Dauntless Engine Enamel Paint

You got a pic around anywhere? What do you think about Spruce Tip Green?

 

http://www.taperformance.com/services.htm used to be the only ones that came close. They don't show engine paint any longer.

 

Nothing handy. I'll take one and try to post it tomorrow.

 

Oh that's gotta hurt.

 

The last two colors that I tried were ...

Pontiac Blue Metallic by VHT - Too light grayish.

AMC Blue Metallic by Seymour Paint - Too dark.

Both colors looked like a possible match on the computer screen but failed in actual comparison using a real sample. I never tried the Buick Metallic paint because the online samples didn't look close enough.

 

This might suffice for now.
http://flickr.com/photos/74334622@N00/397180420/

 

Okay, I downloaded the large size of Beeser's Dauntless photo. I sampled from two spots on the valve cover that I thought were 1) not in the flash 2) not in a shadow 3) didn't contain dirt/rust/oil and 4) were on a relatively flat spot so as to be continuous throughout the sample. I reproduced numerous examples of the sample onto an ~800x600 image. I "smeared" the reproduction using my photo chopper. I then shrank the smear down to color chip size. I realize this isn't too scientific, but for comparison purposes, here is what I came up with:

Paint chip 1:


Paint chip 2:


Does everyone agree that the two above colors are roughly representative of the Kaiser-era Dauntless motor? Also, does everyone agree that the originals were metallic? Here is an actual motor crop from Gallery:


Here is the "Buick Hampton" color I got from the paint store:


Way off from the above to colors, but actually pretty close to what I've seen on some other sites for the pre-'66 Buick color.

I don't think that I could color match, but if everyone agrees that the lighter two colors are near the stock Dauntless color, I will go back to the big book o' paint chips again later this week and do some more digging. For most makes/models, especially the older stuff, there are only exterior color chips on file; for that Buick color I got earlier today I had to actually pay the guy to mix paint in order to see what it would look like. I don't want to do too much of that, but it is only ~$1.77/oz with a 4oz min, so basically it costs me $8 to make an "educated guess." What they do have, though, are pages and pages of "special paint codes", basically just descriptions of what they went to and an associated number, usually from some paint company that has since changed hands. Maybe I'll get lucky and find it on one of those pages.

 

Clint,

I think the two chips that you manufactured, particularly the top one, are very close but something doesn't quite look right. Maybe the depth is lost in the pictures without the metallic showing through. Bear in mind that I'm only contributing info. on the later, Kaiser/AMC era as you might put it, Dauntless paint. The earlier years looked more green from what I've found.

The Buick Hampton color looks a lot like the AMC Blue sample I have and is too dark.

 

Here's a pic from another '70 Dauntless showing the engine paint.
http://flickr.com/photos/74334622@N00/397674400/

 

And another pic showing the two earlier ones side by side. Match?
http://flickr.com/photos/74334622@N00/397717222/

 

To my eye, the flywheel shot looks just a hair more "minty," but it could be lighting.

 

Clint
Here are some pics of mine before I repainted it. Its the original paint. What I did was have a friend of mine who is a painter, mix up some paint until he got what he thought was the original color. He did darken it a little bit as we figured it had faded over the 30 years. Because it was a custom mix job, I have no numbers or paint codes to give you. I will admit that I am a little bit color blind so don't go by me, but I thought that it did have a slight metallic to it.
View attachment 16375 View attachment 16376 View attachment 16377
Mike

 

Mike - Thanks for the pics. That's the cleanest original engine I've seen to date. Please confirm for us that the paint was metallic. The pics were also helpful in showing the shade variations depending on where the paint was applied. Seems the deepest or darkest part is on the engine block and the lightest on the cast aluminum parts. Wonder why that would be? Hope Kodiak12060 joins in on the discussion. I think he did some research on this before.

 

I have some of the POR Buick Turq. I tried it on the starter housing when I rebuilt it, its way too dark from the original, FYI.

 

somebody on here mentioned duplicolor "Hampstead Green" a while back, so I bought a can. very close to the original paint on my valve covers.