Re: dark green paint code ?

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

On the dark green paint code question, Kevin M writes "My 74 Spider has a 
code of PPG 219 for "Verde Inglese".

The question had come up about a dark green on a Berlina. Generally, Spiders 
have one set of colors, other Alfas have another, with only occasional 
overlap. Before Arese opened, Bertone, Touring, Zagato, and OSI each also had 
their own colors as Pininfarina did for Spiders, but during the Arese era it 
was just the two sets of colors. In the late sixties the Body Shop Manual 
listed thirty-three colors, of which six were identified as "P.F." colors; a 
few of the others (like AR 716, Grigio Grafite) were used on both Spiders and 
tintops, but generally there were pairs: Rosso Italia P.F. on Spiders, Rosso 
Alfa on coupes and sedans; Bianco P.F. on Spiders, Biancospino on coupes and 
sedans. In the 1972 chipchart there were six Spider-only colors, one 
sedans-only (#516 Ambassador Maroon), one coupes only (#525 Raspberry), seven 
shared by coupes and sedans, and just one (#727 Silver Metallic) shared by 
Spiders and coupes/sedans. Similarly on the 1978 chipchart there were seven 
Spider-only colors, seven which were coupes or sedans, and just two (black 
and ivory) which were used on all three models. In the 1981-1985 period there 
were twenty-two colors, eleven of them Spider-only colors and nine 
coupes-only colors, with just two used on both coupes and Spiders. The list 
of names may look like there were more, but one can be fooled; the black 
Spiders used a different black (AR 914) than the black coupes (AR 913). The 
black metallics were different too: AR 907 on the Spiders, AR 908 on the 
coupes. There were four silver metallics in this period; one coupes only (AR 
748), two Spiders only (AR 762 and AR 765) and one which was used on both 
Spiders and coupes (AR 754).

This may seem a trivial point, but an owner or a body shop which assumed that 
make, year, and color name were enough for a match could make a mistake. The 
coupes and sedans built at Arese often shared colors, but the Spiders, built 
by Pininfarina, usually did not.

John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1290
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