1961 Paint Question

[Gary A.]

I need info on the which manufacturer has the correct honduras Maroun paint color for my 61. I am ready for paint and I am having trouble finding the correct color match. Thanks,Gary

[Isaac Tyson]

Re: 1961 Paint Question

http://www.corvettepaintcodes.com

Great site, I use it for the PPG codes all the time and they have never failed me...

http://www.corvettepaintcodes.com/

[Mike E.]

Re: 1961 Paint Question

Honduras Maroon is almost impossible to duplicate. Metallic flakes from most manufacturers are different size and shape than in 60-62 when they were doing HM originally. I know an individual that spent over $1k just trying to get it matched--it looked perfect on a small sample, and yet when the entire car was done, it just wasn't quite right.
I keep my extra original-paint HM trunk lid wrapped up so that it has as little fade as possible--I haven't seen anything that it exactly on yet.
But work hard at it--they can get fairly close.
Mike

[Gary A.]

Re: 1961 Paint Question

Thanks for the info.Gary

[Michael H.]

Re: 1961 Paint Question

I agree with Mike. Maroon is one of the hardest colors to match and it gets worse when it's metallic. I've never seen a repainted Honduras maroon car that looked correct. I spent over a year and a lot of money trying to exactly duplicate Milano maroon for 66 and got incredibly close but never deadly accurate. Always different in some odd light source. All of the paint mfg's maroons are either too red or too blue and todays metallic is a lot different than that of the 60's, as Mike mentioned. Another problem is the huge amount of binder/clear in the formula. The color may look decent inside a building but out in the sun, it explodes to red instead of maroon because of the transparency. Last sealer coat should be a very dark color, if possible. Or first color coat should be a light pass with black or some other very dark color to kill the bright color under it. I had some paint mixed and specified 50% of the usual amount of binder and that helped kill the transparency and metallic illumination. Good luck.