Solar Gold Paint Help
 

It's getting down to the wire and I need to order paint for my painter. I've been messing with spray outs of Solar gold and I'm not at all happy with what I'm getting. it's too brown and it has a green cast. I've tried several brands.

In restored TA's I see some that are a beautiful gold , probably not as original as it could be but really pretty nevertheless. TA specialties in FL has a good mix they use and I've tried to get some help there but they aren't willing to talk to me.

Does anyone have a base/clear brand of solar gold that looks nice or another gold that's similar but looks better ? I don't want to do a custom tint because I need 2 gallons and if I needed more it's a PITA to ever duplicate. any help or advice is welcome.

GM had trouble with the gold in the first place, issued several notices on variations of mixing it and to correct faults. And there was probably a lot of variation between the cars and panels done separately. I'd look up similar golds on cars of known paint codes and go from there instead.

I've been trying to do that for some time. problem is there are very few gold colors used in production vehicles and the few that there have been in recent decades are pretty wild .

This has by far been the hardest color to come up with I've had in my life.

Or find a few resprayed Y88 / Solar Gold Firebirds that look right and see if they say what they used, or send them a PM for ideas. Here's a random custom Y88, with gold tail instead of black.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...rans-am-3.html

I have no words of wisdom.
Gold colors are tough to match and duplicate.

Is it possible the spray outs were base, without clear on them?
Just asking....
Clear changes the look.

Seems like I’ve seen different colds of gold on those TA’s, or appeared to be.
Hope you can get this going the way you want!

Plus a lot were water based paint.


:eek:

78 Dealer Bulletin:


http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...1&d=1634846007




:)

I'll bet PPG Global is a nice match, but not cheap. 1 gallon of Global should be more than enough as its reduced 1:1 It covers extremely well. But you might want to get a price quote. your supplier should be able to mix up a small sample for a spray out test.

BC/CC ?

Interesting. glad GM had problems too that makes me feel not quite as dumb.

I did a spray out of Tiger Gold and Solar gold today. if they are not the same color the difference is very very small . Tiger gold is what I should be after but I thought Solar gold was a better color.

Maybe the Solar gold cars I'm seeing that don't have the brownish green tint are because the color was tweaked to clean it up and make it pop a little. or simply not true Solar gold.

So maybe I've headed off down another rabbit hole.

I have a 17 year old can of BC Solar that was a nice match at the time. I'll check to see what it was. I kept the can for reference, not because I thought it would last 20 years. :)

Not sure if this will help at all. I had re-sprayed the wheel flairs with DBU/CC on one of my 78's, but the more I think abut it, this was probably 20 years ago, so I don't know if this mixing formula will be of any use, but maybe?

I gave them one of the oem painted flairs to match the color
Matching my car might not match yours. but this car has original paint & the flairs looked & still look great as far as a color match.


https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1634864861

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1634864876

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...1&d=1634865943

There were 2 diff Solar Golds, I went through this at the paint shop. I have both somewhere, they even did 2 spray outs for me. 78,79 I think it was.
Primer color matters too.

For what its worth, I have the wheels on this car above painted incorrectly. At the time, I had sand blasted them & painted them with solar gold single stage. Looks good, but is not correct. Should have a slightly darker appearance.
I didn't know any better at the time. Just thought I would mention it in case somebody calls me out on the wheel color :)

I know this has been talked about with the paint and as I recall it was supplied/painted by the wheel mfg for GM? Was it suppose to be solar gold on the wheels & they just missed the mark a bit? Pretty sure that wheel gold ended up brighter on the machined face 1979 8" wheels & might have been brighter on the 7" 1978's ? Don't want to derail AMX guys thread, but seeing its sorta related I thought I would see if anyone can refresh my memory on the wheel color.

Here’s both

The gold rims were intentionally a different gold, Code 55. Or perhaps you were asking about the appearance of machined vs unmachined rims.

It always seemed to me that the 7" machined 1978 wheels had a slightly lighter color to them vs the 8" full painted gold. Thats part of what I was mentioning. But, I am not sure if there is a way to tell the 1978 7" wheels from 1979, so I cannot say for sure I ever compared their colors. 1978 8" of course is easy seeing its a 1 year only wheel.

I did not know there was a paint code for the 78 wheels. I sand blasted & repainted mine decades ago, & at that time there was not much info I could find so I just painted them solar gold single stage. I still have that paint can too. :)

My other 78 Y88 still has original paint on the wheels & it is noticeably darker, but that car has been repainted as well. I bought the 2nd car about 17 years ago, so it was after I re-painted the wheels on the car above. Now there are so many pics of these cars & wheels out there it seems like common knowledge, but at the time I painted, there wasn't much info out there.

