nick77

Well I have searched and searched so I am either stupid or the paint code is not on the tag I am looking at on the firewall. I have it decoded this far:

ST 70 34257LAN312620 BDY
TR 977 - A PNT
12 A B85

70 = 1970, 3 = Oldsmobile, 42 = Cutlass Supreme V-8, 57 = Holiday Coupe (Hard Top), LAN = Lansing, 312620 = serial number
TR 977 = interior trim = black with ivory seats
- = WHERE IS THE PAINT CODE??????????
A = white vinyl top
12 A = 1st week of December
B85 = trim moulding on sides of car

Is there another tag to look for, closest match I could find so far was Rally Red which is 73, but just doesn't seem right. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

svnt442

Got a picture of the plate? If there are dashes - - then it was a custom color and there won't be a code listed.

svnt442

If that's you're car in your avatar then if it's Rallye Red it was a special order color and the dash makes sense.

nick77

That's the car alright. I will post some pic on my Newbie thread. The plate had dashes so I guess it was a special order. Currently the color seems more orange than it should be, maybe they mixed the paint wrong the last paint job about 15 years ago.

wmachine

Sounds and looks correct. Rallye Red is a *very* orange shade of red. I remember the first time I ever saw it and was told it was Rallye Red. I thought "that's not red!"

stevengerard

same here, its a great colour but red? I'd say hot orange before I'd say Red.

Allan R

I agree with Kurt. My first Cutlass in this body style was rallye red. It depends on how the sun hits it when you're describing the color. Low light, it looks more red, bright light?? Red didn't seem to be the color you'd pick to describe it. Man it was a gorgeous car. Even when it was sitting still, it looked like it was moving.

It will be interesting to know what custom color your car originally was. You might find it if you look under the door panels.....that's an area that quick paint jobs don't go into.

344870M

I believe Pontiac did the same thing with the Judge. (Although the color may have been available on other models - not a Pontiac expert) Their "Carousel Red" was indeed bright Orange. I think the GM paint guys were color blind

mugzilla

Rallye Red is either a very red orange or a very orange red ...

The color I used which is very close is "Hemi Orange" ...

The next coat of paint will be Rallye Red ...

joe_padavano

Just to clarify, though the paint card doesn't show it, Code 53 Nugget Gold was also a special order color in 1970. There were four all together.

nick77

Sounds like Rally Red is the definitely the color after your comments. I have never seen another Olds in that color, and its pretty orange right now and the paint chip didn't really seem to be the same so I just needed some security. I know over the years the 70 had two paint jobs, I still think the current one may be a little more orange that even Rally Red. Thanks all!

Diego

I may be in a minority here but I don't consider any of those 4 colors 'special-order.' Rather, they were extra-cost.

However, I have no clue why they'd have dashes on the data plate when the colors were clearly RPO.

Allan R

I wonder if the second paint job may have had the paint code slightly off when it was mixed, or whether it may have changed with exposure to UV? Olds did have an orange, but right now the name of it escapes me.

wmachine

They were specifically called "special-order (extra cost)" by Oldsmobile, thus the dash on the data plate. That's not a matter of opinion or interpretation.

Diego

You don't think it's a matter of interpretation? Or is it really a matter of semantics?

The literature specifies "special-order (extra cost)" but that only tells me it's an issue of semantics. When I think of special order, I think of a non-RPO color, such as this green from "that eBay car."

joe_padavano

Don't shoot the messengers. Kurt and the rest of us are just quoting what Oldsmobile called them. This is no different than using "Holiday Coupe" for what the rest of the world calls a hardtop.

Diego

I'm not shooting anyone - I'm merely expressing an opinion. :-)

442

I have been told by a couple of Olds dealership owners and others that the dealer could order any color they wanted in 1970 at extra cost, even non GM colors.

Richard.

Diego

Well, if you're the owner of the Plum Crazy 4-4-2, then you would know. It was around $100. I bet the 4 extra-cost colors were about $15?

442

One of the dealers told me it was an additional $50.00 to order special paint, but a side benefit was that these cars didn't count against his allotment of 442s (at least until GM caught on to it about a year later

Richard.

joe_padavano

I'll defer to someone who worked in one of the assembly plants, but I find it hard to believe that a non-GM color could have been inserted into the production line for that small an amount of money. The mass production process would have required the car to have been sprayed completely out of sequence from the production cars.

Diego

Joe, I have been under the impression that all special colors require the cars to be pulled from the normal procession.

For one thing, take a look at this car:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ponti...ht_1401wt_1165

It is a '70 with a '69 paint code.

