Special paint decoding on 69 conv.?

[JohnZ]

I have a Hot Rod magazine from the late 60's which has a complete GM crated mid year vette body in the For Sale section in the ad it stated only a few were made... could this have been one of these?
Or were the ones referenced complete finished units?  

That's probably one of the "primer" units.

[hgger69]

Hakan, in 1969 the term 'special paint' covered stripe delete, a stripe in a non-standard color, or a paint color that was not one of the regular Camaro choices (except Firemist metallics as James stated). The CRG exterior color use estimates table indicates that around 1.5% of 1969 Camaros had special paint. I don't believe that there is any further breakup of how that 1.5% estimate was shared between the 3 possibilities above, especially as a car could have been ordered with 2 out of the 3, such as non-standard color, and no stripe. Without anything on the trim tag to confirm, unless a '-' car still has known original paint, or genuine documentation, it's owner cannot provide the CRG database with solid info on how the car was painted.

Thanx for great answer, Tim!
This car occurs to be a standard V8 convertible so in this case the - most probably stands for non standard paint color, am I correct?

[ZLP955]

Does the car still have the original engine? If so, what is the pad stamp suffix?

[hgger69]

Does the car still have the original engine? If so, what is the pad stamp suffix?

No, sorry Tim I don't think so! It was completely restored in the beginning of 2000 and they had no idea of originality!
The car is now like 200 miles from here and was just passing by......

[ZLP955]

Well just considering the engine options available for a convertible, if the VIN on that car was definitely for a V8:
Any of the SS RPOs would have normally had the D90 stripe, so special paint could've been for non-standard paint color, stripe delete or non-standard stripe color.
On the other V8 engine options 307, 327 and 350 (LM1 or L65), a stripe package D90, D96 or DX1 was optional. That I believe at least rules out the stripe delete possibility, making it technically more likely that non-standard Camaro paint color would be the more probable on a special paint car.
I would be interested to know if you ordered (for example) an LM1 'vert and wanted an optional stripe but in a non-standard stripe color, would this trigger a special paint (-) trim tag? I'd think so, as Fisher would've needed to identify the non-standard detail, but then again the trim tag didn't address stripe color (or even which stripe option, for models that had optional stripes). Thoughts?

[Mark]

The (-) code technically means "special pant instructions"  it was a que to the paint shop to check the paperwork that accompanied the car body as it was built for the special instructions.  Unless it was a Z28 (stripe delete, or non standard color stripe) or possibly a big block (no tail panel blackout) it meant special paint color, or treatment (extra polishing for a show car finish, etc.)  All of the D90,D91, D96, DX1 paint stripes were done by GM, not Fisher so the (-) would have been meaningless to Fisher.

[hgger69]

Thanx Mark and Tim,
Now we know a lot more regarding this - code!

[ZLP955]

Good point about stripe application Mark. I had understood that Fisher did some striping in the paint shop (from the Assembly Process article reference to Z28, and particularly the Z10 and Z11 which had D96) and because the D90 hockey stick stripe was broken up across the leading door edge (paint and decal). But as the front sheet metal was painted by Chevrolet, it would make no sense to paint (for example) the rear, and door section of front, D96 pinstripe by Fisher, and the fender part by Chevrolet. Thanks for pointing that out!

[JohnZ]

Good point about stripe application Mark. I had understood that Fisher did some striping in the paint shop (from the Assembly Process article reference to Z28, and particularly the Z10 and Z11 which had D96) and because the D90 hockey stick stripe was broken up across the leading door edge (paint and decal). But as the front sheet metal was painted by Chevrolet, it would make no sense to paint (for example) the rear, and door section of front, D96 pinstripe by Fisher, and the fender part by Chevrolet. Thanks for pointing that out!

You'll see this snippet in the "First-Generation Camaro Assembly Process" paper, under Chevrolet, Final Line Operations, Other Operations:

"..pinstriping fixtures were applied and Z21/D96 pinstripes were painted with Buegler roller-striping guns, and D90 door stripe decals were applied."

[ZLP955]

Yes I did John, went back and re-read it after Mark's post.

[Kelley W King]

My 66 GTO which Tiger Gold has SPECIAL on the trim tag. I got my build sheet from PHS and it says SPECIAL. I also got a letter from PHS that says no records were kept to say what the color was. Wonder how the line new what color.

[firstgenaddict]

Was it a show car or just special order paint?
The line would have had additional paperwork to reference, were you able to find a broadcast sheet in the car?
If so it may have the paint code written on it much like many of the chevelle broadcast sheets on Special paint cars.

[Kelley W King]

I don,t have much history on the car except what PHS sent. I only know it was Tiger Gold from pictures from the restoration in places a respray would not reach.

[VINCE Z28]

I could be mistaken but didn't some of the 1966 GTO's for the Thom McAn Shoe give away have that color?

[Kelley W King]

Yes they did. But from what I have read they advertised 66,s but by the time it happened they were 67,s. I am not sure if there were 66,s in the giveaway or not. Maybe Jim Wangers knows.