I have a picture of my other Y88 that I got from a previous owner that was taken when it was only 3 years old & the wheels looked close to the cars color in the vintage picture but you can still see the wheels are a smidge darker, or maybe I should say a different shade of gold.

I guess thats what made me wonder if they where ever supposed to match, because they were close, just not quite there.

wow, those cards look really dark in that photo. almost brownish!

Guessing its the lighting in the photo?

Back to AMX's OP...... IF you can get past the sticker shock of PPG Global, have them mix up the smallest amount they have a formula for in solar gold & spray out a card. my guess is it will be a great match, then you can decide. ITs top notch paint & covers extremely well.

I painted my GTO in Global because everyones version of Verdoro green was vastly different. Paint shop mixed a small batch of global & it was spot on. I sprayed it against the backside of an original painted trunk lid to compare. While I just about tipped over at the cost, it does reduce 1:1 so you will have 2 sprayable gallons & its covers amazingly well. I painted my GTO, jambs & all & had nearly a quart left over. Convertible though, so that saved some paint. But a gallon of global should be more than enough.

Yes, it’s not in The sun.

What are the cards, 50/55 or 78/79?

The gold seemed to age badly on some more than others. The 78 seemed really gloomy but the addition of machined faces can also change the effect. Even restoring spares can appear brighter ones masking removed or spokes machined.

I have a few saved pics of NOS boxed gold snowflakes and even then they appear different variations of colour. I have 78 in the gloomy gold with next to no metallic, another that appears brighter and more metallic. I'll have to check the dates on the boxes, see if that affected anything as replacement parts after the factory run.

Somewhat related, has anyone compared the OER Snowflake gold to YearOne gold? Hard to compare to GM unless NOS and paint formulas don't translate.

AMX,
Found something interesting, may not help, but.....

Www.autocolorlibrary.com

So between the 2 solar golds would you say the ' 78 or the '79 is less brown and more gold ? in the two spray out cards there do you know which one is the lighter color ?

I'm not really trying to match anything, I'm just looking for a gold I like better than Tiger Gold but isn't so far off it jumps at you. I have a box of 1/2 pints I've chosen off the generic RM color cards that look great on the chip but a no go in real life. my car is a special order color car and PHS says there's no way to prove what color it was. I know it was Tiger Gold but I'm half tempted to paint it some other color why I still have some sanity left. this has by far been the biggest PITA I've run into in 40 years of doing this stuff.

I’ll post o pic of both in the sun.

So for 1980 the notes say solar gold code " 57" is a special formulation for this year. does anyone know if this would be less brown looking than 1978 or 1979 ?

Have a few spray outs made

Getting close to paint so I'm back on this.

Of the 2 solar gold mixes which one is the brighter gold vs more brownish gold ? '78 or '79 ? or is there enough difference to matter ? my paint shop doesn't have the 2 mixes just one so before I drive 150 miles to see what they can do . if anything.

I did a spray out of 1998 Pontiac sport gold and it pops pretty nice in the sun. slightly more red than it should be but it will work if Solar gold is as brown as it seems to be.

They say primer color matters too.
There a Chrysler Gold too that is nice.

primer color REALLY matters with golds and yellows...

Some of the newer paints are more transparent as they have been in the past. Whenever I test a paint color I do spray outs on a card with different color primers such as white, gray and black. I also place four or five pieces of tape over the cards and remove a piece after each coat. This then shows how many coats are required for adequate coverage. Since you’re more concerned with being light, consider a white sealer. I experience much trouble with pastels and pearls where this type of trial and error is necessary. Just another reason why I love painting black cars.

I’ve seen a y88 painted in the Chrysler gold, it’s real nice.

am following and learning from this thread as I plan to do a Sold Gold paint job is planned soon for my Y88. thanks all for the input

I did a couple spray outs of the 79 and the 79 formula and they both look like crap. maybe it's just not what I expected or maybe it's supposed to be brown but I'm not impressed. I'm thinking the 1998 Pontiac Sport Gold is the ticket. not my favorite color but still could pass as original but looks more gold than brown.

What I don't get is I've seen repainted Solar Gold that looks good, I'm thinking they either got lucky or they tweaked the color.

Are you going to use base coat/clear coat??? if so, did the spray outs have clear on them???

Just asking........

Iworked for a school bus dealer from 1998-2012. I met a wholesale paint salesman at a trade show. Nice guy we talked quite a bit. We had him pickup some samples of our paint that we used (special stuff from the bus manufacturer). He was sure they could match it and supply our dealer with some MUCH cheaper high quality paint. It was a good thought while it lasted. His lab guys that were REAL sharp could not create a good enough formula to do the jon. Yellows can be greenish, oranegish, redish, and maybe other shades.

Gold is an equally difficult colr to make happen.

