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How to Get a Sample of 1970 Code 78 Black Cherry Paint?

14K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  ss3966 
#1 ·
I'm interested in painting a '70 elco (was gold originally) in 1970 Black Cherry. I would like to get a sample, and read here that a person can give the paint information to an O'Reillys parts store and they'll make you a spray can of it, or any other color. Don't have any O'Reillys in Colorado though and am wondering how else I could do this, short of buying a quart and learning to spray - and I'm not the one doing the paint work.

I have an extra stock hood and front fender extensions I could spray paint and put on the vehicle to get a look at it before being financially comitted in a big way. How else can I just date this color without having to get married to it now?

The primer underneath will be white.
 
#3 ·
Duplicolor Part # is DSGM449. Pretty sure it was at Advance Auto.

I bought a few cans of it guessing it was by chance they had it on the shelf. It was a perfect match.

I'm no body guy but I'm pretty sure that dark cars should be primed in a dark primer, not white or it will not/probably won't match without excessive layers of paint.
 
#4 ·
I'm no body guy but I'm pretty sure that dark cars should be primed in a dark primer, not white or it will not/probably won't match without excessive layers of paint.
What Chicken Coupe said 2x
As many times as I have painted remodeled rooms and my houses over the years and countless historical miniatures.....your primer color should be close in intensity and or color to your paint. Black Cherry over white primer is a no-win situation.

With house paint, have the paint store mix some pigment of your color into your primer. Unless the color is pretty dark, one pass with the shaded primer then one with your color and you'll be good-to-go.

Cars, light colors= light colored primers
 
#5 ·
I located the DSGM449 Dark Cherry Duplicolor paint at Advanced, and it is much darker than I remember - as I once had a car in this color (the one that got away, of course). It is closer to the DSGM380 Medium Garnet Red. Here is a video of one in the color I remember.



The reason for the white primer is that I won't be able to paint the camino for a couple of years as I'm losing my garage and it will need to sit outside in a graveled lot near the local track, and I like the white primer as a temporary color more than primer black, grey, and red. It will probably have to be reprimered before painting and so I can darken it up then.

I will do the door jambs in the final color now as I don't want to do the door disassembly and prep twice. It will look funny in the staging lanes with black cherry door jambs when they open, but so be it.

Almost worth a trip from Colorado to Kansas to visit an O'Reillys parts store and get samples pre-mixed in an aerosol can for color testing.
 
#6 ·
Made a big mistake - for the past 20 years I've been mistaking code 78 black cherry for code 75 cranberry. Its the cranberry I want to do this time. The car in my signature is 1986 Cadillac metallic black cherry and I've seen plenty of this color since 1987 when I got it. I had thought the 1970 black cherry had much more red in it.

Better to catch the problem before buying paint tho....
 
#9 ·
Chicken Coupe - thanks for helping clear up the confused paint code. Having matching color chevelle/el caminos would be cool, but I need some variety in the garage. I was only wrong for two decades on this.

Dean - Guess we all need to change the colors from time to time to freshen things up. Now way to account for the lighting, but the "before" picture looks redder than cranberry, but there are many variables in what a color looks like in any given shot. The new shade of black cherry looks great too.

A color chart I have shows code 75 cranberry being a little darker in '71 than in '70. Code 78 changed from black cherry metallic to Rosewood metallic, but looks the same based only on the samples.

Anyone else noticed a difference between 1971 code 75 cranberry and 1970 code 75 cranberry?
 
#10 ·
The thing about color shades in pictures is they can vary a lot depending on the camera, lighting etc.
Even different monitors might show a slightly different shade so really, there is no way to see exact color shades in pictures OR on the computer.
Red is especially bad and a lot of times actually shows up as yellow in pictures.


^this^ is my original color shot with different lighting.
 
#11 ·
Photo variations are color incorrect most of the time.

Electronic versions are even worse to gauge color because all of the software and hardware that allow you to see it each contribute to "changing" the color.

If you do an Internet image search i.e. 1970 Chevelle with Astro Blue paint, you'll have no idea which one is really astro blue.

Just a thought FWIW.

Graphic artists use a tool to compare and adjust colors so that what is on the screen is what the actual sample is. It almost like getting paint matched at the hardware store.

Might be kind of neat to have the color sample photos "fixed" by someone who has access to one of those systems, then reposted.
 
#12 ·
Dean - Is there any special reason you went away from the Cranberry - the very color I'm planning to go to? Was it high maintenance, showing everything more so than black cherry? My own black cherry paintwork isn't as bad to take care of as I thought. Maybe it was just time for a change? I know solid black is the hardest to take care, and white likely the easiest.

The paint samples I'm looking between 1970 and 1971 cranberry are in a Cars and Parts I.D. Numbers book with only the sample and not different car photos with differing light, etc. The book is by Amos press from 1993 and 1971 looks a little darker - not for me to beat it to death anymore.

It would be cool to see how a filtering program would change photos, but thats far beyond my skill level. Thanks.
 
#14 ·
Glad to know going away from cranberry red to black cherry wasn't because cranberry is more maintenance intensive or show scratches more.

The value goes up when the top goes down......
 
#15 ·
My 70 was a Cranberry Red car as well. I strayed away from it because, like Dean, I already saw too many red 70's out and I wanted something a little different. My 70 convertible will be Autumn Gold. An original color and not many around.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Found some more pictures - but scroll down to the bottom of this link:

http://www.chevellestuff.com/1970/elcamino/gallery/index.htm

This highlites the differences pretty well. Think I'm going to split the difference between code 75 and code 78 and do a Medium Garnet Red, which really seems to pop with white stripes, and white interior borrowed from 1972 (not 1970 pearl white).

I saw Garnet Red on a calendar and its what I've been looking for and why I've been confusing the two codes - I was looking for one that doesn't exist, as I now learn cranberry is really a marketing name for red, and black cherry too purple - for me anyway. Its not an SS, so taking some latitude on this. Now I see why some choose to move away from the more common red a.k.a. cranberry.

I like the medium garnett, which is duplicolor DSGM380 - in a spray bomb for matching for now. I'll paint a malibu hood I have and put some white printer paper where the stripes go to get an idea before committing. Also have some extra fender extensions I could spray paint. Any other ideas on how to "see" a color on the car before making a final selection?

Painting extra body parts seems to help decide.
 
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