Having the BLUES over blue paint

[madkaw]

Take a look at the pics of this car. I have been trying to match paint for some touch up. I was convinced it was Nissan 115 code, but that color is darker then whats on the car. The paint code by year should be 903, but 903 is much darker.

The story goes, that when the car went to the painter, they guessed the code by looking at a faded code sticker on the radiator core. The numbers are so faded that they could have put 305 color on this car.

Anyway, if you think your blue paint is this color, please chime in. Like I said, this color is several shades lighter than the 903.

[240260280z]

Looks like 903 to me however if there is metallic flake in it use 115.

70-78 Datsun Z Paint Code Gallery

Edited April 24, 2013 by Blue

[Gary in NJ]

Time, UV light and the eye of the painter/mixer all affect color. Your best bet is to bring it to a paint shop so it can be color matched.

[madkaw]

Now Blue- I thought you would be the expert, you know what i mean Blue-

I tried 115, still too dark.

I will try someone that does color matching, not sure where that is.

Looks like 903 to me however if there is metallic flake in it use 115.

70-78 Datsun Z Paint Code Gallery

[madkaw]

The only other Nissan color that is close is the 307-which I could see someone mistaking a faded 903 numbers for 307.

I will see if I can get a paint shop to match.

[tlorber]

Assuming your car has tool boxes behind the seats, you might pull off one of the covers and look at the paint on the underside. They tend to be pretty pristine since they are not exposed to sunlight.

Edited April 25, 2013 by tlorber

[240260280z]

some examples here:

Datsun Paint and Codes - Body/Interior - Ratsun Forums

[26th-Z]

The 903 dark blue pictured in both links is a Vintage Z most probably restored by Pierre. So what you're looking at is a copy. A PPG product. Blue, as a color, tends to fade quickly like reds fade. But there are many sources for the correct color here...search the archives. MikeB has an original 903. Les Cannaday would know. I don't know if Pierre is still around. Best of luck. Blue is a real snazzy color on a Z.

[ollie]

This will be of no help at all but that car looks amazing, if I only had room for another that would be mine...good luck with the sale.

[Carl Beck]

some examples here:

Datsun Paint and Codes - Body/Interior - Ratsun Forums

Nice - looks like every picture of a Z was taken directly off the color charts, contributed by Michael Perdue on the Z Car Home Page. 70-78 Datsun Z Paint Code Gallery

In the picture presented - the color looks closer to 903.. but it could just as easly be presented as a 115 car. You would have to see it in person.

FWIW,

Carl B.

[hr369]

I have been trying to match paint for some touch up.

What kind of touchup? just filling in rock chips or panel respray? if its just filling rock chips you don't need to get a perfect match.

If its a small panel respray you would need a buff out in the surrounding area and a closer color match. I've gotten real good rusults with those machines that the paint supplier uses. If you're real adventurous you can ask for a tint

package and tint the paint yourself. Trying to guess what color code they used is

well... guesswork. What we did in the bodyshop I worked when we got resprays

and had no idea what paint mfg or color code was, we would get out our

paint supplier chips and put the car in the sun and match it ballpark. taking note of metallic size or lack thereof. Then we would spray a little test panel and put it beside the car in the sun. We would then look at it from different angles and different distances. Even if they used the exact same nissan color, you will get a some crazy wild color differences due to spray gun air pressures or spray technique

and if the color is transparent the basecoat will affect the color and lastly fading

due to age.

I remember one car in particular. The lady was a bad driver and had taken it to

many body shops in the past for repairs. It had so many different spot repairs

and color variations. There was no way we could match doing a butt joint type panel spray. We had to blend using sharp angle body edges and blending into

adjacent panels to fool the eye.

Edited April 28, 2013 by hr369

[Stanley]

I don't know if Pierre is still around.

Pierre is getting older, but from the look of two of his latest wild track cars at the MSA show yesterday, he hasn't settled down yet. I'll post some photos in the chit-chat forum when my online connection gets over it's slow-down.