AMCGUY, Steve, I am looking forward to seeing your finished products!!!
Jeff

With all the discussion on getting a proper shade of this color, etc. Why not just have the paint store color match an original part?
That is what I plan to do- bring a flare or spoiler to them to make sure it matches for my repaint. seems simple and have always painted my own cars. Am I missing something here? let me know before I drop the $$ for the color.

thanks

Even the factory offered a variation in mixing the Solar Gold paint in their Notices. Perhaps version 2 was one of these, or another again, to combat issues they had early on.

I think I saw a bulletin in 1978 for the problem matching the paint
How do you scan 45 year old paint that is faded ?

Here, lol

Actually, 2 guys have already mentioned and posted the bulletin for alternative mix, silly posts are showing in wrong order here.

Quick dodgy sun photo of the 3 main GM Gold paints samples used in those years.

50, 55, 56.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5b2e93e5_b.jpgGM Gold paint sample Solar 50 SE Gold 55 Burnished 56 (1) by Aus78Formula, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5fbda10f_b.jpgGM Gold paint sample Solar 50 SE Gold 55 Burnished 56 (2) by Aus78Formula, on Flickr

Curious which way AMX guy decided to go. I was selling new Pontiacs back in 1998 when Sport Gold Metallic was available for one year only on the new LS1 powered F-bodies. I loved the color enough that I had my '79 repainted in it (cheaply-1 day Paint and Body) I don't think you can go wrong with it unless you're going hard on originality, which doesn't seem to be the case/

My current Solar Gold car was repainted back in 2010 or so by a mouse-house of a "resto" shop I had it at in OC Ca. Long story, but I had no place to work on it at home and it had some rust issues beyond my skills and tools at the time. 2 years of lies later i had to rescue the car and most of it's parts before the shop closed and the owner skipped town.

Fast forward to present day and I've been back on the project for a couple years now and I'm getting to where I want to finish/touchup the paint. My research has led me to believe the following, some of which has been noted in this thread, but I have one additional point i don't think has been detailed out.

1. For 78-81 There were two different Solar Gold paint formulas and two different color order codes-first 50, for 78 and 79, then 57 for 80 and 81
2. As Aus78Formula has noted, code 55 was an accent, not a full body color
3 Now here's the kicker in 1979-color code 50 appears to have have been used for both formulations, the old and the new, with a VIN breakpoint of 9N120872 and under (first formulation)- and 9L125958 and over (new formulation) There's a 5k or so gap there, so perhaps the color was paused for a few weeks for the changeover? That's fairly early in the MY I believe. One source-https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorco...r=1979&rows=50

I think we can all see where this added gasoline to the fire...one color code with two different formulations and shades, within the same model year...

My current '79 was built before that, and therefore would have had the original 1978 formulation, I ordered up both formulations and did some spray outs and surprise!-neither one matched, which I chalk up the the mouse-house I referenced above. I've gone back and forth on doing a full repaint in the original proper shade or maybe even doing Sport Gold Metallic from '98 again, but at this time I've decided to what Steve mentioned-bring in a flare to have the (in my case non original) Gold color-matched and do my touchups and blending with that. I'll save a full paint job for another day.

Yes, it just goes on and on…..

I had 2 spray outs done years ago. I posted them.

So, yesterday, I went to my paint store in Mesa, Az and bought the color for my Y88. I used a part off the car to match. Color looks very pretty. Not sure how soon, i will start applying the color but, looking forward to it. I decided to go basecoat/dearcoat.

Space Age?

Absolutely! Yes, Space Age auto paint in Mesa, Az. If one is not local, they do ship. Space Age auto paint has supported Pontiac Heaven events for over 10 years. Please support them. thanks

Let's also not forget that the CA built cars were water based paint while the OH built cars were lacquer. This was also another issue back then. The water based paint was blotching and fading VERY quickly at the time. I have read somewhere that the water based cars were a real nightmare with warranty claims for paint flaws.

Golly, I hope your car is painted, by now!!!

Schinella was at my place for my cars and coffee, he said looking at my car, the Gold paint he wanted, GM wouldn’t let him do, I told him, I’d spay mine that formula if he could find it.
Below is mine as it sits. ( note the wrong sail birds from PG ) nice.

I like that shade of gold. It still looks like the origin Ppntiac color, but nicer, not as dull.
I have a 1968 Chevrolet pickup. 68 was the 50 year anniversary of the first Chevrolet pickups built. Chevrolet included the gold color that year to commemorate the anniversary. I'm sure the gold used was the same as that Pontiac color, it's not an eye catcher.

Thanks 77, I was wearing a TA hoodie on Woodward that day, a ex- writer form Pontiac Enthusiast mag asked me it the Y88 was mine, we talked for an hour about Pontiacs. Talking too about the So.ar Gold issue in 1978.
Solar gold is on most Paint chips, this one from DuPont has the chip