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70 LS-6 spcl paint stripe delete car

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70 Gold Nugget

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hello Gentlemen,

I am an upholstery guy currently involved with the restoration of a 1970 LS-6 which our research is indicating might be somewhat unique...I thought I might join this forum and solicite your opinions. Any help or information you might provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

A brief description of said car:

Car is now in the possession of fourth owner...entire history of the car is well known and all previous owners still live within 50 miles of the car today and the dealership where it was purchased. It is an Oklahoma car. Rust free no quarters, floorboards, etc. have been redone or ever damaged...car is currently undergoing a basic resto not frame off...motor tranny axle etc. is still with the car and in excellent condition. It was a special order paint...we feel the color that comes closest is code 53 Nugget Gold but are in the process of confirming this with various pics from the last 30 years and the interior metal surfaces intact factory paint. The car is also stripe delete and has two very interesting features...no hood pins...Malibu emblems on the door panels. It DOES NOT have the ZL2 hood. It came with Astro Buckets and console...has the big tach...4 speed car. The car is well known to the last couple of generations of local area hotrodders and has always sort been known as that crazy gold LS6 with no stripes that is one bad rubber laying mutta futta (my apologies for the dramatic language).

Here is the cowl tag information....

ST 70-13637 BT37823
TR 771 (no paint code)
O5E227

I would be willing to post some of the history of the car if anybody is interested and again ask for any information you might provide us. Thanks,
Jeff
 
#2 ·
I can maybe add a little input here from the little knowledge I have on 70's.

When you say it has no stripes, no flapper hood (cowl induction) and no hood pins - that is how a base 70 SS came equipped. The "cowl induction" option gave you those three items of which the stripes could be deleted. So, in my opinion, the car has the base SS hood treatment and none of those things having been "deleted".

Good luck with the paint situation, sounds like a cool car for sure.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Don_lightfoot said:
When you say it has no stripes, no flapper hood (cowl induction) and no hood pins - that is how a base 70 SS came equipped. The "cowl induction" option gave you those three items of which the stripes could be deleted. So, in my opinion, the car has the base SS hood treatment and none of those things having been "deleted".
Click to expand...
Thanks Don...a new angle can give a person better insight...your reply makes sense to me. Notice the car has a fifth week of May code and is from Arlington. On one of Dale's links describing plant production sequence numbers there is an anomoly at Arlington at the end of May or beginning of June. Could this have any significance? When were the first LS-6s built?

Other things I have read about early SS cars (being produced April and previous months) had no hood pins. This car is the real deal and it has no hood pins. What about the Malibu door panel emblems? Did Arlington run out of SS badges for the door panels?

Gentlemen what are the odds that this particular car is an early or transitional type of LS-6? It is seemingly a special order car...could it have been ordered for drag racing? The history of the car dictates that the original owner went to Nam (so cliche huh?) in like 67 came home and ordered or bought the car new at an area dealership. This car is very interesting fellows. The guy who currently owns it is a character as well.

Jeff
 
#6 ·
The 70 SS454 build sheets all including LS5 and LS6, are missing the B22 door panel emblem RPO code found on comparable SS396 build sheets. For this reason a lot of cars got the Malibu door panel emblems since a change was not spelled out on the sheet. I suspect some plants caught up to this mistake as most Baltimore cars have the "right" SS emblems. Either should be considered correct. I know this will also freak some people out, but I have also seen early cars (Aug 69) with leftover 69 SS396 door panel emblems.
As far as the hood pins, the previous post is correct. You did not get the pins with an SS automatically, and it was not intruduced late. The cowl hood cars came with stripes and pins.(You could delete them). The regular raised hood cars came with neither. You could order stripes with RPO D88. I have never come up with an RPO for Non-cowl Hood pins, and do not believe it was available. Your local dealer would gladly have installed them if you wanted them so some may have been done that way at dealers before customer delivery. Hope this helps.

Jeff Dotterer
NCOA Senior Judge
 
#7 ·
Here is the only photo I have on my 1970 LS5. Thats the stock SS hood, I never wanted the CI because I thought it would look terrible with big white stripes.

