to deal with. They just don't like doing it is what it amounts to and I'm not driving 200 miles to the next paint store. It's the only one that supports a quad city area up here, long story.
So if it looks like it's going down that path and we get into custom mixing stuff, there's a good chance I'll skip Carolina Blue and go back to Hugger Orange, lol. That's why I really wanted a code I could start with.

Found this on a 70 from Atlanta. No idea if it's painted correctly but...

I don’t have the FORMULA but here’s the Real 66 SS Carolina Blue I sold. Beautiful and Different color :(

Thanks guys. Boy that sure is a very light blue. I'm trying my best to get used to that, lol.

Both of those look nearly identical to what I'm seeing on mine.
Interesting to see the other Dupont number on a 70 build sheet.
I just read a little bit from Jim Mattison and he states the 926-98371 number was for 69, 71, and 72 only but it is clearly shown on the 70 Chevelle build sheet that Charlie provided. And here we have the 926-96881 on another 70.

Armed with both of those numbers, I'll cross them over and do a spray out on both and see what I come up with. :biggthumpup:

Charlie,
I thought I had saved a picture of that car you had sent me for reference since it is an original paint car. Going back and looking, the only Carolina Blue 70 I have has snow in the back round. I don't think that was yours since we are in Arizona??

Any chance you have a picture of it I can compare?

Here is a link with more information on Carolina blue, along with other special paint colors on A bodys.

http://chevellestuff.net/qd/paintinfo2.htm#:~:text=It's%20known%20that%20code% 20926,of%20'Carolina%20Blue'%20specifically.

I think I owned it before I had a digital camera. Maybe Legendary has it on their site as sold ? Or google the vin ?

There were many different blues used - there wasn't one standard.

This is my ‘70 SS that still wears its original Carolina Blue paint.

I’d be happy to help out however I can.

Thanks Charlie. Yes when I seen it that car was "Carolina" Blue, white top and white strips. Was buried in with a bunch of other stuff, Like the M/T T-Bolt with Hemi heads that they NEVER ran.

Glad to know it was a true story back then. Is that a correct number for Carolina Blue LS6's being 2?

John

I have no idea on that #. I found the orig. owner as his name was on the build sheet. Said he stopped driving the car when he was starting to feel like a criminal as he was buying avgas at the airport and hauling it in 5 gallon cans. He sold it in the late 80's for 6K including a open trailer. At that he asked what I gave for it and 27K did not make him happy as it hadn't been that long. A shame they added the stripes.

Where was it built? AFAIK Atlanta didn't build convertibles in 1970.

That is exactly what I'm seeing on the car. Looks very good on yours with the black top and stripes. Mine being a hardtop and no vinyl top is going to have a lot of blue. I'm not sure at this point if it even had the stripes originally but I'll find out when I start stripping.
I'll shoot you a PM so we can exchange emails. If I could, I'd like to send you a couple pics of small areas orange is peeled away to reveal the blue if you'd like to compare. I've also just recently found blue on the lower portion of the black SS grill behind the front bumper. Someone had brushed black over it. I didn't even realize the bottom of that grill would have been body color but makes sense as it connects to the lower portion of the headlight surrounds.

Okay thanks Charlie, I'm misremembering then. Must have been someone else that sent it to me. The Dupont paint code on your build sheet was the missing link I was looking for though. Big thanks for that :biggthumpup:

Anyone have an idea how they did it at the factory? When a oddball color was picked how would they implement that into production?

Discussed under paint: http://www.camaros.org/assemblyprocess.shtml#fisher

In the interest of parity, I introduce to you.....Azure Blue!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/39...a0083bf469.jpg

Baltimore plant

Interesting.

Looking through the paint codes and formulas, 70 Olds uses a different Dupont number for Azure Blue. Looks like it could be a close version of it.