VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 proper paint for 40 chev

i have a 1940 chev town sedan. it has a paint code of 266 harbor blue. my paint jobber mixed up a quart of what he thinks is correct, but it doesnt look right to me. is there a standard ppg number or does anyone have the correct recipe for this color? are any accurate paint chips available? what should i do to get the most accurate possible recipe for this color? thanks for the help!!!

Do you have either the 1940 Chevrolet Dealer's Album or a paint chip from a paint company for 1940 Chevrolet? In the 40 dealer's album, there is a 1 5/8" x 4 1/2" color chip for Harbor Blue.

This may not help but the Dupont number for Harbor Blue was 202-32536,mixing formula 20 1/8 oz Milori blue,3 oz white,4 3/4 oz black,3/4 oz light green and 3 7/16 oz metalic base.I know these mixing colors have been discontinued.The blue is a medium-dark with medium metalic.The inside of the trunk lid or under a sill plate is a good place to look for a sample.Under anything rubber is usually discolored by the rubber.Was helping a person to find a modern replacemet a while back.A late model Saturn color came close.

Chevy40,

I'm the guy Chev Nut helped a while back and he's right about the formula and that particular color was quite metallic.

The Saturn color Gene suggested looks close, but when you put a little bit next to the original paint (inside my front door), it looks too dark. But if you want to try it, the Saturn color code is 20 WA453G and is called Brite Blue and was used on - I believe - the 2000-2003 SL1 and SL2 models. the part number is 21112161 and a Saturn dealer should have a 1/2 ounce touch-up bottle, but they ain't cheap. And by the way, this Saturn color is also very metallic up close, in sunlight, but not from a distance.

I haven't found old paint chips very helpful. They all look too dark to me. Maybe age darkens them.

DocB

thanks to all for your input on the harbor blue paint query! I took my trunk lid in to my friendly paint jobber as Chevgene suggested. he did a match on it and came up with a Ditzler # of DAR12547. it,like the saturn color was a tad too dark, so we increased the white in the formula by 5%. it looks great! It really is a nice color. could be worse,could be black! thanks again and i meant nothing derogatory with my "black" comment- black is beautiful too!! Chevy40

correction! the paint number I supplied is correct, but it is delstar/ppg not ditzler. Got to get better ventilation when I paint! thanks, chev40

Well, just like Louis Chevrolet said, any color you want as long as it's black!