Buick green engine paint.

Andy S

Member
Found the Dupli-Color Alpine Green Detroit Diesel engine paint looks like the Buick Green. Anyone else use it? About $8 for 12 oz spray can at several chain auto parts stores.
 
I tried some and it is not even close. Maybe if the whole engine is painted and looked at under the shade of the hood and parked away from some correct ones, it might pass...
Different brands may have a tint different than the one I tried. You will be closer to correct buying from a Buick vendor (but it will not be $8 :oops:).
 
Hi I used the Buick vendor stuff years ago and found it changed with time so the the new can from the same vendor is not even close. The Dupllicolor from Napa is much closer to the new can from the vendor. I doubt Buick ever got as fussy over this as the resto guys whose stuff is triple the price.
Licolor
 
Left is repainted breather with paint from Buick supplier years ago on a driven car. Under the orange decal about the same. Fresh can from same supplier shows fresh head bolt which I like. Bolt next to it fresh Duplicolor which is lighter. image.jpgBreather on far tight from a tired motor that needs rebuilt. Guess paint the whole thing at once and see what happens...
 
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Here is a 1953 Dealer Service Bulletin regarding Dupont close matches for the nailhead paint. Buick did not offer it for use in the field. These were used as body color on other vehicles back then:

93-71782 = '53 Studebaker
93-2908 = '39-46 GMC
93-55911 = '52 Lincoln & Mercury
93-57287 = '51 & 53 Ford
 

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So can we really ever know what was used on engines off the line? How can a judge know what is correct? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Gotta be a formula or chip somewhere! 🕵️‍♂️
 
I tried some and it is not even close. Maybe if the whole engine is painted and looked at under the shade of the hood and parked away from some correct ones, it might pass...
Different brands may have a tint different than the one I tried. You will be closer to correct buying from a Buick vendor (but it will not be $8 :oops:).
2005 BCA Judging standards say no deduction of points for differing shades of the correct color. P 13 Judging the engine.
 
As alluded to above, I think two different shades were used by Buick over the years. I too have used the Dupli-Color Detroit Diesel Alpine Green and it actually matched the color of my engine.
 
Found a green with a blue hue as bottom coat on my 1955 Special and the only coat on another motor from the same Wilmington De plant. My NAPA veteran remembers selling Buick green years ago. Photo shows old valley pan paint and DE1517 Ford Green on a thermostat housing. Alpine Green was a little too light and BEG ok but more green. Mask carefully as the overspray resits a wire wheel and brake cleaner. DE1517.jpg
 
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Left is repainted breather with paint from Buick supplier years ago on a driven car. Under the orange decal about the same. Fresh can from same supplier shows fresh head bolt which I like. Bolt next to it fresh Duplicolor which is lighter. View attachment 8984Breather on far tight from a tired motor that needs rebuilt. Guess paint the whole thing at once and see what happens...
The lighter color looks like Pontiac used in the 60's
 
I exhausted myself some 10 years ago researching the almost mystical legend of the correct nailhead aqua blue factory GM paint. Here is what I either discovered or concluded: Many of the folks offering a replacement "Match" to factory I think did so by using an original engine as a calibrator for correctness that had been on a low mileage, garage kept granny mobile. You get the picture. Anyways, regardless of how diligent the multi decades preservation from either low mileage and covered garaged car care may have been, these cars used leaded fuels for years before someone came along to attempt to match these preserved gems. The trouble with this is that leaded fuels leaves tarnish/varnish mist and attaches to surfaces and gets set by engine heat. Overtime this tarnish varnish turns yellowish and that over a factory blue tone will appear in various % grades of a now greenish tone rather than a blueish tone.

Follow my logic here ? So you see a lot of the so-called correct colored paints being offered as an overly green blue not the factory aqua blue. Some have stated, " ... well the GM's plants pushing these 50's cars out were located in various state locals and would use local macro suppliers for the paint and that is why you see some painted more of a green than an aqua blue ..." That may be as per the suppliers but they had to follow a standard established tone/tint ratio chart set by GM and if followed would not render wide ranges of greens and aqua blues you now see so I believe this reasoning to by void of validity and substance. Another fortunate event I had was to acquire a car that had literally not been driven since around 1970 and very little up to then with years of just sitting in a garage. The engine had a light coat of lightly viscous oil mist over it but with no rust or loss of paint except for minor chipping on valve covers and valley cover. After gently removing any engine grease via non surface attacking surfactants I had uncovered what I now believe to be the correct nailhead engine color for at the least a 1957 Buick assembled in the GM L.A. plant of the times. The valve covers and valley cover and a few spots on the block needed touching up so I used as my paint color "calibrator" some the valve cover oil cap which was very well preserved and appeared after light cleaning factory fresh and went and had the color matched by my local paint jobber in a Nason single stage urethane. The match was very close but not right on as they say. So got the toner/tints used in the formula and tweaked small samples until I had a perfect match. Used Dupont's enamel flattening agent 4515s to flatten the overall appearance to get that right on aged effect so as to match the rest. Then used my harbor freight pin stripping gun to apply where needed after preparing the areas clean and apply SPI epoxy as a primer then 12 hours later sprayed the paint on top to assure a good chemical bond. The mason paint is good past the 600's so the paint will last for all practical purposes. The resulting color is a true aqua blue with a hint of green tone very close to what Andy has posted above on the goose neck and valley cover spot paint. Would I do all this again from scratch ... ? Probably not and most likely no, but at the time I was enthusiastically nieve as it took much longer than I thought it would but the match now is perfect and I have a formula to fall back on when need be. If I had to do it again I would most likely just clear coat it with a high temp and be done with it. If the engine had not been so well preserved I would of most likely of just painted like a lot of guys do with what was easily available on hand and continued the too green or too ford blue legend that continues apparently to this day ... The two photos below ... the top one is as found and the bottom is after the cleaning with no touch up time just cleaned ....

Daves Roadmaster Coupe April 2 10-15.JPG

Daves Roadmaster Coupe After Cleanup September 1 10-3 3.JPG
 
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Sounds very labor intensive but probably the right track to take with a survivor vehicle like you have found! Good Luck in future endeavors!
 
This pan shows 12 year old BEG from restoration supplier on left. The right side is the bottom coat found from another Wilmington Delaware assembly 1955 264 motor. (plant demolished 2019) In the center is the stat housing in fresh Ford Green DE1617 by Dupli-color. Had to wait a day for NAPA to get it. Paid $7.69 for a 12 oz spray can.
 

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Here's a couple of photos of one valve cover painted with Alpine Green, Ford Green (What classic buicks sells as the later Buick Green), and CARS late Buick Green.

Inside:

I20150420_134932-crop.jpg

Outside.

20150420_135859-crop.jpg
 
Napa has a camera that will match your paint. I took my spark plug cover
in and they matched it up.
 
good photos but sorry none of them are even close to the original tint or color of factory Buick paint tone and hue ... even if someone attempted to color match via a computer or index card ... refer back to my photos of factory original paint on engine and compare. Remember old leaded gas takes it's toll from blue hues via oxidation and rendering the surface into a yellow lacquer turning blue into a green tone.
 
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