Cord paint

My car was Palm Beach tan originally, kind of an ugly bronze-copper now. My wife is calling the shots on this one and has no interest in going back to the putty color, and she loves art deco design. As we are going for a driver and not a show car, we are opting to emply the old Auburn factory method of "calling the factory and requesting a optional color." Wish it only cost $25 extra to get any color you wanted as it did 70 years ago. Maybe someday when and if I decide to upgrade from a driver to something of higher quality (which means all the kids have to get through college) I can go back to the original.

Poor Palm Beach Tan was terribly reviled in the early days of the club. One editor opined that it "looked like dead putty". Now that we have become so sophisticated, we realize that it is a great Art Deco color for a Cord. Who knew?

Saw several authentic-appearing PBTs at Reunion, if your sample hasn't been changed by heat or oil I'd suggest either of Pat's ideas, and have it scanned by local paint jobber, after a light compounding & polish. The ACD Museum samples/formulas probably represent a lot of effort to get them right, and you could get a couple plaques sprayed up (either technique or both) to see if it matches your target, and compare it to some cars too, before commiting to a couple gallons.

Some day I'll go back to original color, also PBT.

Pat,
So Jon has the modern equivalent of the originals? How did the museum convert the paint formulas? How much was the "small" fee (for Cords, seems to be a relative term in the community, regarding parts, etc.)?

Thanks

EDIT:

cbs, I have several sections of the car with original paint, to include the firewall and underneath/near the pass side frt fender.

I recently purchased a complete set of modern paint formulas from Jon Bill at the ACD Museum archives. He can provide this to you for a small fee. The museum has two sets of original paint samples and also have some popular shades based on museum cars. Local automotive paint supplier and NAPA can scan your samle, but I found some problems with this also. Always have a small sample mixed and try it out.

I use an X-RITE photospectrometer, a hand held unit that measures color. Since the tints are different, these days the only thing that matters is the final outcome of the color match to the original.

www.xrite.com/marketsegment.aspx ... &Segment=6

Most people don't care because it's almost impossible to get 100% right, hence using an old favorite standby formula that's close. The real problem is getting the right color to use as your target. Top of firewall sounds like a good idea, now who's got an original?

After attending one of the ACD Auburn meets, I noticed the differences in tints/shades of colors. For example, my focus was on Palm Beach Tan. After asking around, some attendees stated that the particular shade does not matter, which is fine. One gentleman told me that they used 1962-3 GM Adobe Beige. The Barrett-Jackson 1962 Chevy looks great (see link).

I realize that the modern paints will be somewhat different that the old formulations, but it'd still be nice to know that you are as correct as possible.

For a car with some original paint still on it(firewall, etc.) , is there a way (laser, infrared handheld unit) to determine the closest match?

I found this chip chart on line and realize that it's a bit dark, but it's the only one I could find on line w/o going to the Museum archives (I am unsure how someone would convert the old ACME mix sheet with the tinting components on it).

www.autocolorlibrary.com/cgi-bin/search/.../ims/im1657-1674.jpg
www.barrett-jackson.com/events/scottsdal...l_list.asp?id=178468