I have a 70 SS which originally came with a white painted top without stripes. Since then the car was repained with stripes in the original Astro Blue and the stripes added in black. With the repaint the owner put a black vinyl top on the car. This was all about 2 years ago. I now want to remove the top and am currently trying to decide if im going to paint the top black or body color. Suggestions?
If I paint the top black what type of paint should be used? i.e. Flat black? semi-gloss?
I'm not sure how the factory used to do it. Is the top supposed to be shiny like the rest of the car when its a second color? Any tips and hints appreciated. Opinion also welcome!!

[This message has been edited by Jagarang (edited 11-25-2002).]

Back to the top.

A painted top should be the same gloss as the lower body. The paint used is no different than if you were painting the entire body that color.

So what color code would GM have used for a Black painted top in 1970? Anybody know? Id like to order from PPG I assume. Were all GM blacks from 1970 the same? Are todays GM blacks the same? I suppose paint formulation has evolved substancially over the years and todays mixtures must be more durable and UV resistant than in 1970. Any tips or helpfull info?

[This message has been edited by Jagarang (edited 11-26-2002).]

For 1970, the code for black was 19, the code for white was 10, and the code for Astro blue was 25. Since your car came Astro blue with a white painted top, your cowl tag should show a paint code like this: 25 10 (the code for the lower body color is first, followed by the code for the upper body, or top). If the car would have come with a black painted top, the paint code would have been 25 19. The choices available for top colors were from the same paint chart, but not all colors would have been available for two-tone combinations.