Buick NightHawk & Free Spirit Factory Drawings

[PeerStalkHawk]

Hey guys, I have followed a lot of the posting in this section and figured I could give you some answers and maybe give a little more mystery about my '77 C06 Skyhawk. It's all your faults for putting up all this newer information and making me think about it now! . My car does appear to have the Accent-a Color treatment on it with the slightly off-white vinyl seats, headliner, A-pillars, and upper door areas contrasted with another color for the rug, lower door panels, dash etc., and I'm not even so sure is red now given the options shown. The exterior was never repainted before I got it and restored it. The long-time owner and body man at the shop which restored the exterior on mine said it wasn't re-painted prior as they had to strip it down and remove the original trim and etc. to properly prep and redo it. The exterior color was/is Metallic Orange(Code 78*) and I can say that now for sure given the only options and information posted here recently has the asterik for Metallic by the color Orange for '77. It was/is an off-orange which was unique and hard to describe and now the Metallic qualifier really helps knowing that now. It isn't a regular orange by any means. Before it was redone, there were also the white(slightly off-white) vinyl and chrome trim moulding strips and thin white body side stripes on the car too as the originals would have been. The real mystery now is the interior Accent-a-Color thing. I always thought the interior was a little different red that sure seemed to have an orange tint to it-especially the rug color as it did really seem a little different as if it had a lighter tint of something-such as orange in it. Thought maybe it faded a bit or something since also this was the first what I thought was red/white interiored H-body I had owned. But now I'm not so sure that it is the red and it might be orange as the '77 car report shows as well as the '77 Buick Vehicle Ordering Guide. The Car Report and '77 Guide shows that only the Orange Accent-a-Color interior was only available on an orange car and no red Accent-a Color option was shown for an orange* exterior colored car. So that might explain the off-red color I always thought the interior has. I have the car in storage for a little bit right now and will have to really take a closer look at it when I get it out soon and check the tag, paint code, and etc. I haven't found the build sheet yet but have never really been looking for it either and of course that would help. Thank you guys for the recently found info. and me learning a few more things about my car! I always thought it was hard to describe the car's colors it but now I know why! Also interesting is that its seems most of the 231 v6 engines in '77 were odd-fires and that the so-called mid-year change sure didn't result in too many even-fires in '77. That I always figured as usually they are closer to putting out the next year already by mid-year which would run closer into '78 production for the even-fires. The low-port even fire 231 would be a little "rare" by the numbers too then one would think as they were really only made for a year before the taller-port even fire came along......Thanks again guys, Dean.

[fyrftr50]

For 1977, I have found Orange (RPO 78) for the 77 Skyhawks, but not in metallic, but then, Starfire has the colour Mandarin Orange Metallic which is also a code 78 and Chevrolet has a code 78 Orange Metallic, Pontiac has just Mandarin Orange, which is also a code 78, so I guess it stands to reason, that they are all one-in-the-same, a metallic orange, which is apparently ... Mandarin, lol. Why Buick and Pontiac don't specify it in any of their Lit is beyond me, but a lot of H-Body stuff is beyond me in understanding too, lol.

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[PeerStalkHawk]

Brian, that is some surprising information by the numbers that's for sure! I talked to a few family members and my girlfriend today and they pretty much all think/recall that the rug has an orange color to it so that could be right. They also think that the Metallic Orange exterior would be a closer description to both the original and repainted color as the body shop did say they matched the original color with even the original kind of paint. I believe they did a really good job too as I know the before and after on it. And as I mentioned ealier, this orange was quite different than the usual shades and was pretty hard to describe until now. Metallic does help to qualify it better. I will try and get that cowl tag info. as soon as possible Brian. Sure wishing I had this car from new!-but then again, I'm sure I'm not the only one here!...... Dean.

[Kev442]

The burnt metallic orange was pretty popular on the Regal, looks like this:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3212710

Strangely, I drove a '72 Dodge van that when I needed touch up paint, I bought the Duplicolor for '77 Regal and it matched exactly!


Wow! I just noticed when testing the link that the Regal is in my hometown! I've never seen it around tho.

[marco_1978_spyder]

I have a picture of my orange-red car next to a burnt orange 77 spyder. Awesome color, and what I really wish mine had.

For your carpet color, take out a rear seat cushon ( spring locked in place, push in at the center underneath the cushion), or move a front seat to look at the carpet under the seat.

[PeerStalkHawk]

Here's something really interesting for you guys: I got a few pictures of the cowl tag coming but it was not the best lighting in my storage so will have to see how they look before posting up. But for now, I will put up my tag for you as it appears-I wrote it down too as it looked with the correct spacing. The big mystery again here is that it does not seem at all to resemble the stated color if that is right but I will let you guys figure........It just says this:
10D 044 325

4HS07 138434

75L 75U 11A 07N

And once again, if that is a bright red exterior color according to the tag, I don't know what to think as it had/has a lot more orange than red I think!?.......Is there any other explanation? I also have one spare original rally wheel that seemed to be the same as the original body color and it too appears to look a lot more orange than red.....so go figure. I have to work soon but I look forward to your input, and I will try and get one of the pics of the tag up I have if one turned out okay in the poor lighting.....Thanks in advance for what you can find!........Dean.

