Help me match my paint?

[LukeZ]

Hey guys,

Long story short, I bent the hood on my car last spring so I bought a new one from Summit. I had it delivered to a body shop and they said theyll paint it to match my current color. At first they did the thing where they take out a special camera and take a picture of my paint, and it gives them a code for paint to mix. The guy called me today saying that the mix didnt look too good so he didnt want to paint the hood and have it turn out bad. He asked me if I could find out what color my car is and send him the code. For the record, I understand the paint has faded after 30 years.

The car is a 1986 El Camino.

Here are a few pics to help:

This is the sheet from my glove box. The paint is the bottom bit. In case its hard to read, this is it typed:
ENAMEL WA- L8574 U8592 27B

Here are some pics of the paint. I am only concerned about the dark blue on top, since that is what the hood will be. The bottom light blue was redone a few years ago, but the dark blue is original from 1986.

After some searching online, this is what I came up with for the paint:

On the website, it has a sample picture of the paint. This monte looks nothing like my car.

In the picture that shows all the options for blue in 1986, I would say that the Medium Blue matches the best in most lighting. It has a "27" next to it, and the end of my paint code says "27B". Is there a correlation there, perhaps? The last dark blue just looks far too dark (excpet for in dark lighting, like in the last pic of my car, I can see how it might match up).

Can I get some opinions from you guys? I might email him some pictures of my car and the info that I found and see what he thinks since its his profession.

 

[TURNA]

Look at your Cowl Tag

If your paint is original it will tell you exactly what it is with no guessing.

A number followed by an U is the upper body color.
A number followed by an L is the lower body color,

 

[LukeZ]

Look at your Cowl Tag

If your paint is original it will tell you exactly what it is with no guessing.

A number followed by an U is the upper body color.
A number followed by an L is the lower body color,

Where is the trim tag at?

 

[TURNA]

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Looking at the SPID tag...

This is the way I read it...

WA L8574 is the lower color and WA U8592 is the upper color..27B should be interior color.


Based on this chart...

Lower color should be Light Blue 25 and the upper color should be Dark Blue 31

I believe these are the available colors for 1986 El Camino...

COLOR WA # CODE
White 3967 11
Silver Metallic 8535 12
Silver Metallic 9021 13S
Medium Gray Metallic 8573 15
Black 848 19
Light Blue Metallic 8574 25
Dark Blue Metallic 8592 31
Light Sage Metallic 8572 43
Yellow Beige 8525 54
Light Chestnut Metallic 8575 58
Dark Chestnut Metallic 8593 62
Medium Red Metallic 8772 71
Dark Red Metallic 8529 79

 

[LukeZ]

It either didn’t come with one or someone removed it, damn lol. I’ll go off the options sheet and just say it’s the really dark blue. After looking in places that don’t get a lot of exposure like the door jambs, I think it probably was darker at one point in its life. Hopefully the body guy can either blend the paint around the hood to make it all match, or do something to the mix to account for the fading. Thanks TURNA!!

 

[LukeZ]

Thanks to you too OD

 

[Ribbedroof]

Why are we assuming it's the original paint?

Did your painter not look at the SPID label for code?

If he can't get close with a WA number and the camera, might be time to look for a new painter.

My coupe has a funky red on it, and a poor job at that. We shot it with the camera, came up with a Canada only Volkswagen red, made a test card, was as close as anyone could hope for without adding a lot of the sags and metallic pooling that's on the car..

 

[pagrunt]

Your '86 won't have the body plate (Fisher plate) as the SPID tag replaced them. You might want to stop at a local paint shop to see if there is any variance by assembly plant (being Mexican there most likely have a variance to US built cars.) They'll have a variance deck to compair to the original color. I wish I had a '86 PPG chip book in my library but that one of the 2 years I don't have ('85 is the other.) As for the shop, where did they scan for the paint & how clean was that spot? Any impurites in the scan spot can cause a bad match. When I was working at a paint shop I would clean several spots & scan them to see if they matched or had variance.

 

[565bbchevy]

My 85' Regal had it's original blue paint and when I swapped header panels with my 86' I went to the local painters supply with only the code from the decklid and the paint they mixed up was about as perfect a match as I could ask for, then when I brought them a piece of clean unfaded original painted metal from my 86' they scanned it and it ended up being a shade off.

I painted the header panel, bumper fillers and driver's side mirror with a spray can in this picture.