Vintage Ferrari colour compendium - CONFIRMED COLOURS ONLY! | FerrariChat

Vintage Ferrari colour compendium - CONFIRMED COLOURS ONLY!

Discussion in 'Vintage (thru 365 GTC4)' started by davemqv, Apr 6, 2018.

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  1. davemqv

    davemqv F1 Rookie

    Aug 28, 2014
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    This is a thread I've been meaning to start for a while. I thought that since there are so many questions about colours related to vintage Ferraris,and so much misinformation around on the web, that it would be good to have a record of VERIFIED factory colours, with photos, that people can reference all in one spot, instead of hundreds of different threads about "blues" or "reds" etc.

    The rules -

    1) This thread applies to FACTORY paint colours offered up through the 365 GTC/4 (Fchat definition of vintage). Resprays and restorations are ok, as long as the colour can be confirmed. Dino colours are included.

    2) Please ONLY post pictures and colour names here if you are absolutely sure you are correct about the colour name being correct, and can confirm with paint sticker showing name/code, or build sheet/shop records, etc. showing the same.

    3) Please be SPECIFIC about colour name, whether it's solid or metallic, and provide a correct paint code. If the car or pics you post are not your own, please say so. That way in case of a disagreement differing opinions can be "weighed" based on the poster's access to the actual colour.

    Hopefully if everyone follows those rules the thread won't get junked up with misinformation or arguments, and over time we can build a strong record of factory colours in different lighting conditions.
     
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  2. TTR

    TTR F1 Veteran
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    #3 TTR, Apr 6, 2018
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2018
    Re: Rules ?
    So how exactly have you confirmed/verified each of these shown samples being "absolutely sure" correct and matching to originals ? Build sheets ? Seen them in person and compared colors to sample swatches or actual cars wearing the paint it left the factory with and not just finding claims or potential "misinformation" from the inter webs ?
    Just curious.
     
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  3. of2worlds

    of2worlds F1 World Champ
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    Since we are talking colors - Here is a Giallo Fly story courtesy of Nathal Beehl>
    Lots of nice theories and stories out there, but this is the correct version.
    Giallo Fly was created by Fiamma Breschi. She says in her auto-biography that "-the Drake had given me a mandate to deal with the materials and interior fabrics and shades of colours", and so she created Giallo Fly. This story is verifed by the fact that Enzo gave her a Japanese copy of 'Mes Joies Terribili' and wrote in it "Il Giallo Fly e arrivato fin qui" - "The Giallo Fly has arrived here". Having met Fiamma and seen this book I can verify that all of this is correct. Giallo Fly made its debut at the 1965 Salon de Paris on a 275GTB.
    Nathan

    Pictured is a 1971 365 GTB/4 with factory 'fly yellow' paint. Not my picture but I am familiar with this Daytona and it's history from new.

    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  4. davemqv

    davemqv F1 Rookie

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    I confirmed it with a dealers who was recently offering the Daytona coupe, the one who offered the spider years ago, the one who is offering the coupe now, and with the owner of the Dino years ago via social media. Be nice. :)

    Timo, you of all people on this forum could probably contribute TONS of valuable information to this thread. I hope you do!
     
  5. Marcel Massini

    Marcel Massini Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Guys, please NO photos without actual chassis number of the car pictured.
    Anything else is a complete waste of time. Thank you.

    Marcel Massini
     
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  6. davemqv

    davemqv F1 Rookie

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    You and Timo are correct. I started the thread and felt obligated to make the first post...and I did confirm the colours of those cars. But you're both correct.

    Chassis number for the Daytona spider is 14389. Chassis number for the Daytona coupe is 14203. I can dig up the S/N for the 246 GT.
     
  7. TTR

    TTR F1 Veteran
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    Dave, I'm being as nice as I usually am. ;)
    While I appreciate your enthusiastic and well meaning idea here, I feel that to achieve reasonably accurate results on something like this might be more difficult than you realize.

    Have you ever look at a lineup of half a dozen or more some "vintage" era, same model cars, let's say Daytona and all being, of all things "Ferrari RED", at a concours or a show ?
    8 or 9 out of 10 owners will swear his/hers is correct, for sure, because the auction/broker/dealer/individual they bought it from said so or they got the info from the cousin Vinnie who knew a guy, who knew a guy, who knew some one who used to work for.... , but a closer inspection of "the field" might reveal that most, if not all are DIFFERENT shade of RED (or any other subject color). I've seen this more often than not and that's why CONFIRMING/VERIFYING any factory color can get bit tricky.

    And as you pointed out lighting, etc can also make a difference in photos...

    ...I currently have a Daytona in the shop still wearing it's 1972 Scaglietti applied paint.
    When I first saw it 10+ years ago and gave it a "soft" cleaning and detailing, which included buffing and polishing the paint, I couldn't believe how much the color changed. The color it has is also very sensitive to its appearance variations depending on lighting and looks quite different, with more depth and richness, in person than in photos.
    Etc, etc, etc,...
     
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  8. davemqv

    davemqv F1 Rookie

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    Hi Timo,

    All excellent points but accepting that there will be disagreement and error, I still think it's a worthwhile endeavor. In fact, the motivation for the thread came from running into problems exactly like those you describe. Trying to discover the darkest red offered by the factory? Very tough, even when talking to restoration shops. Many colour names are confusing because they came both as solid and metallic colours, so some will swear one is metallic, while others swear it's solid, etc etc. When I asked a while back here on fchat how many shades of Avorio were offered by the factory over the years, I believe Marcel said eleven! So it seemed to me that the best way to learn these answers, and the answers to similar questions, would be to start a thread like this. A stockpile of pics with colour codes, different lighting, chassis numbers, etc etc.

    Any help you can offer would be great!
     
  9. Lusso123

    Lusso123 Formula 3
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    I like the basic idea, but I do see where this could or would be very difficult to be successful with. As Timo mentioned...."confirming/verifying any [vintage] factory color can get a bit tricky...." Other car brands face the same problems. Aston Martin Racing Green is a perfect example of numerous claimed exact colors.

    As far as showing photos is concerned, that helps only for very general reference. For numerous reasons, no photos can really be relied on to match any color to.

    I do hope that this continues to move ahead and go well, as it would be of interest and help to me.
     
  10. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

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    It's a brilliant idea for a thread. Logistically, it will have difficulties, which is actually not different than any other thread related to originality for vintage Ferraris where "hard and fast" rules rarely exist (even from the factory). There is so little discussion in vintage that I really strongly dislike posts that discourage discussion of any topic, particularly an idea that is as cool as this and that has the potential to be as informative as this. My two cents is that if you have data to share, share it. If you see flaws in data that was shared, correct it. If you have ideas that will make the discussion more effective (such as adding serial numbers), share it. If you find the discussion too fraught with potential for error to be interesting, then don't read it and don't post. Posts that serve only to discourage discussions of any valid topic raised in any thread I find a disservice, especially in vintage. My comments are not directed at any person or any post, it's just a preemptive comment to try to keep the thread from getting bogged down by a sea of negative comments so that the actual topic never even has a chance to flourish. We all know that there will be many challenges in verifying originality and in photo differences -- that doesn't need to be stated -- the challenges are obvious to all of us -- it's better just to move forward with the discussion so people are encouraged to post data and those with knowledge can correct it, rather than to focus on the challenges of the discussion such that people who would have shared data no longer feel it is worthwhile to do so.
     

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