I took my 71 GS to the body shop last weekend. The owner and myself were looking over the original paint. It looks like GM sprayed a green base coat under the code 53 Cortez Gold. Thin spots in the paint show the green and under the rear quarter extensions it's green. Has anyone ever seen this before? I talked to Joe Shepard who has the beautiful Cortez Gold GSX about his paint and he said he used PPG Base/Clear code 2339. I just want to make sure that the green is applied properly under the gold to get the gold/green iridescent look. Thanks for any advice.
Glen, I can't help you on the paint question but I am glad to see that the work has started on your 71 GS 455. Look forward to seeing it when completed. Good luck, Larry
Gs Thanks Larry, It took me over a year to buy all the parts for the restoration. Engine is at the machine shop and trans will be heading to the shop soon. The body shop owner dedicated 30 hrs a week to the car so it should start looking a little better here soon. It should make you happy when it's done.
Glen, I just looked up that Cortez Gold formula in R-M b/c, and it is made up of mostly transparent toners. But they made no mention of using a particular base underneath it. On some highly transparent colors they will mention "for best results apply over the recommended groundcoat." I'm sure it's a color a person would need to spray a few extra coats to be sure of coverage.
Thanks Tim (Stratoblue72), The R-M number b/c that I came up with is WA-4139. Is that the match you had on Cortez Gold? Could it be that this is a primer that is green? Looks like we will be spraying a bunch of test panels. Thanks again,
Glen, That's the correct number. It can also be looked up under # 2449. The formula wouldn't come up on our Smart Color program, so I had to look it up on the BASF website. It showed 2 formulas ; standard and lighter. If whoever is mixing it can't find both formulas I can fax them to you. Going by the picture you posted, it looks like a much brighter green than a primer would be. I don't know if a person could get a tinted sealer to turn out quite that bright. But you could easily have some b/c mixed up that color and use it as a groundcoat under the gold.
I don't believe it's quite that bright though. We have some IES brand aerosol here that I will take a look at. I know R-M also sells a product called 834 Zip Zinc which is available in quart cans. The only thing is that would not be a desirable product to have right under the b/c.
Glen- Any chance the gold is shot over limemist?? It may just be the camera/computer, but that looks an awful lot like limemist. Maybe the car got a repaint at the factory due to an error??
I'm going to add to this because my 71 stage 1, early Flint built car, was originally platinum mist (yeah, yeah, I know..I will be changing it back soon) and it too had the green under the extensions. Sorry no pics. Zinc chromate primer is used on a lot of aircraft, and it has several different shades (all the way fomr kinda yellow to dark green) but yes can be that bright for sure. Pic attached. Doesn't show much but I don't have many pics of primer!!LOL Look at the lines and some small brackets, even between the varous parts here you can see a difference in the zinc primer. Also keep in mind this thig is pretty dirty, when new the primer is very bright. Interesting stuff. later Tim
Yes that does look a lot like my 1971 Stage 1 in Lime Mist Metallic. Paint code 43. Maybe someone ran a test. On my particular car it was repainted once. I purchased in 1983. The repaint is a shade brighter.
Thanks for the replys. Ken, your right, it does look like Lime Mist. That might be an option on the base coat under the gold. TimR, that's good news that other cars had this green under the top coat, leads me to believe that it is a primer. Was Zinc Chromate primer even around in the early 70's? I've also heard that some painters use a base of green when painting the QQ (Saturn Yellow) GSX cars. This gives the greenish/yellow factory look.
Glen, Actually with a 2 stage b/c the colors are formulated to match with full hiding, so the base doesn't affect the final color. It's just that a color covers much easier with a proper colored base. In the case of a 3 stage b/c, the groundcoat shows through the transparent midcoat . On a 2 stage color it would be nearly impossible to spray it in such a way that you would see the base through the final color (essentially creating a 3 stage color) and be able to get it even on the whole car. Usually a white base under bright yellow allows for the quickest hiding.
Thanks Tim, that's good information. Sounds like I should just forget about the green base and concentrate on getting the gold correct in a base/clear. Thanks for everyone's help.
Glen, You could still use a light green sealer underneath, because that would make a good base to go over with that color for easy coverage. If you don't want to buy a pint of each of the R-M formulas just to do a small sprayout, I can mix up a few ounces of each and mail you the sprayouts. Tim
Thanks Tim (StratoBlue72), I think I'll take you up on your offer. That's very nice of you. I'll PM you with my address. Please let me know of any expense and I'll get a check out to you.
Paint Tim (Stratoblue72) came through with the paint samples, just as promised. Thank you very much Tim. The samples look great. I'll get to the body shop next Wednesday and compare them to the original paint under the deck lid.
Glen, I thought you were building "just a nice driver"? Sounds like another full blown resto job again to me!!
