Paint: things have changed

[caddy]

As each year passes I feel a bit more prehistoric than the last. Yesterday, I went to my local auto paint store in search of paint for my Domestic. Boy, what a surprise. I used to be able to provide the name of the color I wanted but nooooo........ "ya gotta have the number" OK, can you give me the number for XXX color? No, we no longer care what you call it, just the "number please"..... Well OK, how about the color books? Got any thing with colors from "a long time ago"? with no metallic in it?
Oh, we can mix any color from any era without it...."number please"
You get the idea. So, after searching in books with poor lighting and scuffed chips I officially reached my "too much fun status" and retreated home to my shop (where all is well)
So my question is this: How have you all been addressing this kind of stuff? All I want is a nice tasteful not to bright color (dark green) What are you all using? and what the does one do when there is no chance of cross referencing a name to a number? Anyone have much luck with off the shelf colors?
Thanks Gents
"CB"

 

[cobra428]

caddy,
You can try this place. They have a lot of off the shelf colors for restoration work

http://www.eastwood.com/

Tony

 

[hammers-n-nails]

this is probably a dumb question/suggestion but can they mix auto paint to match something you bring in like they can with latex?

 

[Foozer]

Can try HERE just enter green and a make, all types will show up. Some metallics, some not.

 

[Shadow]

Hammers-n-nails,

Some of the major auto paint stores can match colors. Some body shops also have a small hand held scanner that matches colors. IIRC they need about a 1 1/2"x 1 1/2" flat area.

I had a friend with a body shop match the color of my Unimat 3.

As for vehicle colors, I believe the body tag has code numbers that give the color.

 

[django]

I've always just gone into a car spares shop and picked a colour I liked. Who knows what the original colour of over 100 years ago was anyway? But if you are Hell bent on getting an authentic colour you could try the classified section of Model engineer magazine, there used to be a couple of companies who used to advertise a wide range of authentic colours some years ago.