VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Paint color questions 1929 coupe

My car was originally grey, however I would like to use a different color. My engine was cast June 3, 29 so I assumed they car was built shortly after, however, the Chevrolet Color Schedule seems to indicate that grey was not a choice until after October first 1929. The stamped color combination on the sill is no longer legible or may have never been there. Were all of the numbered color combinations on the schedule available on the coupe after October first? My car is number 3 AC101827, body number S22336. Can anyone tell me when it was built?
I have the Sales Brochure DG-C29 from TFS, and I like the color of the coupe shown on page two, but I don't know if this was an available choice, or what it was. I am thinking it looks like a maroon and the roof and rear window area are black. I like the looks, however, I don't know if that was an available choice.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

I know of three paint schemes for 29 coupe:
1. Faunce Green with Helmut Grey wheels
2. Paul Revere Green with Helmut Grey wheels
3 Coolie Blue with Buddha Blue wheels
I saw an original Coolie blue coupe once at a show at I thought it was smart.
There may be other paint schemes that I am not aware of.

The USA paint colors for the 1929 Coupe were:

Coolie Blue
Driftwood Smoke and Lindbergh Blue (Sport Coupe)
Bennington Blue and Black
Paris Gray and Kremlin Maroon
Aiken Green
Russian Brown and Pioneer Green (Sport Coupe)
Black
English Gray and Green Gray (Sport Coupe)

I have a 2MB PDF scan of the 'Complete Chevrolet Duco Specifications, From January, 1929 to January, 1934 Inclusive' it states first:
for 1929 it is broken down by year, then body style and color combo options, then notes:
Then it list Color Combinations 12-24 and tells which body style(s) it was available on.

based on this list prior to Oct 1, most body styles ONLY came in ONE color Combo except Sedans had 3, and Cabriolets had 3

Mine is painted in the Prior to Oct 1 color combo of: Sedan Color Third Color Combo: Tunis Blue, Top Gallant Blue, Tusk Ivory Stripes, Moldings in Oak Green
it spells out what is painted what color. raised panels, recessed panels, this, that, etc... pretty neat little guide.

It would be interesting to compare your compilation of paint combinations to the service bulletin news releases. I have Dick Davies ORIGINAL service manuals from 1929 to 1940. He was a service manager at a Portland Chevrolet dealership for many years and amassed an INCREDIBLE stockpile of material and information. It lists 37 paint combinations for 1929 including trucks. It is rather confusing as to what they were doing but I can only guess that maybe the 29 six cylinder was more successful than they imagined.. I think the production numbers show that world wide they sold 1.1 million 29 model year Chevrolets. It would seem they had to scramble to keep people interested in buying new and exciting cars. And once the stock market crashed in October probably wanted to see what was going to happen next. Some of the early combinations were re-released when the numbering system was implemented, so there was maybe 25, or 26 somewhat different paint combinations. It could be as simple as changing the belt line and window reveal color on a black bodied car from apple green to scarlet red. Sometimes makes you think that this was about the start of getting the model you wanted in the color you wanted rather than just taking whatever model/color they gave you. All in all it was a hugely successful and interesting year with a lot of transitional changes. It helped them work out a lot of bugs so it laid the groundwork for the success of the next 3 years. Personally I think the 29 to 32 Chevrolets are some of the most interesting ever produced.

Thanks guys.
Since my engine was cast in June it would make sense that the color was Paris grey color combination # 17. The August Service News lists the color combinations # 15 Bennington blue and the Paris grey # 17. Does this mean they stopped using the earlier colors such as the Collie blue listed in the January Service News? The black color combinations for the coupe are not listed until combination # 20 and 21 in the October Service News. I may go with the color shown on the 29 coupe on the cover of the G & D April 2011. I have the paint formula from the owner. He had the original paint color copied from the existing paint.

My car was assembled in the Janesville plant June of 29. Originally it was the two tone green with golden yellow stiping. Really a pretty color combination. Someone brush painted it blue about 60 years ago. Thats how I knew it did not have a lot of bondo on it. That patina can never be matched. Some year I will rebuild all the wood, and repaint it to the original color. Lew Clarks 29 sport coupe is an exceptional example of how they can look. He has a lot of nice options on it as well.

Thanks, Beach. Your car was probably the color of the one on the G & D cover. I don't know Lew Clark, I would like to see a picture of his car.

Lew Clark died several years ago.

I wouldn't mind seeing this list of 37 paint combinations for 1929. Could make it easier to choose for my cars.
Regards

Me too!

5 or 6 years ago I emailed them to Steve at the FS. I got the impression he had all of them in the service bulletin copies he sells. For a picture of Lew Clarks coupe and to put a face with a name look up the G & D for January 2013. I think they did that same color scheme with a maroon as well. Very nice.

Beachbum, In the Dick Davies ORIGINAL service manuals does it state anything about the color of the optional wire wheels for 1929? I'm trying to find out if they were available in multiple colors or just one.

There are recommendations of what would be considered complementary colors for the wire wheels based on car color. I would have to look in the service manuals as to when they first appeared. I do not think it was at the very beginning of the year. Even more difficult than finding a set of correct wire wheels for a 29 is finding a set of hubcaps for them. Out at the beach for a long weekend, clam festival at Long Beach.

If you go to the members only section and look through the published service bulletins as well as other material found there the paint codes are all published for the model year 1929

A long time ago I posted this information in the Technical Library of the Club's web site (In the Member's area).

I see that the new Webmaster has renamed, reorganized and grouped almost all of the original files. You may have to hunt a little while to find these.

Here is what was originally saved there:

Chev-Color-Bulletin-No1-Jul01-1930-Page1.pdf
Identifies Color Schemes from Jan 1, 1928 to May 31, 1930
and includes colors for Disc Wheels


Chev-Color-Bulletin-No2-Dec01-1932.pdf
Identifies Color Schemes from May 31, 1930 to Dec 1, 1930
and includes colors for Wire Wheels