Original paint color of a 280

[CCC77]

Hi I am new to this message board so this question has probably asked but here it goes. I own a 77 280z and it is painted black. So I know that the first black Z did not come out until 78. I am going to restore it and I kind of wanted to paint it the original color. The paint tag had some black over spray on it, but I can still easily read the number. It is 216.

I searched the net and found all kinds of paint codes for 240/60/80’s, just not that one. I then found a webpage that sold touch up paint that had a searchable data base. I just put in the code and it came up with Datsun Polar White. I am just wondering if anyone out there can confirm this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Curtis

[mperdue]

Are you sure it's not 215? Also where are you? The only Paint code lists I've seen are for US cars. There could be differences overseas. Could you take a picture of the sticker and post it here? I'm sort of collecting information on early Z paint codes.

Michael

[Zrush]

mperdue

Please tell me that's not you or any of your relatives in your avatar! :tapemouth

Vicky

[mperdue]

Oh I just found the site where you can pull up paint chips by make and year.

http://www.autocolorlibrary.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl

Don't know how accurate these are and of course you can't select them by model. Anyway it could help.

michael

[CCC77]

The car is in Canada and 77 was the last year that cars could be in miles. Most cars in 77 were already in kilometers.

The car is still in miles so it could originally be from the US. I will take a picture of if as soon as I can to post it here. I probably will not be able to do it until the weekend. I have not had it on the road for about 4 years now and I have been trying to figure out the original color off and on ever since. I would have to say it is definitely not 215 or 214. I have even had a couple of other people look at it and they also say it looks like 216. Here is the web page that I got the white from: http://www.sherwin-automotive.com/formula/car_detail.cfm

I will post the picture as soon as I can. Thanks for your help.

Curtis

[fooldall]

Did anyone notice that this site is completely missing 81-83?

[MikeW]

Originally posted by CCC77

I am going to restore it and I kind of wanted to paint it the original color.

I would suggesting looking for some of the original paint. I just did a very thorough repaint yet there are still some places that we didn't bother with since the car wasn't completely stripped. For instance, the inside of the firewall up under the dash didn't get painted. You might be able to get a visual verification of what you think the color is based on the color code you're seeing.

[sblake01]

Originally posted by fooldall

Did anyone notice that this site is completely missing 81-83?

Missing 81-83 what?:cross-eye

[fooldall]

No, sorry, let me rephrase:

The Paint color site is missing colors from the 81-83 year 280zx's. It jumped right to 84.

[sblake01]

Originally posted by fooldall

The Paint color site is missing colors from the 81-83 year 280zx's. It jumped right to 84.

Most of us here wouldn't really have noticed since this site deals mainly with 70-78 Zs.

[fooldall]

:disappoin

[CCC77]

Well I finally got a picture of the paint code, so here it is. I did also find white paint in the car so I am pretty sure that it was polar white like the paint site says. Also as far as the 79-83 280zx's go I have an 82. Its paint code is 072 Dark Brown.