920 Gold

[JohnnyO]

I am a little confused. I was at a local paint dealer talking about ppg paints and have decided to go with the DP line of epoxy primers (I have already acid etched the car) and I had a sample of the 920 Gold made up from the PPG formula in the computer. I brought it home and applied some to an area that did not get sunlight of the last 40 years and the color was alot browner than the stock color.

To be honest it looks a lot different than alot of the 920 Gold cars I see online. I also hear it refered to as Safari Gold.

Is Safari Gold and 920 Gold the same color or was the early series 1 gold different than the 71 920 gold?

Thanks,

John

[Mike B]

Safari gold is Datsun code 920 and it is the same for all 1970-71 cars. Another member TVollnogle had this same issue recently. I know he had to work with his painter to get the right color match, but I'm not sure what the solution was. Send him a PM in case he doesn't see this.

-Mike

Edited September 13, 2009 by Mike B

[Arne]

Much has changed in the chemical makeup of paint over the past 4 decades. A formula that was passably close 30 years ago may not look so good when used with today's paints. Safari Gold is not the only color that suffers from this problem, most if not all of them do.

In my case, my painter started with a commercial formula for 905 red, but then custom tinted it to match the underside of the toolbox lids. The results were quite good.

[TVollnogle]

John,

As Mike said, I experienced this several months back with the 920 Safari Gold and could write a book on what I went through. I'll post here later today on my experience and resolution. At the time, it was suggested by several that I start a thread about it but I never got it done.

Terry

[Zak's Z]

110 Red is another color that isnt quite right when mixed with todays paints. I didnt have a sample so I'll have to live with 'close enough'.

[TVollnogle]

Hi All,

I’ll try to give the short version of my paint color experience.

I had decided to paint my formerly orange ’70 240Z with 920 Safari Gold during restoration since I had a ’71 Z back in the early ‘70’s that was 920. Since my painter uses Dupont paints, that is what I went with. I had wavered between single stage and 2 stage (basecoat/clearcoat) but in the end decided to use 2K single stage, then color sand and polish.

I took the body to my painter on the rotisserie and he shot the interior and engine compartment. After seeing the color, I was of the opinion that it was darker than I remembered the 920 being. I contacted Carl Beck and Jim Frederick down in Florida and sent color samples to them for an opinion. After comparing the samples to other 920 cars (Jim has one original and one of the Z Program cars), they both thought it was too dark.

I contacted Pierre at Pierre Z Car and Les Canaday at Classic Datsun since they had been involved in the Z Program cars. They said that they used Dupont paint on the Program cars and both gave me the same formula:

920 Safari Gold:

DMA 383 40.0

DMA 311 100.0

DMA 346 180.0

DMA 329 1030.0

Les still had a Nissan supplied 920 Safari Gold paint color sample with the formula on the back. They were to use it as quality control for checking that the colors were coming out correctly on the Program cars.

During this process, my painter was having the Dupont rep mix different samples to try to come up with the correct color. I lost track of how many we did.

In the end, I sent a sample board of the 920 in Dupont ChromaSystem basecoat/clearcoat (mixed with the above formula) to Les and he compared it to his sample board from Nissan. He said it was as close as you could hope to get it.

I ended up reshooting the engine compartment with Chroma One single stage, but used the ChromaSystem basecoat/clearcoat on the body since I knew from Les that it was correct. I didn’t want to risk another color variation due to changing paint systems. The reality is, now that the body is painted, the engine compartment in single stage and the body in 2 stage appear to be the same.

The problem with the original single stage being dark was that my painter had used another Dupont poly line (can’t remember which one) and due to the different base for mixing, the color didn’t come out the same as the original color like the Chroma line did. Dupont called the paint a “blendable color”, meaning it might not be dead on but should blend in when doing repair work. In my opinion: not so.

If you have any questions, contact me.

Terry

[bpilati]

This is great, because my Z is in the paint shop right now. They use Glasurit paints, and I just dug up the formula for 920 on the Glasurit website. So what I'm hearing is that the formula will likely not match the original color? This is going to be a long job too, they're going to strip in down and repaint. The guy also doesn't work on the car 8 hours/day because their other work comes first. I need to find the paint formula for the rear light trim panels.

[JohnnyO]

I dont have the code for the rear panels but Les at Classicdatsun.com does have the paint in rattle cans.

PPG lists the 920 gold as 71/72. I am pretty sure it was a 70/71 color but cant find that chip.

Hope that helps.

John

[JohnnyO]

BPilati: Here is the link to the ppg chips online:

http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1971-datsun-pg01.jpg

Terry, Thanks for the help. I might have to consider Dupont instead of ppg if that is the best match. I had a sample of the PPG mixed and it too appeared too dark.

Thanks all.

John

[Diseazd]

Brian.....I have a PPG chip(Safari Gold) for my 71........looks pretty close to the original to me and my painter......you can buy a pint and shoot a chip......remember 35 years of fading makes comparison difficult. Also, Chuck hasn't jammed anything yet.....will pass it on when he starts shooting. Guy

[a7dz]

I learned that there are two different paint formulas out there in the PPG world. Caused by EPA taking different chemicals out. The first 918 we mixed was no where close and the second one was spot on. The second one had some additives to get the color back. Did the mix a pint and see trick. In the end I think it was money well spent. I did use a single stage paint color sanded and polished it.

[Kathy & Rick]

Hey, JohnnyO!!

We stumbled across your thread and have an input. Color code #920, Safari Gold (which we always called Butterscotch) goes at least all the way back to 1969 Z #HLS30-00013 (which is that color), and was a popular color till the end of the 1971 model year production. It didn't carry over to the '72's. I can't say if any of the prototypes or mules were #920 or not, the only one I know among the first 12 is #00006 which was originally #908 dark green. This doesn't help match your paint, but we just thought you'd like to know.

All the best, Kathy & Rick