I need to know which two shades of green were used for the two-toned green combination on the '57 Special. Mine is currently only one color, code LL, but my dad's brand new '57 had the two colors. I have an original advertising poster for the '57 Roadmaster with the same two-toned combination I'm interested in, but the poster says nothing about paint.

Also, this two-toned combination was accented by red wheels and red paint in the sweep spear. What is the correct paint code for this red? Thanks much.

JWR,

Hopefully you haven't painted it yet! There were 6 green shades for '57 (from the Chassis & Body Parts Book of '57):

Code Name Duco #

H Kearney Green 286-57923
J Belmont Green 253-90698
K Mint Green 253-90669
L Jade Green 281-90840
U Gulf Green 281-91522
W Hunter Green 286-91523

How the code / colour name relates to real world paint mixing, I've got no idea.

I'd suggest your best bet would be to select a preferred paint type and brand and have it mixed to the colour shades in your brochure. It sould be fairly accurate assuming the brochure hasn't faded...

The same goes for the sweapspear and wheels. I don't know of any codes for them. I'd suggest they were one of the body colours. In the Parts Book it has numbers for engine colour spray packs etc, but nothing for the wheels.

There is a paint chart in the '57 section of the web site which may be of interest.

The reddish sweepspear paint was called Tangerine and is Dulux mixing formula #56505H. Green #56515H and Blue #56516H were added for this application on 3/1/57.

A Product Service Bulletin was issued later on during the year on how to refinish these trim pieces. The blue and green parts must not have been too common. Their part numbers were later cancelled. The factory then instructed dealers to order Tangerine parts and to repaint them.

My '57 has a light blue sweapspear, but I think someone painted over the original tangerine. I think the wheels were originally tangerine and someone painted over that, with dark blue.

I noticed recently in a book on Buick Muscle Cars, a photo of a '56 engine which is exactly the same colour as my '57. Does anyone know if they were the same?

Thanks to Bob, Todd, and Woody for the paint info. about my '57. Much appreciated!!