Hood pins were not included as I know mine never came with them.

The car was basic, LS5, A/T with console, buckets seats, tilt wheel (had that on my 66 S396 Impala), tinted glass and posi. That alone drove the price to $3954.05, a whole lotta money back then. I ordered the car and it came from Leeds Assembly (still have the VIN and dealer inventory card).

Image
 
#8 · (Edited)
70 Gold Nugget said:
Notice the car has a fifth week of May code and is from Arlington.
When were the first LS-6s built?
Jeff
Click to expand...
mr said:
.....May 20,2006....update........
___________________________
1970--------TRIM----BUILD-----ENGINE------POSTEDBY----DATEPOSTED--
CHEVELLE----TAG----SHEET-----CODE-------USERNAME-------ONTHIS------
FACTORY----DATE----DATE------LS ??-----Team Chevelle-----WEBSITE----
__________________________________________________ ___________________
Baltimore----12B---12/09/1969----LS6--------greg2001-------08/30/2005
Leeds/KC----12B---12/11/1969---LS6----------RixLS6---------04/10/2006
Van Nuys----12C---12/15/1969---LS6-----------mr70---------04/11/2006
Atlanta------12C---12/15/1969---LS6-------Dave Birdwell-----03/19/2006
Arlington----01A---(---------)----LS5----------LevonH-------02/12/2006
Oshawa-----01B----01/12/1970---LS5----------RC70---------11/18/2004
Flint--------03B---(---------)----LS6------(F/S/on e-bay)----03/31/2006
__________________________________________________ _____________
So far.....earliest built hardtops...........................
1st known and documented 1970 Chevelle SS/ LS6 was built at Baltimore, Tuesday Dec.9,1969.

___2nd earliest documented...LS6/was built at Leeds/KC...Thursday Dec.11,1969.....

..1st known and documented 1970 Chevelle SS/ LS5 was built at Leeds/KC Monday Dec.15,1969...
Click to expand...
RixLS6 said:
I have no knowledge of any later built 1970 Chevelle LS6 than 7/20/1970.
Click to expand...
"Reportedly, the earliest known [Arlington built] SS454 Chevelle's were built after Jan.1st, 1970".....

[Note] Locally, I know of a [non-SS] 1970 Arlington built Chevelle (136370R201077)........
which should be the "1,077th built Chevelle" at the Arlington factory, in the 1970 model year............
Trim Tag info:
70-13637 BT 00907
770 55 10
01A 417
 
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#9 ·
If this car is indeed a survivor, you might want to lift up the carpet in the front floor area and look for a build sheet in the tar paper. It may be under the tar paper as well, so carefully take up the carpet and the tar paper and see if you strike gold....
 
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Discussion starter · #10 ·
Thank you gentlemen for the information. I have a question...could a dealership have ordered a special paint car such as mine or would it have strictly been a customer thing? What about the factory saying lets make this one this way and use up this particular paint or something like that?

More history on the car...Story goes that first owner used $1500 cash and a 67 Chevelle SS as a trade in to purchase the car off the showroom floor circa July 1970...How long would it have took for the factory to ship that car to the dealer?

Sometime next week or so I am going to take some pics of the interior structures, post them, and see what you all think about the paint color...it is definately not any of the standard two or three golds...one of the old chevy chip cards I found on this sight gives the best approximation as code 53 Canada color Nugget Gold. The cross reference modern number says code 53 Camaro Gold Poly...which is just not the right hue. Does anyone know how I could find the correct formula for the Canadian code 53 1970 paint?
 
#11 ·
70 Gold Nugget said:
Thank you gentlemen for the information. I have a question...could a dealership have ordered a special paint car such as mine or would it have strictly been a customer thing? What about the factory saying lets make this one this way and use up this particular paint or something like that?
Click to expand...

