Datsun
Roadster Information from Rallye Enterprises,
Ltd.
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Quite
a few people over the years have asked us what color they
should paint their car. Most were inquiries pertaining to
questions on the original colors. Some people just couldn't
make up their minds and wanted me to do it for them. (That's
a good way to lose a friend!) I thought I'd put out my
generalized answer so all of you can agree/disagree,
snicker, be shocked, be offended, have a good laugh, or most
important...take a look at your own roadster and see if it
could use some sprucing up! The
color's got to be something YOU like. YOU are going to have
to pay for it, wash it and LOOK AT IT. To heck with everyone
else. Cars like the roadster are culture, whether or not
they are bone stock white or screaming, eye watering
metalflake yellow. When
we used to have a walk-in counter in the 70's I always
thought about putting in two doors and divide the waiting
room, like the animal clinics have for dogs and cats; except
in my case it would have been one door for the "keep it
original" people and the other door for the "keep the shell
everything else goes" people. People in between would be on
their own! I
don't want to be thought of as a fence sitter, just wide
minded! I like both groups of people but they sometimes
didn't like each other! I like seeing roadsters that are
correct down to the 5.60 tires with correct whitewalls. I
also like the other extreme. My favorite was a car that had
the rear axle and IRS system off of an XKE I think. The
entire thing with all the linkage pieces was chrome. The
front body had been welded together into a one seamless
piece that flipped forward, like a Triumph GT6. I never
found out what drivetrain ended up in it. The
original colors that were used on the roadster were for the
most part very mild. (except "Cherry Red" on the early
cars!) It was a very expensive car to own in Japan at the
time and I think they wanted the car's paint color to
reflect its status. As far as staying with an original
color, if you like it, great, but I wouldn't expect any
financial benefit from it at this point. Someday
maybe...when it's time to put the car in a museum. In the
meantime...in my humble opinion...YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE,
SO Sorry
I couldn't do any earth tones (gold, silver, copper) and
there are a few hundred other great colors out there also.
Check what was on the MGB in the early 70's. Nice...almost
all of them. And that rootbeer on the 74 Buick. Just doing
this section makes me want to stop working on this website
and go play in my own
garage!
ORIGINAL
COLORS (LHD
cars) The
purpose of a "chip-chart" is just to order touchup paint and
to identify your color if the original tag is gone. Looking
at a small piece of color in a book will not tell you what
the color will look like on your car. If you are really
considering going with a certain color, original or not, and
cannot find a car that has recently been painted that color;
you should consider having your body shop purchase a minimum
quantity of the color and paint at least a one square foot
of metal that they've probably got lying around. Keep in
mind that unless the care in preparation and painting is the
same as you are going to require on your car the paint will
not look the same. The color may be the same, but the "look"
of the paint will be different. (That's why even BEIGE looks
great on a Mercedes!) With
these color samples below I have tried to make something
that is more representative of what the colors would look
like if the sample was bigger. A true "chip" chart will look
different. I took a picture of a chip chart, compared the
digital images to the chart, adjusted them so they looked
close, and comparing the result to actual paint samples
found they did not give an accurate "feel" of the
color. I
went through most of our car inventory, peeling off never
removed smog stickers and paint stickers to find original
"kept from the light and air" paint samples. Even so, paint
can change color just from age, but it's as close as we can
get without actually mixing the paint. After taking closeup
digital pics and then comparing the monitor's presentation
of the color to the sample (usually a small piece of the
car's cowl) we again adjusted our colors to be as close as
possible. These colors look completely different from
sunlight to shade to artificial light. Different computer
monitors and/or operating systems can represent each color
differently as well. The lighter grays look like silver, the
darker one is just gray. Unfortunately, due to an
unacknowledged paint problem, all of these grays began
looking like gray primer within just a short time. Many
roadsters were repainted very early in their
lives. This
chart represents what we believe to be correct. Although
exported SP310s and SPL310s supposedly were painted in the
Turquoise and the Nissan Blue, I have never found one I
could prove was original. It's possible that they were only
on RHD cars. We keep hoping that one of these days someone
will turn up accurate sales records from Nissan showing how
many of each color where shipped/sold everywhere or even
what vin numbers were painted what colors. If any reliable
information lands on our doorstep we'll pass it on. As we
began this journey when the cars were relatively fresh and
have always had a bit of an information fetish, we've kept
notes on a lot of these tidbits, however, information from
any of you REAL oldtimers is ALWAYS WELCOME! PAINT
NOTES:
We are also providing the current PPG formulation numbers
where possible. (In case your paint store doesn't have an
old enough book) Some colors have been used by Nissan before
under different paint numbers. One paint number, 531 was
even used in the 80's for a different color! (Vail White).
Color #410 Pagoda Red, was used on the 312 and other
vehicles. The same formulation red was used on the roadster
as #524 and called Hustler Red. Cherry Red was issued under
#525, but previously was #415 (same PPG formulation#)
Turquoise #562 is the same formulation as Turquoise 170 from
earlier years. RETURN
TO TOP COLOR COLOR
# NAME PPG# 502 IVORY
WHITE 8408 503 GRAY 33026 505 THUNDER
BLACK 9769 524 HUSTLER
RED (prev Pagoda) 79913 525 CHERRY
RED 71535 531 BEIGE
GRAY METALLIC 39953 562 TURQUOISE 19924 563 SORA
BLUE 13165 567 NISSAN
BLUE 12520 655 OFF
WHITE 8794 664 SPANISH
RED 71812 665 YELLOW 81768 Available
records only show useage by calendar year, not model year so
you have to guess by your vin which year your car was
actually produced in. Keeping in mind that we believe some
of Nissan's paint records to be inaccurate (compared to what
we've seen) making definitive statements on pre-68 cars can
be difficult. Some colors may have been used only at the
beginning of the model year which would have been some
months before the calendar year expired. If you still have
your original paint sticker on the cowl, let us know your
vin and the paint number, we'll update this information. I
have yet to see any Nissan sales brochure for any year's
roadster production that lists the colors for that year, or
a separate paint chart from Nissan for a given year. These
were available for some of the older models. Of course, this
isn't hard to accept when you realize that Nissan didn't
bother to take new pictures of its cars from 67-70, deciding
instead to have someone "doctor" the old photos, with
somewhat humorous results. 63-65
1500 502 503 505 524 562 563 567 . 65-67
1600 502 505 511 525 531 563 . 67
1/2 1600/2000* *Some
evidence suggests that the colors for 65-67 and for
68-70 overlapped for a time on the 67 1/2 models.
Other information suggests that only the "68-70"
colors were used on 67 1/2s, which are the only
colors that I have seen. 502 505 511 525 531 563 655 664 665 666 . 68-70
1600/2000 505 531 563 655 664 665 666
511
666
SILVER GRAY METALLIC
GRAY
32536
32831
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