That Plasti-Kote #452 paint has been out of production for over a decade (just like the revered George R!) , and was always a little too bright and brassy, as well as being only meager rattle-can quality. About six years ago I painstakingly researched and
experimented to find a truly authentic color for my 1957 300C. The results of that effort were sent to the Group on April 18, 2013 and are copied below to save time looking through the archives. I hope this saves anyone some time and money trying to replicate
my steps.
Ray Melton
************************************************************
Hello All -
I recently had the air cleaners and valve covers for my 1957 Chrysler 300C
repainted in what I believe to be the correct shade and gloss level as
originally supplied. On the back side of the oval ends of the air cleaner
housings, I found what I am certain was the original Chrysler color,
untouched by previous owners who had painted the exterior only. I had a
local paint and body shop match the old paint color by trial and error until
I was completely satisfied with the color - when the custom mix was sprayed
right on top of a masked portion of the original paint, I could hardly see
the transition. The parts were painted with a urethane primer, sanded,
then two coats of the urethane color base coat, followed by a clear coat
with approximately 50% flattening agent to give a satin gloss level. The
final outcome was a tint slightly more silvery and less reddish-gold than
the Plasti-kote #452 that had previously been applied, and with a more
subtle satin gloss, rather than a too-bright high-gloss.
However, since the color matching was a multi-step trial-and-error process
(add a little green and silver here, take out some red there, add more
black, etc.) there was not an easy way for the painter to replicate the
color for future applications, either by myself or someone else. So, I took
the finished pieces to my local paint specialty shop and had them analyze
the color using a special hand-held electronic color matching device. In
less than five minutes, they were able to come up with the formula for
tinting, and I thought I would share that with other interested members.
The starting point for the color base coat was one pint DuPont Chromabase
clear. I don't know what all the numbers and letters mean, but your own
paint specialty person will! Also note that a urethane-compatible primer
must be applied before the color coat.
259663 K CC: M CHROMABASE BC Alt: (EUR)
Daewoo - 67U
Mix size: 16.0 oz. (pint)
Tinting Guide: Formula #259663
882J LS yelo oxide 27.1 (I was told this
means YELLOW)
811J Med aluminum 45.4
891J Transox Red 62.1
819J Fine bright aluminum 69.8
806J HS Black 75.5
833J Green Gold 79.0
1005S Gold Pearl 89.6
1009S Super Green PL 95.2 (I was told the "PL"
means PEARL)
150K B/C Balancer 317.1
175K Binder 444.5
The top coat was DuPont Chromabase clear, with ~50% flattening agent to
yield a satin gloss level. Not being an automotive painter myself, I was
shocked at the price for this base coat/clear coat paint: the base coat
alone was $112 for one pint, plus a few bucks more for the activator! On
the other hand, the guy who painted my parts mixed up only 8 ounces of color
base coat, and there was still some left over after applying two coats of
color, so that would be only ~$56.00 for a half-pint of the color coat. I
didn't ask about the cost for the clear top coat, but it will be
considerably less. I had the parts stripped and bead-blasted by another
place ($55.00 - and careful NOT to strip the inner surfaces of the oval air
cleaner end pieces to preserve for subsequent color-matching!) before taking
them to the automotive body/paint shop -- the final charge for priming,
sanding and painting the two air cleaner housings and both valve covers was
$280.00.
Note: I've had no need to try out this formula myself, since my parts are
already painted, but if you decide to go with the formula above, you might
want to do a bit of custom color-matching yourself: do a test shot on a few
square inches of a smooth metal surface (tin can lid?) and see how you like
it, then add/subtract tint components to fine-tune to your personal
preference.
Hope this helps some of you out there, so you won't have to go through the
somewhat tedious trial-and-error approach that I did.
Ray Melton
Las Cruces, NM
1957 Chrysler 300C convertible white/Gauguin
3N572517
George R used to use Plasti-Kote Acrylic Enamel #452.
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