Johnny Lightning 1954 Corvair Paint Color - Art Anderson?

[7000in5th]

A friend is building a full scale replica of the 1954 Motorama Corvair concept car and wants to be sure he has the correct color. Do you, Art, or anyone else know how JL determined the color for their diecast and exactly what color it is? Thanks.

[my66s55]

Google is your friend. Seafoan green

http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/news/hobby-news/legendary-1954-chevrolet-corvair-dream-car-recreated

[7000in5th]

Thanks, Doug. The 'Seafoam Green' is a popular assumption for the 1954 Corvair but here's the problem - there was no GM Seafoam Green in 1954. Using your friend Google you can find many SG's for all the manufacturers but GM only had a very dark SG in the '40's and had an SG similar to the 1954 Corvair in the '60's, too late for the Corvair.

Or maybe I'm missing something and that's why I am asking. Can you help?

[THarrison351]

Try Surf Green

[peteski]

To me  Skyline Blue seems closer to the model's color.

[Art Anderson]

Uh,  when I did the production "job bag" for the 1954 Corvair Motorama Dream Car,  I couldn't use any production car color, simply because there wasn't anything available (and I wasn't going to cut up any pages of my very large automotive paint chip books for the project.

As a general rule, unless we knew the exact color, by year, make, even body style, we at Johnny Lightning used the Pantone Mixing System (Pantone is a globally recognized color chart system, with extremely accurate color chips--used widely in the printing, paint-mixing and color matching industry. We (my co-worker Al Pletcher and I) would compare any and all color images we found with the color and shade of that color in Pantone (once in a while, we'd even seek a third opinion), and once we felt we had it, would tear out that perforated color chip from he Pantone book, put it in a pretective plastic bag, and send it off to the factory in China.  There, they had a skilled paint mixer who would match the color exactly, by eye.

Art

[Art Anderson]

To me  Skyline Blue seems closer to the model's color.

That color is a very light green, definitely not blue.

Art

[Longbox55]

This truck is painted Skyline Blue. While does have more green in it that you would think, the color on the Corvair is definitely not Skyline Blue.

[peteski]

That color is a very light green, definitely not blue.

Art

Trying to determine  colors from color photos (and especially when viewed on a computer monitor) is really difficult and can fool your eyes.  There are so many variables which can affect the color.  Here is an example of what I mean:

I took a screen capture of both of the model photos in the initial post and also of the color chips.  I then created a blank (white image) and pasted the snippets of the color chips.  Then I took a swatch of the model from both photos and placed it next to the color chips.  The swatch of the model's color on the right side of each pain chip is from the top model photo while the left swatch is from the 2nd model photo.  They are not even close to either of the 3 color chips I chose.  The model color swatches look almost neutral gray.  But the model in those photos does have a green hue.  So I copied the swatches from the left side of the image (against white background) and copied them on the right side, against a rectangle which has a color of background from the model's photos. Against that warm-hue background now the model colors sufddenly show that green tint.  And also neither of those color paint chips is very close to the mode's color.

[Art Anderson]

Trying to determine  colors from color photos (and especially when viewed on a computer monitor) is really difficult and can fool your eyes.  There are so many variables which can affect the color.  Here is an example of what I mean:

I took a screen capture of both of the model photos in the initial post and also of the color chips.  I then created a blank (white image) and pasted the snippets of the color chips.  Then I took a swatch of the model from both photos and placed it next to the color chips.  The swatch of the model's color on the right side of each pain chip is from the top model photo while the left swatch is from the 2nd model photo.  They are not even close to either of the 3 color chips I chose.  The model color swatches look almost neutral gray.  But the model in those photos does have a green hue.  So I copied the swatches from the left side of the image (against white background) and copied them on the right side, against a rectangle which has a color of background from the model's photos. Against that warm-hue background now the model colors sufddenly show that green tint.  And also neither of those color paint chips is very close to the mode's color.

Pete, why not Google for pics of the real '54 Corvair--THEN look for a paint color?   (as just another thought--one '54 Corvair Dream Car was painted in a candy apple red   )

Art

[7000in5th]

Thanks Art and guys; here is his plan:

"I used to mix PPG while in High School. My feeling is that it's neither green or blue. More of a turquoise pastel. What I'm going to do is take a pristine Pennant Blue sample and match it to a very pastel color that blends nicely with the Pennant blue. Since no one really knows for sure, it will work okay and be striking when done.  

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. "

Incidentally, he has already built the red version.