65 Lemans paint question
 

Getting ready to paint my 65 Lemans. Color Fontaine Blue. Is this a metallic paint from factory?

Fontaine Blue was a metallic.

Metallics in '64 and '65 from my understanding used a pretty fine alum so might not look as metallic as a modern metallic and certainly not as metallic as the "Fire Frost" metallics that were offered by GM in those days which used a larger flake as I understand it.

Cameo Ivory, Starlight Black, Blue Charcoal, Montero Red, Mission Beige, and Mayfair Yellow were standard '65 Pontiac non-metallic colors.

The rest were metallic.

My '64 has just been done in the original Pinehurst Green Metallic color (using modern base coat/clearcoat), I think it looks awesome!

Also there was something in those metallic colors that caused them to fade very rapidly, especially the lighter ones. Fontaine Blue was one of those colors.

agree with JV .

the issue with fade and low gloss in those days on met. colors . they were not clear coated as modern day colors are. consequently the clear that was in the color had short life in covering the aluminum flakes thus the alum. would oxidize much like a aluminum wheel would with out coating.

John is correct in that modern flake is much larger and not of the same material. you can get close but not exact.

the answer back in the day was to lay down the color in Lacquer and clear coat it with Clear lacquer.

In my opinion nothing looks as good as Lacquer job with clear.

When we painted a car in lacquer that had metallic in the paint we would first lay down a couple of coats of straight color, then gradually mix in clear until we were shooting clear only. According to how it covered, it would take 6 or 8 coats to get from straight color to straight clear. Then we would shot 3 to 5 coats of straight clear, enough to give us enough to cut and buff. This way the metallic looked like it was 'floating' in the paint and you had better chance of it not 'tiger stripping'.

The Blue Charcoal on my '65 is metallic. I repainted the car in '85 using single stage enamel, and it's and exact match with the original paint still in the trunk, jambs, and behind the back bumper. Very fine metallic, but metallic, nonetheless. Car has never been apart/restored.

My bad, you are correct. I referenced Eric White's book, did not list Blue Charcoal as "metallic" but the PPG paint chip page for '65 shows it as "poly", shorthand for "polychromatic" which means it was a metallic.

Sorry for any confusion.