Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I know this is heresy, but I can't stand the "cubana tan" on my 1940 160, and am planning to change it to laguna maroon. However, original paint chips (and multiple photos of restored cars) show a much lighter and redder maroon than the cross referenced Chrysler Dark Rosewood pearlescent listed on this site. Any opinions on this? (I had the same problem with my 48 Custom and went with a close Subaru maroon and it's gorgeous, if not purely accurate)

In general, as long as you get the paint pretty close, that's generally close enough to satisfy most collectors and car show judges. Even with today's computer color matching, paint colors are off. The old paint chips (originals) have usually discolored with time, and who knows if the reprinted ones have the color right either? Look at the factory ads or brochures and pick something that will be pretty darn close and nobody will say anything about it.

For putting food on the table we publish a Mopar muscle car magazine. Every year we go to Carlisle and there are Panther Pink 'Cudas and Challengers all over the place. Thankfully Carlisle does a good job of herding like cars together. If you have forty pink 'Cudas and Challengers there, you'll have 25 different shades of pink on them. Side-by-side, it becomes obvious, paint mixing, even these days, isn't an exact science. Pretty close is good enough.

Same thing goes for Chicle Drab and Copra Drab - park a row of cars painted those colors together and you get a wild assortment of shades and hues. Make it pretty - as long as it's close, nobody's going to make a fuss about it.

If the paint is the original it probably looked better when it was new. Although brown is not my favorite either. The Andes tan from 1941 with its fine metallic I think was pretty nice. Those old lacquers looked great. Packard used that very fine metallic that had great luster. Today's base coat clear is very durable but doesn't have that knock you socks off depth. I'm not big on reds, but those Packard maroons of the early thirties are like - wow. The one thing they sure don't make like they used to are colors.

In general, Packard in this era used metallics with fine flake,so I am sceptical of a pearlescent being an accurate match. Pearlescents normally use mica - the light reflection is not at all the same. In looking for a modern match, look for small size aluminum flake and not too much of it. A previous owner painted my 41 his version of Laguna Maroon (I think that's the 41 color too), and the flake is about right, but the color is I think a bit light, more like the ads and showroom book. I think it's a GM color.

Do not use an old chip and a spectrophotometer if you expect accuracy.
I'm not adverse to the technology, quite the opposite.But the chip, if it ever matched real paint, is unlikely to now, and spectro is confused by reflection from the aluminum.

Even if you match the paint, it's all in how it's layed down in the end. The primer color also can affect the final color. Takes expert painters to match the finish in metallics, pearls, etc. Why spotting is often difficult. The old straight enamals(alkyds) are high solids don't have that problem and were often touched up on the line. Lacquer is thinned to the max and multi coat. The metallic can settle out in the gun, if you don't keep it mixing.
Best to spray out panels and adjust to what you want. Some formulae call for a drop or two of one pigment in a gallon and it's a dispensing and mixing issue.
Best to buy enough and mix all the gallons together, reduce, and shake, so there's no can to can variations. The modern aqueous paints are also difficult I hear for the smaller shops.