Metallic Paint

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Do any of you historians have any idea if P.A. offered a metallic

like paint(fish scales or oyster shells were used?)on a production

basis? What would the earliest year it was available be? I know that

Studebaker had it in 1932 and by ’35 Chrysler and Hupmobile could come in “metallic”.Info on the history of this kind of paint is difficult to come by.I would like to know it’s automotive history and

how it was received.

Thanks,Anthony Costa

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Bernie Wies may have information for you. Contact him by phone or U.S. mail. The factory catalogue for 1929 shows cars painted in what appear to be a metalic paint. I don’t have paint chips from the 20′ or 30’s from Pierce that show these paints, but they did exist and could be ordered and put on the ‘build sheets’ for these years. Pierce accepted many variations from the standard.

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Hi- if it is any use, the CCCA states in the judging rules that no points are to be deducted for metallic paint on any Classic built after November of 1927, I know the old saw about what “assume” means, that said, I assume that this specific date is based on good researched information. I see no other reason for it to be so specific in date. Hope this helps. See some of you guys soon, I’m starting to smell the chocolate! David Coco Winchester Va.

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Tony, bear in mind that metallic paints before World War II had very finely ground metallic components or ‘flakes.’ You may have seen the incorrect coarse-ground metallic (very obvious) in the maroon 1940 Cad 75 convertible sedan often shown at Ironstone Concours in Murphys. BTW, I’ll be at the Ironstone Concours Saturday; if you’re going, pls track me down. A good place to start is at the PAS NorCal canopy. VBR, George

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In 1931 the PA factory painted a series 42 D/C with a silver metallic including the chassis. The car was used in factory promotional photos.. It had a light blue interior and top with stainless Budd wheels. I actually purchased a body panel off the car in the 80’s and the paint was rather flat looking. It was also very light shade of silver with very small flakes.

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In the 1934 Color and Art Department sample pamphlet, the only metallic colors were silver, gold and copper which were striping colors. The metallic flakes was very subtle.

See you next week,

Rick

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