Hues and Glosses

Now that I’ve really (and truly) decided on a color scheme for the LeMans, I need to find the paint to execute the plan.

For the exterior, I may have really lucked out in finding a great deal on the correct orange. My source for Kirker’s Wild Pomegranate paint, Bob at Discount Autobody Supply, just so happens to have a gallon of Carousel Red for fifty percent off. While they don’t ship gallons of paint, and his office is too far to drive to, he is going to be at Chryslers at Carlisle this weekend and that’s less than two hours from my home. The lovely Loriann has agreed to join me on my mission as long as I mix in some bike riding and a night at a nice hotel or B&B.

The interior is another story altogether. While the outside will be one-hundred percent gloss as most cars are from the factory, a correct interior is a mix of not only color (black and white), but also gloss. Paul Zazarine’s wonderful book “Pontiac GTO 1964-1972 Restoration Guide,” of which I own a copy, details all the different paint colors and glosses for the interior. His book says the upper instrument panel should be 0o gloss (flat) and the rest of the interior paint should be 60o gloss (semi-gloss). Black being black, finding it in flat and semi-gloss won’t be a problem. White, however, is not always white, and a search of the internet supported that. There is a multitude of whites available and a multitude of opinions as to which white is right. A number of restorers posted that Ford’s (gasp) Wimbledon White is a good match to the factory’s white. While I can find a spray can of that color, it’s for exterior touch-up and not semi-gloss.

So, when I visit the Discount Autobody Supply booth at Carlisle this weekend, I will try to get a pint of Wimbledon White, some flattener, and some instruction from Bob.

Orange You Glad You Went To Goodguy’s?

“Why did you pick that color?” the lovely Loriann asked me when I was showing her my paint plan for the LeMans. At the time, she was pointing to the swatch of Wild Pomegranate Red Metallic. That question has been haunting me ever since.

This past Friday I met my buddy Bill at the Goodguy’s car show in Columbus, OH. Early in the day I told him about all the sleep I’ve lost while trying to settle on a paint scheme for the LeMans. Being the wonderful friend he is, he spent the rest of the day pointing out different colors and schemes, each time telling me that that green or blue or whatever would be the best color for my convertible.

As we walked around the thousands of cars, it wasn’t the red cars that grabbed my attention - it was every orange car. I’ve always wanted an orange car, but I’d never been able to find the right shade for the LeMans, so I’d settled on red.

Saturday afternoon, we were wandering around a corner of the fairgrounds, when up cruised a ’64 F-85 hardtop heading towards a parking spot. The ’64 Oldsmobile has a body much like my LeMans; the car was painted orange; and I was smitten. I accosted the driver as he exited the vehicle and asked him what color his beautiful car was painted. He replied with two words, “Hugger Orange.”


As I excitedly snapped photos of the car, I noticed the interior was black, and immediately I began to wonder how the orange would look with the white interior I had planned for the LeMans. Since Hugger Orange is a popular Chevy for the late sixties, it wasn’t long before we came up on a ’67 Camaro with exactly the scheme I’d now envisioned for my car: Hugger Orange body, white vinyl top and interior upholstery, and a black dash and carpet. It looked perfect to me, so that’s the scheme I’m going to replicate for the LeMans.


Hugger Orange also has a connection to Pontiac. Carousel Red uses the exact same code and was offered on ’69 and ’70 GTOs as well as ’69, ’70, and ’76 Firebirds. According to the internet, the same color was also known as Medium Orange, Firecracker Orange, Ontario Orange, Monaco Orange, and Red Orange and offered on other GM products throughout the seventies.

So, for the time being (and I hope permanently), the paint scheme of orange, white, and black are set.