They did it all the time, and some dealers still do. BUT, most of the time, they have to order a quantity, not just one car. Back in 1970, they may have been able to order just one. It would fall under a COPO #, and should show special paint, customer order, and a code on the build sheet. The dealership here in town used to order 15-20 4x4 trucks in every couple of years, in a special orange color, and sell them as fast as they were cleaned up. He started ordering them around 1975 , and I remember they gave one away at the 4th of July festival. Special orange color, 4x4 , stepside truck with white stripes on the sides.
 
#12 · (Edited)
My old employer (State DOT) buys orange trucks since the 60's. Standard fleet color (tangier orange). My last truck (retired) was a 1999 K2500 suburban in orange. We had orange el caminos till the quit making them but never any cars. I can recall that we had 1972 Elky's in DOT orange, I had a new 72 Elky SS.


GM Special Paint info from web site discussions by Jim Mattison (former COPO office at Chevrolet) and owner of Pontiac Historical Services.


 First, back in the late 60s and early 70s anyone could order their new Chevy with a special color. Literally any color under the rainbow was available, except for the Cadillac Fire mist colors.

It appears that your car was special ordered through the Chevrolet Fleet & Special Order Department (many of you folks call it the COPO Group).

During the years that I was a part of this group, we processed many orders for vehicles with special paint. Although these vehicles were ordered with "special paint", they are not considered to be COPO cars. I'm surprised that more of these "special paint" cars haven't shown-up, as many of these orders were for performance cars.

The pricing for "Special Paint" was based on if the color was a current production color on another Chevy model, the number of vehicles ordered and if the account was a "Fleet Account". We would also have the ability to, at our discression, change the paint pricing on an order, if we felt that it was justified.


The pricing for a solid color "Special Paint" would vary between no charge and $125.00. Volume would dictate the pricing.

If the customer was a fleet account, or if the dealer would order multiple vehicles in the same color, the pricing would be n/c. However, if the dealer would order a single unit, the pricing could go as high as $125, with various prices in between, based on many other factors.

Some of the other conditions that would require a car order to come through my group was: "Delete Stripes" on a Z-28, Chevelle SS, or other model with painted stripes. Colors that were current production, but on a different model, would also require our approval. We did lots of cars in "Hugger Orange" that normally didn't come in that color as n/c. Also, you wouldn't believe the number of Chevrolets that were painted the popular 1968-69 Pontiac color, "Verdoro Green"! I even remember a fair number of cars being ordered in the 1970 Chrysler color "Plum Crazy"!

As for the paint, Dupont would send an ample amount to both the Fisher Body facility and to the corresponding Chevrolet plant. All of this paint was "factory package" direct from Dupont, so color matching wouldn't be a problem.

Also, on all special paint orders, a quart of paint would be shipped in the glove box of the car, so that the dealer could do any touch-up, if needed. A note would accompany this quart of paint, recommending that the owner write down the paint number inside their owner’s manual for future reference.
Click to expand...
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
I talked with the owner of this car again last night and he told me an interesting story with the car that occurred sometime in 74 or 75. The second owner (who is related to the owner today...car's been 'in the family' virtually since it was new) had a mishap in the car one night and hit one of those orange construction barrels on passenger side of car. A local car dealership COULD NOT figure out the correct paint. Evidently it was matched up the best they could. The car is now at a hotrod bodyshop that is setup with a modern paint mixing center and computer reference system, etc. The paint rep is an old timer who hangs out there in the afternoons frequently. We have been all over the board with car digging into old books and scanned the color but that didn't work either. I found this forum and a link within it to the 70 velle paint card chip where we learned of code 53 nugget gold. Now at this point our computer reference stuff was pointing us toward code 53 Camaro gold poly but after mixing up several test batches we got close but no cigar. However the above mentioned Nugget Gold from the old car is nearly perfect. Here is where it gets kind of strange. We had a discussion with the paint rep about Canada GM and import car paint chips in general. He says that he does not recall, in all of his 40 years of being a paint rep, ever seeing an 'import' GM paint chip card...he says he has seen Ford but no GM. We showed him on the comp and he said he was going to research the paint shop's old stuff. He has still not found the Canadian formulas or any mention of Nugget Gold 53. All of this and we still don't even know that it is code 53 really. Owner wants the original paint and I don't blame him one bit...he is going with black interior. I just install it and it is his car...catch my drift? All things considered I don't think the black interior will hurt the car one bit. I am going to call Dupont about this Monday. I have seen the reference to "Anniversary Gold" and we are going to check into this shade as well.
Here is the 20 thousand dollar question...how frequently were Canadian colors used on domestic GM passenger cars, Chevelles in particular?
Is there a member of this forum who could learn anything about the car through it's VIN other than the standard information...the last five of the VIN is a very low 25000 number.
 
