Paint codes

[Orrp01]

Purchased some epoxy primer today and was enquiring about getting 3BL lemans blue, the guy couldn’t find it under that code but mixed me a sample of Opel 236 Le Mans blue which looks about right. Can anyone confirm if this is the same as the Vauxhall colour?

[StefanM]

I very much doubt it.........why should it be the same colour?

[HC Fairley]

Here is a photo of the 2 side by side. They look the same to me.

[1972nail]

Many Vauxhall paint codes are listed as Opel in modern paint catalogues. I thought it was post 76 ones only but may be earlier too.

[HC Fairley]

The above photo shows Vauxhall 3BL Le Mans in 1969 on the left.

Opel lemansblau on the right was something like 14L or 14BL and it was from the 1970 catalogue I believe.

[Orrp01]

He spent a fair while looking through old paint codes and charts and I know different paint manufacturers use different codes. He said he thought he had found it and mixed me up a sample. I know it’s not possible to know exactly unless you have something to compare it against with you but going by what I’ve seen of the Vauxhall colour it looked damn close. I checked out the website that sells touch up and compared the 2 colours as above and they looked similar. Was just wondering if anyone else had came across this code. When painted on a metal lid and dried it matches perfectly my Le Mans blue Viva GT model lol. Think it should be close enough

[droopsnoot]

A lot of these older paint cards have the "recipe" on the back, showing what proportions of each pigment make up the colour. So that would be a good way to tell whether they're the same or not.

A mate of mine has boxes of them going back many years - if I remember next time I see him, I'll ask him if they're easy to dig out. The recipes don't help getting paint mixed, of course, because the available pigments are different. But it might help a comparison between two colours.

[droopsnoot]

Remembered to ask. First of all, this is Vauxhall Le Mans Blue, showing the paint codes for various manufacturers of the time.

This is the same, but for Opel Le Mans Blue. As you see, the paint codes for the various manufacturers are different.

I am told that if these were the same colour, then the various manufacturers would cross-reference back to the same colour code on their own list.

[droopsnoot]

Here is the recipe for the Vauxhall colour, showing the various ingredients and their ratios:

And here is the same but for the Opel colour:

As you can see, the make-up is quite different. I'm not quite sure what this is showing - I *think* that these are two separate recipes, one in each column, one has that top ingredient and the other does not, mainly because otherwise there would be duplicate colours and it would make no sense.

Again, if I remember next time I see him, I'll ask if there is more information in the front of the colour recipe book. It might be that the detail is only needed by the paint supplier / mixer, so it might not be explained.

[Orrp01]

Good to know thanks