VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Decoding a cowl tag

I have a canadian built 37 master coupe. Can't seem to find any info regarding paint or trim colors. Paint is code 703 and trim is 205. Anybody know a site where I can find this info. Thanks

This question has been asked many tiimes here and I have never seen an answer/reply.
I wish I had a sorce for that info.

You can telephone VINTAGE VEHICLE SERVICES 1--888-467-6853 or 905-440--7697 this is a company operating in conjunction and under license of general motors Canada.

It is run by Frank Agueci and his staff......8 to 5 pm.

If you supply the serial number info from the aluminum firewall plate , for a fee of $35.00 they can tell you what colour 7---is the year...03 is the actual colour plus a whole lot more information like exactly how many of that particular model was built in Canada. They cannot tell you how many were made in your colour.

They do not have **dealer showroom albums** that old that would contain upholstery samples and paint samples/chips .

mike lynch

I have tried the vintage services before. On a 1966 panel truck the results were great, lots of details, on a 1956 chev nothing and my 1940 master 85 coupe, nothing. They don't have any records that far back. My coupe is paint code 41 and trim 300 and I have searched all over for details but haven't found any.

It may be a long shot but try contacting New Zealand Chevy clubs. We had a lot of Canadian Chevs prior to WW2 assembled there and someone may have info .

Ollie

All that info would come from Canada because auzzie and new Zealand were part of the commonwealth and exported cars originated from here.

I have that export info for 1933--34--35 exports or CKD's = complete knock downs only , nothing for 1937, but Frank does.

mike

Thanks for the info. I tried some of these today and got a few answers but not much available for these years. I'll keep researching.

paint colour 703........7 is the year 03 is paint colour.......name is CRUISER GREY


mike

came across this info:

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05-22-09 12:25 PM - Post#1702653
In response to Gene_Schneider

Code 809 is Regal Blue. This is Dulux color number 94-8484 and the body and wheel stripe is silver. I don't know the difference between Dulux and Duco color combinations, but #800 to 809 are Dulux and 811 to 824 codes are listed as Duco. Oshawa blue is code 811 and is Duco number 246-8188. Unfortunatley I don't have paint chips and don't know how to decode the paint numbers.

At least for 1937-1939, the Canadian color combinations were three digits with the first digit is the model year. The standard colors were always the lower numbers.

1937-1939 paint codes are listed on pages 5-8 in the January 1, 1939 issue of the GM Canada service news bulletin. I think these are just the standard colors and there were other fleet customer colors assigned higher codes. I once owned a 1938 Canadian business coupe with a high number code and eventually found that is was used for Timothy Eaton company vehicles.

By the way, I'm trying to find the color for 980 paint code used in 1939 Canadian built Chev cars. In my case the car was built for export (RHD) so there may have been another set of numbers for these.

Duco is DuPont lacquer and was used the passenger cars except the Dulux was the enamel used on wheels.
Trucks were all dulux.
I don't see Cruiser Gray listed in the 1937 paint chart (US cars)....The only US gray was gun metal metallic which was quite common in 1937.

How do I get a copy of the GM bulletin?

same here

I found my January 1, 1939 GM Canada service bulletin and scanned the pages with the 1937, 38 and 39 color codes. Hope this is helpful. At least there are descriptive names for the colors, but I don't know how to use the Dulux number to mix a paint. I'd sure be interested in knowing if there is a way to translate Dulux of Duco numbers to mixing instructions.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwpsb9btn71slp9/1937%20GM%20Canada%20color%20codes.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ywg683g1qvvg6wp/1938%20GM%20Canada%20color%20codes.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yaq57fnuh3zfh5l/1939%20GM%20Canada%20color%20codes.pdf

Thanks for the bulletins. So I guess that the colour of my car is not an original colour unless they call this cruiser grey. It looks beige to me!

[img:center][/img]

Beige or whatnot, that is one stunning 37!!! Thanks for the photo.

Jim.

Better than any color they had back then but still looks proper.

Keep watching ebay USA and Canada & sooner or later paint charts or chips will show up for a 37 colour chart.

top picture looks nice, I cannot see battleship gray or cruisr grey being any nicer.

note 2 diff spellings on the grey/gray

mike lynch............

Note that in 1937 all the GM cars listed listed used(DuPont) Dulux enamel.
In 1938 both enamel and DuPont Duco (lacquer) were used.
In 1939 both were used and iridescent (metallic) was available..
GM used metallic in several lacquer colors in 1936 (one special in 1932) and all US GM cars were lacquer.