Colour and paint

This is a big subject, the kind where the more you know the more you realise you still have to learn.

In my limited investigations I have been assisted by a number of wonderfully helpful Lancisti, in particular Paolo Giusti (PG 1964 online) and Geoff Goldberg (some of whose Aurelia colour research can be read on his indespensible blog here).

So, keeping it simple, my objective is that when the car is painted I want it to be the same colour and finish as when new, as far as is possible.  Probably (I’m advised)  this means using cellulose (nitro-acrylic) paint of the kind used originally.  Find a supplier and painter capable of properly applying this paint isn’t straightforward.  In fact supply and use is outlawed in some parts of the world.

There seems to be almost limitless numbers of paint codes, questions of paint formulation (big ones like water-based, 2-pack or cellulose; smaller ones about different pigment types) etc.  In the mid 1950s Lechler was the supplier of paint to Lancia, but Max Mayer (‘Maxoloid’) to Pinin Farina.  More complications…

What colour was B20-2959 when new?  Now that I know the car’s shell intimately in every square centimeter, it seems to me that there is  no doubt the car was originally painted in the mid-blue seen all over the car where trim panels had been left undisturbed until I removed them.  There had been one re-spray, to a dark Lancia Blue, but this was obviously not a glass-out job.

In the next picture you can see the mid-blue colour in the upper windscreen aperture, on the ‘b’ posts and window mounting channels above (both  covered by undisturbed – as far as I could tell – trim panels from new until I removed them) and even the panel beneath the rear window.

Here’s a slightly murky shot of the left hand ‘b’ post.

So quite a lot of un-faded paint to go on.  But which colour is it and what’s the code?  Has any reader seen a B20 in the same colour?  I haven’t.  Is it standard or special order…

After much digging, and cutting a long story short (though it’s not yet over of course) I now with Paolo’s help have two possible colours, both Lechler.

1. Lancia: blu medio W2085
Lechler code: 1189
MM code (maxoloid): 1.202.7003
PPG code: 6838

I don’t have a photographic reference for this colour.

2. Lechler 8012 (NF8012) which is listed on Lechler’s website as a ’56-on Lancia Appia colour.

It is easier to find photographic references for this second colour (see below, photo thanks to Paolo), but it is not an Aurelia colour as far as we know, nor is it a Pinin Farina colour.  Hmmm.

The first series Appia seen below (currently for sale in Italy for 18k Euros) is a 1954 car and appears to be the same colour, but could of course have been re-painted.

Having tracked down a couple of possible colour candidates, I’m going to get sample panels sprayed in cellulose / nitroacrylic which I can obtain from a supplier not to far away from me (thanks due to Paul Gregory of the excellent Giulietta Register for this tip).

Paintshop Products
Unit 37, Youngs Industrial Estate
Aldermaston, Berks, RH7 4PW, UK
sales@paintshop-products.co.uk
+44 (0) 118 98 16216

Will report back once the panels have been compared to original paint.