There also is a documented GS Stage 1 painted Plum Crazy as well.

wmachine

I'm with Joe on this. Quite frankly, I'd need to see documentation to believe it. I've heard way too many "anything was possible at that factory" stories without anything more than "somebody said". I know that what I believe doesn't make it true or false, but it is awfully hard to get me to contribute to "truth decay".

Diego

I am quite pleased to see the naysayers because all too often people resort to the "They'd build anything if you asked" idea when it's not very true.

However, there are plenty of documented cars with colors not in the respective palette for the year. Did you see the docs from the GTO auction? (The owner is mistaken that the nose cone should be black as-installed, as the dealership would have painted it to match the car.)

joe_padavano

All I can tell from that ad is that it's a 1970 with a "-" paint code.

Diego

OK, I'll clarify - it's a '70 with '69 paint.

mugzilla

I thought that factory support ( race only) cars could be painted any color, thus the "-"...

"It is common knowledge" that certain cars were available to people that raced them and dealers that supported racers...

That's how you can tell that my "-" car was a race support vehicle...

...

Diego

I assume your tongue is in your cheek?

442

I was pretty skeptical about the color being original when I bought my car but followed up on the story with the owner of the dealership, a mechanic who saw it roll off the car carrier and a service manager who purchased it when the first owner traded it in on a new Olds in 1987. The original owner was a local teacher and told me her students called it the "purple people eater". Finally, I had the car completely stripped to do a frame off restoration and had the body shop do a spray card for C7 "Plum Crazy" to see if it matched any paint in places like under the vinyl wrap on the top windshield frame and under the deck lid etc., it matches.
http://picasaweb.google.com/rshearer...19877342461330

Richard.

wmachine

Well, I must say this certain has my attention.

Diego

Is it a W-30?

And why stripes on the trunk? :-(

442

It is a W-30, the man I bought it from had it repainted but left off the side striping, added the stripes to the trunk, and painted the wheels body color, all incorrect. No accounting for taste I suppose.

Richard.

nick77

wow quite the conversation over the weekend. I have some pictures from 1970 of the car I will post tomorrow so I think rally red must be the original. 442's last comment is why I was looking for the original paint code. I have a friend with some 15 inch olds wheels off a 76 Olds (I know I really need 14 inch for a 70) but these are free and for now that will do. I would however like to make sure I am getting the wheels right. In 70 were they painted the body color, at least the insets, correct? Not like the Rallye though.

svnt442

Depends. Some were body color and some were argent grey.

Eightupman

Argent ones were the 68/69 SSII wheels and I beleive them to be 14 X 6 with bolt on caps ONLY.

The ones painted body color (and later chromies) to include bolt on, and snap on center caps 14" and 15" were the SSIII wheels.

At least that is from some very knowlegeable folks. I had been under the impression that the bolt on caps were SSII and the snap on caps were SSIII but I was shown the light.

John

svnt442

From what I understand John you could get SSI, SSII, or SSIII in 70-72. I know I have seen the wheels in lower body color, but I can't remember about the argent grey. So many people repaint them the body color it's hard to get really good info on this stuff without some hard documentation.

Diego

It was my understanding that SSIII was cancelled for '70 and reintroduced in '71.

However, pace cars had body-colored wheels. Whether those are proper SSIII wheels are just a special application is a different story.

wmachine

Let's get some correct light shed on the wheels:
SSII started in '68 as option P05 replacing the SSI. 14 x 6
In '69, SSII was "moved" to option N66, as the SSI returned as P05.
The SSII was, and continued to be "Cast gray" color.
SSIII started in 1971 as option N67 and were the same as N66, except were the lower body color.
This continued thru '74, and in '75 the N66 and N67 were replaced by N71 and N72, still called SSII and SSIII with the same color differences.

nick77

So in 70 SSI or SSII were options. SSII's were cast "argent" grey. Since I have SSIII's I think I will just go with the body color (correct for the wheel, but not the correct year) and when I do the complete restore will find some SSII's and paint argent. I assume option N66 was available for the 70 Supremes?

wmachine

No, SSIII (body color wheels) were not an option in 1970, not until 1971.
Sure, they were available on all of the Cutlass models. The only difference between the SSII and SSIII in any given year is the color.
I'm guessing the reason they came out with the SSIII in '71 (the 4th year of the very popular SSII, in a time when things changed every year or two) was that people had already discovered how good they look in body color (or just didn't like the grey). I'm sure many were many that were painted body color long before the SSIII hit the streets.