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[PeerStalkHawk]

Brian, not too sure what's up with the color and it sure puzzles me a bit. For example, I know that when the body work was done areas like the rear hatch window trim grooves looked to be in excellent shape according to the owner/body man at the shop and he said that none of the original trim was ever taken out before that. He said that area can usually be a bad spot due to water settling in there. Point being, that if the car was never re-painted before I got it done again, and it's now the same color as before-(and I know the before and after too), it just seems odd that the color looks to be more orange rather than even red if it was called bright red. And it looked the same before re-painting it too. I wonder if any of the members could post up a few really good pics of both original orange and bright red colored cars if they have any from brochures or their own cars. Looking at the '77 Buick color charts on the computer doesn't really help much as I think the colors may look a bit different on the computer. For instance, the orange on the charts posted here doesn't look too orange either and the bright red does not look like mine either really. My car looks more like/or has at least as much orange as red in the color really, so unless the color codes are vaugely dipicting of the true end color something is strange to me about it. So a few factory or member's pics might help to compare to. And thanks a lot for the compliment and research Brian, I do try to keep the car A BAD A...HAWK...(because if I wasn't so good to it, it wouldn't be so bad)! .....Dean.

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[fyrftr50]

Yes, i beleive that is the burnt orange (not called that though - I think it was Camel Metallic) that Marco was talking about.

As for the bright red/orange discussion, if you look at Marco's car in various lights, you would swear it is orange or a red/orange while at other times it is a deep red. Marco will admit, and has repeatedly, that the red used by GM at that time was very much a red/orange colour which could very well be the reason for confusion with your recollection of the original colours. As well, red interior, especially the carpetting, turned very orange due to the sun's effects on the dyes.

[marco_1978_spyder]

Yes, that is correct, GM's "chevette red" which was the red they used on most everything but the corvette, in the 70's.

Its a tomato red, that is a known as an 'orange-red' More red than orange, but there's and orangeyness too it.

Bryan, I think Camel was more of a tan color, and that car pictured above it the 'orange metallic'.

I'll have to dig the pics out of mine next to the orange one.

[fyrftr50]

Marco
That's what I thought till I looked at the paint chips I have for 78, the Camel metallic seemed the closest, but then again, those things never really show the true colour anyways. I can't recall exactly what colour that beaurtiful Spyder was. Orange metallic sounds good to me.

[spyderman1977]

For what it is worth....RED in any shade is the hardest color to match paint wise. I found this out when I was trying to match the red for the wheels on the Free Spirit. The red for the wheels are a special/custom color so to speak from the window sticker and on the Pace car Century's. I took a wheel over to a couple of Paint/Body supply stores and even after buffing a small area under the trim it was not completely possible to get an exact match. I am going to try some places around here to see if I have any better luck.

The problem with red is that the amount of orange tint used in red. All red's bascially have a small amount of orange tint in the formula. I found that out from mixing and matching paint at Wal-Mart. That is why when you see a red car thats faded you see some orange tint to it. Oh yeah if the red is more to the burgandy or maroon end of the scale then the orange tint begins to fall off.

I know that I had spent many hours talking to Doyle about the different color codes and some different cars that had orange or red paint.

Paul

[PeerStalkHawk]

Actually I went to talk to Hector at Hector's Auto Body where my car was done, and he said not to go by the color description that the factory uses as they don't always look like the stated color for the code. And he didn't deny that the color has an orangy appearance in it. He said the color was done the same when it was repainted so it looks like you're right about the color being the bright red paint code. When I asked Hector, he was also sure that the car was not repainted before I redid it. He knew a lot about the original types of paints and colors and he mentioned that firethorn was a popular color on a lot of Camaros he used to paint. I was doing some research on the better types of paints and it mentions a lot about urethane being really good. I had thought he said he used the original kind of paint but he said he didn't-he just must have meant just the original kind of color. He said he used single-stage urethane on mine which is actually good to know. He says it really does stand up better than the original paint which would often chip easy. Some articles also commented on acrylic lacquers and enamels being okay as a choice sometimes in certain applications, but not quite equalling urethane in general. Hemmings had a good article saying that the lack of lead in the paint and newer formulations aren't as good as the older types once were. One of those articles stated that for acrylic enamel lasts 5-10 years with normal use, where as some urethane paints had indefinite lives if well kept. A lot of the older paints had to be "baked" and applied in booths. Urethane paint truly adheres. Apparently urethane is pretty hard too. Just figured some of you might want to know a bit of this. And so the color of the car must be bright red and maybe the rug could have changed color a bit over time a bit as was mentioned as a posibility. Here's a couple links to some quick articles on the paint:
http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/200 ... ture8.html
and http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-di ... -paint.htm

........Dean.