VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood 1937 Paint formulas

I am getting ready to paint my '37. I want to use the medium regent maroon color (comb. no. 211). I have the old Dupont color chart for the various '37 paint colors with the mixing formulas and gave this to my paint supplier. He is unable to come up with a mixing formula for the modern paints that will match this old color. He has tried all the major paint manufacturers and still is unable to come up with anything. I tried a search on this site but could not find anything. Does anyone know where I might find the correct formula or does anyone have a good picture of a car painted this color or a part painted this color that I could borrow so that my paint man can match it?

look up on the internet "auto color library". They're in San Diego. Give them a call & ask for Jimmy Chips. He did the color for my 31 & my Canadian 34. Tell him Joe in Tucson told you to call.

You mention "medium Regent Maroon. note that it is a very dark maroon as most maroons were in the '30's.

You can look it up on that site I mentioned. It IM1562 & Gene is right....It's dark maroon, but it does cross ref that paint code...Joe

Say, that is a cool site. I will be doing some painting on my '37 and the site shows the color chips.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1937-chevrolet-pg01.jpg

Rich

I checked out the San Diego site. Was not able to talk to Jimmy but did order a quart of paint to check out the color. Thanks for the info.

I received the quart of paint today and as Gene mentioned it is very very dark, almost black. It is a lot darker than what I want. I am wondering about the Regatta Red on the '37 paint chart (comb. no 212). Looking at the mixing formula more than half of the mix is made up of "medium maroon" which indicates to me that it may be more of a maroon color than a red? Can anybody verify this or direct me to a source that shows this color?

Regatta is best described as a dark red.
Really not a maroon. From what I can figure it was used on the Cabroilet only. A friend of mine painted his 1937 Regatta Red years ago and lost points in judging. If that isn't your concern I would paint it any color that you like.

Twenty-five years ago I painted my MD Coupe. I found that a mid-seventies lincoln metalic maroon color, with no metalic in it was a perfect match of the dupont paint chip for regetta red. I never had a judge question the color in the years that I owned the car(but I kept the paint chip handy in case). That was lacquer, of course, so I don't know if you can find a viable mix even if you find the right lincoln color.

None of the Auto color libraries that I’ve found contain any information on the Advance Design truck colors. I am ready to start applying paint to my 1950, Mariner Blue 3604 and still haven’t been able to come up with a PPG Delstar/Delthane formula. I would like to be able to order it up from my local PPG dealers.
Would appreciate any advice here.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Below is a scan of my 1937 Chevrolet brochure showing a sedan painted a dark red color. Maybe this was just "artistic license" on the part of the advertising dept or maybe dark red was available on all body styles.

I remember a top points '36 Cabriolet at the Anniversary Meet in Springfield, IL. The owner said it was regatta red and apparently he didn't lose any points for the paint. There must be pics of that car around...As I remember, it was up for Best of Show pre WW2...

I have seen an original factory newspaper ad showing a 1934 with dark brown brown body and orange wheels. I checked with the factory color chart and could not find the corresponding colors there. So it seems like the PR people made exceptions to what was original factory delivered colors, and may be some of the dealers also delivered the cars with the advertised colors. Why not?

The colors were also different depending in which continent the Chevys were sold.

:vcca:

Chevrolet always pictures "dark red" cars in their literature. I would guess they would have been the maroon but it was too dark to even show-up as a color.
In 1934 the brown color (Pueblo Tan) paint combination #165, with orange wheels was a fairly popular color.
Later I will try calling the 1936 and 1937 T.A's and see what they have to say. Their phone numbers are in the G&D but no email address.

I called the 1936 T.A. and he said that Regatta Red was available for all body styles in 1936. I see no reason that it would not have been the same for 1937 and will be calling that T.A. later.
Just talked to the 1937 T.A.....he said that Regatta Red was available for all body styles also.

Thanks for the correction to my 1934 color observation. I agree to the very nice combination of brown and orange as a selling one.

Where can I find color charts/chips showing the wheel colors?

:vcca:

The color chip for Swamp Holley Orange is in the DuPont 1934 color chip sheet. There is no mixing formual shown but it would be best described a medium orange. The same color was also used on trucks (for a body color).

Bob, I have a magazine centerfold (2 page) ad for all the '35 Chevrolet cars and every one of them is red and very much like your '37 brochure. Problem is, there was no red available in 1935! Closest color was a maroon that I believe was pretty dark. So, I think some of the ads were in fact using artistic license when selecting colors.

The trucks from 30's to 50's used a Dupont enamel 93-082 Omaha Orange which is available through Jim Carter Antique Truck Parts www.oldchevytrucks.com phone 1-800-862-193

I ordered a quart of the regatta red from Joe's supplier and received it today. It looks more like the maroon that I was looking for and I am going to use it. It is not the red color that Bowtie Bob provided from his sales brochure. Thanks to all for your advice and comments.