#15 ·
There is a very good chance (99%) its Anniversary Gold, which has been used on a variety of Chevy’s over the years, to commemorate various anniversaries.

The VIN won't tell you a thing about the paint, no records exist on these cars so there is nothing you can lookup. GM of Canada would be using the very same colors as GM in the USA.


I've also seen A LOT of original SS cars without a remote mirror (70-72s). What's up with that?
Click to expand...
? Remote mirror was not part of the SS option pkg in 1970, not sure on 71 and 72. I had a new 72 El Camino SS and I'll be darned if I can remember a remote mirror on it, I think not.
 
#16 ·
You will NOT be able to match the color using any of the modern formulas from today. The metallic is waaayyy too coarse. You might be able to tint some lacquer to get it closer, or live with the color difference of the modern paint. If you were able to find a build sheet, as I suggested, it would have the number written on it that could be decoded to a formula.
On a side note, the 70 used a big round shaped chrome mirror for a remote mirror. 1971 was the first year for the sport mirrors.
 
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Discussion starter · #17 ·
I know this is not the upholstery thread but I am an upholsterer and have been for many years and I must say I have never seen a build sheet under a carpet...ever. I have found build sheets in numerous seats however...BTW the only thing I have ever found under a carpet, document wise, was an owner's manual under the passenger side front carpet of a 58 Bel Air...in mint condition believe it or not...The most recent car that I discovered a build sheet in was a 71 Lemans white car...bench seat tucked up in some of the springs passenger side was a pristine but folded in four build sheet...car was a three owner passed from grandma to daughter to grandson...
Back to the LS6...unfortunately no build sheet...we actually have bought a few extra sets of seats to rob springs and the best parts. And we have aftermarket covers...crap really but it will do for now. As far as documentation there is only pics and a connection to all previous owners and other people who have known the car it's entire life. We will probably never get the paint right. Often we talk about how 'easy' it would be to clone this car. Presently I am researching the local library back issue newspapers from that era looking for some type of listing in the ads or some type of dealership photo. This car supposedly sat on the showroom floor until it was purchased.
Mr. Birdwell...couldn't one just use some metallic in a jar and mix it with a lacquer (sorta doing it the old fashioned way) and get something close to dead on maybe...I am just the trim guy I will have to ask the bodyman guys what they think.
Would anyone be willing to educate me about Canadian GM passenger car paints circa 1970?
I am going post the photos soon boys give me a week or so I got to go over there where the car is and try to gather up and scan all the old stuff...
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
mmurphy77 said:
I thought if it is a Canadian car that you could contact GM historical services and get copies of the documentation?
Click to expand...
It is not a Canadian car...it was built in Arlington...we feel it is a Canadian color...but then again it could be just about any type of gold under the sun...soon I will have some pics...I will say this it is definately some type of old school gold metallic lacquer...right now the car has been DA'd down to bare metal except for the interior surfaces under the back seat and around the b pillars and under the dash and thereabouts. One thing you guys will observe when you see the pics is the remarkably good condition of the metal throughout the car. The car hasn't been on the road since like the early nineties and it was garaged all the time back in the day when it was on the road.

Another note...apparently the car came with good old 14x7 standard silver rallys with chrome rings and caps...I was under the impression that most of these old SS Chevelles had the SS wheels but I guess some did come with rallys. Is this true? Did any of them come with hub caps I wonder?
 
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