56-57 Arctic Blue

[Thomas G.]

I am ready to paint Arctic Blue with base coat/clear coat, and I want to get as close to the original color as possible. PPG has a reformulated version, #12656, but I have no idea how accurate it is. I do not have access to any original examples. If you had your 56-57 painted this color and were successful at judging, I'd love to know which paint you used.

I have read here that some recently painted bc/cc examples are too light, too grey, or not blue enough.

For the correct silver metallic for the coves, the only source I have found is duPont #58559. I have the same concerns about this as as I do the blue.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Tom

[David A.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

i'll be excited to see what
bc/cc PPG paint is the best!!
dave

[Alexander C.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

Looking at this old video I would say that most I see today are too light and not blue enough...

You can see it starting at 19seconds into the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIK2y5cIOfM

[Bruce B.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

Tom,
Here is some info a friend provided me.
He recently painted his 57 Artic Blue and it came out great.
Good luck.
Bruce B

Bruce the colors I used are Dupont Chroma Base. The Arctic Blue is BM 297K (Spectramaster Blue). The silver in the cove is code92 Silver effect 1955 58559K. The Beige is YS294. I matched the beige on my steering column and this number matched it. I had a pint mixed and it was YELLOW. I then went through the whole proccess again and had a quart mixed and it is dead on. I wish this fellow good luck for everytime they mixed me a color it seemed a little different. They mixed two quarts and then two gallons to get the blue right. I payed for the 2 quarts for testing and then just one gallon of the right color. They ate the other gallon of grey blue they mixed# 58245 Arctic Blue. SUCH FUN we have!!! I do love it though.

[David A.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

cool video!
see gas was 27 cents!!

i have a calender pic
i'll post later of an artic blue corvette

iowa

[Thomas G.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

Looking at this old video I would say that most I see today are too light and not blue enough...

You can see it starting at 19seconds into the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIK2y5cIOfM

Yes, that blue seems much darker than I expected and perhaps with less metalic flake than we see today. Other than this video, what is your FRAME OF REFERENCE for what it should look like? It seems like the only way to know for shure is from an original paint example that is not faded. Does anyone near Wilmington Delaware have that? My FRAME OF REFERENCE is only 3 restored cars that I saw several years ago at different shows and pages 68 - 75 in THE COMPLETE BOOK OF CORVETTE by The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide by Richard M Langworth. That is the color I want, but I would like to know how close it is to the correct color.

How do judges determine if any paint is the original color if they don't have a correct color chip at hand? I understand that chips do not exist for 56-57.

Thanks for your comments and help.

Tom

[Thomas G.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

[quote=Bruce Bursten (27670);555923]Tom,
Here is some info a friend provided me.
He recently painted his 57 Artic Blue and it came out great.
Good luck.
Bruce B



Thanks Bruce for some helpful information. I'm going to see my local duPont guy today.

When you say "it really looked great", do you mean that it is a really great match to the original color? If so, I'd love to talk to your friend. It all depends on one's frame of reference.

Tom

[Ken G.]

Critics?

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[David A.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

that is gorgeous!!
now, i really wished i'd had mine
painted the original color!!
dave

[Thomas G.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

Ken,

That certainly looks like a first class paint job. That is just what I had hoped to see. It does look a bit lighter than the Langworth book photos I have. Please identify the paint system you used. Are you going to paint the coves silver?

It sure would be nice to compare a few more photos of other cars with any comments on how/why a particular paint system was chosen.

Many thanks. This is very helpful.

Tom

[David A.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

here is the calendar pic.
is it supposed to be artic blue?
dave

[Thomas G.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

Dave,

The calendar pic is definitely NOT Arctic Blue, and not a 56 or 57 Corvette color.

Thanks for sending it.

I got small samples of Dupont Arctic Blue Chroma Base #58245 and Silver #58559 today. Both colors look very good to me. Next I'll compare the blue with the PPG blue #12656 and report the results. PPG does not have the silver.

I'll probably have to decide in the next week or two, when my painter will be ready to apply it.

Tom

[Ken G.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

This is a really lousy picture, washed out by the flash, but the cove and body color are a bit darker. It took over two years to get this disaster of a body into paintable condition and I don't even want to figure out how much it cost but the job is excellent. It was done by John Jamison, Jamison's Custom Corvettes in Charleston, SC. Give him a call or email and he will have the paint code information on this car.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Mike M.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

that ole Deere in the backround don't look bad either. mike

[Bruce B.]

Re: 56-57 Arctic Blue

Tom,
Check your mail.
The calender is definately NOT Artic Blue.