Can someone identify this colour, was it original in 1956?

[classicbelair]

Hi,
 I have a 1956 Sedan de Ville here in Germany. Unfortunately it was damaged in transport when I brought it to Germany in 2008, and the painters here all claim that they cannot reproduce the metallic yellow colour. So I'm forced to repaint the whole car. I'm thinking of a colour change to a burgandy red metallic colour that I have seen a number of times on this car on pics in the internet. I have attached one of these pictures. Can anyone identify this colour? Was it original in 1956 or another year?
thanks

[Otto Skorzeny]

If it's a Cadillac color, you might be able to find it here:

http://www.lidreamboats.org/Colorchipmenu.html

It doesn't look like a 1956 color, though. Mandan Red was the only red offered and that isn't it.

[Jack Mcilwraith]

I have a 1956 Ditzler paint chip chart. It MAY be number 52-Chantilly poly [as its called on my chart].

[Otto Skorzeny]

Yes. You might be right about that. The paint chip I linked to looks a lot darker but it's probably just worn out over time.

It's a nice looking color whatever it is.

[Jose Gomez]

The only way to validate the original color would be to match the paint # with the id tag. Being a two tone car the 52 color came with combination of 12 cascade gray, 44 pecos beige, or 90 alpine white for the top section. What is your id show???

I’m surprise the local shop spectrophotometer can’t match the color pigments for the yellow..! 

[dan reed]

Looking through the 54-56 Authenticity Manual I don't see any '56 colors that match your car exactly. I'm keeping in mind that viewing and determining color on a computer monitor is very different than viewing in person. However, if you can get a hold of the paint chips for '56 take a look at #50 Mandan Red, #52 Chantilly Poly.  For what its worth, take a look at the '55 colors as well, Who knows, maybe someone thought one of the '55 offerings was nicer and figured any mid 50s Cadillac color would do. For '55 you had #54 Deep Chery Poly, #46 Cocoabar Poly.

[steven meissner]

thanks for the hints so far. Those two pics I posted are ones I found in the internet, I hoped someone would recognize the colour as there are at least two different 1956 Caddys out their with this colour (if you look closely you can see that the one is a sedan de ville and the other is a coupe).
My car is currently a colour similar to Cape Ivory with an Alpine White roof. Nice combo, but the yellow has more green in it and a metallic effect too. A shop tried to fix the paint, but made a hash of it. 3 other painters said they would not be able to mix that tone perfectly (for whatever reason, I don't understand what is so difficult...).
So I'm either looking at a complete repaint in Cape Ivory or the colour of the above example cars that I posted.
Its a real shame, the car and paint was in great shape when it left LA, and now this. I even have to pay the repair/repaint out of pocket because the shipper has gone bankrupt in the mean time  
I like Cape Ivory, but I already have a 55 Roadmaster in almost the exact same colour combination! So I thought, might as well change the colour to something I would really like. And that wine red colour sure looks nice... But I would like to use at least an original Cadillac colour of the 50's, if possible.

[steven meissner]

Sorry 'bout posting above as a guest. The system doesn't accept the logon ID that I used for the original post...
Since I have no way of accessing historical paint chips here in Germany, could someone who has them look to see if any of the following chips look like the 2 Caddys posted above? The darker shades on the online colour cards all look the same on my monitor, almost black.

1950 Maiera Maroon Iridescent/Metallic
1951 Bolero Maroon Ir./Met.
1952 and 1953 Burgandy Maroon Ir./Met.  (that name sounds right to me!)
1957 Dusty Rose No.2 Met.

maybe its actually 1956 Chantilly but on my monitor it looks way to dark

thanks again

[Greg McDonnell]

Could it be Deep Cherry Poly from the 1955 color chip chart?
http://www.tcpglobal.com/aclchip.aspx?image=1955-cadillac-pg01.jpg

Greg McDonnell
CLC #20841

[jeff1956]

I ran into this same deal on my car.  The beige color is evidentally near impossible to match up.  They even did the whole color matching using the eye and it wasn't even close.  I was also told the only option was to paint the whole car, so I touched up the little spot as best I could and it will be painted again when the rest of the car needs paint.  I refuse to spend that kind of money on painting the whole car for 2 small 2" scratches about  an inch or so above the rockers on the rear door.  Since your car is damaged evidentally pretty good then you may just have to have the whole car painted to make it look like anything.  My damage wasn't severe enough to warrant that....I found a color close enough that the eye would scan over that area without recognizing it as much.  I drive my 56 though so it is not perfect.

Jeff

[Roger Zimmermann]

The color of the first picture could be Chantilly Maroon; my '56 has the same color.
If you decide to change the color of your car, you will have to paint also the inside ot the trunk compartment, door jambs, firewall and more. It's a very expensive job, especially if the car is in a good shape.

Roger
Switzerland

[steven m]

thanks for the pic of your car Roger, it does look pretty close to the example picture that I have. I would like to know if your colour (chantilly maroon) is a uni (auf deutsch) or a metallic effect. If its not metallic, does anyone have any experience with spraying a clear coat with metallic flakes in it over an original non-metallic paint? Does that work, does it look good? I like metallic paints, but I like originality too...
Changing colour properly is a lot of work. These cars have the firewall and fenders painted in body colour, I don't really like that, I prefer all shiny black under the hood. Probably would just paint around the engine instead of pulling it... that would be too much work.

[Roger Zimmermann]

thanks for the pic of your car Roger, it does look pretty close to the example picture that I have. I would like to know if your colour (chantilly maroon) is a uni (auf deutsch) or a metallic effect.

You are welcome! The paint is metallic and acrylic, not with a clear coat. It was painted in 1984; a long time ago. When I bought the car, it was black.
Roger

[steve m]

Roger,
After collecting a number of pictures of cars identified as being Chantilly Maroon, I feel that is likely the colour that I am looking for. In bright light it appears more a plum red but late in the day or on cloudy days (like your posted pic) it appears more like a burgundy colour. Could you post a couple of more pics of your car in various light conditions including bright sunlight?
thanks again
Steve
PS, do you ever drive to meets in Germany? 

[Roger Zimmermann]

Steve, I don't have many pictures. Why? I have the car! I found 2 older ones which could satisfy your request.
I was in 2008 in Speyer for the Grand European. Usually, I don't go to Germany and I'm attending 1 meet each year, maximum. This year it will be the Grand European in France.
When my de Ville was ready in 1984/85, I drove more than now. After a while, to go to meets is just boring.
Roger

[Roger Zimmermann]

I don't know why this forum is so complicated with pictures. I'm entering 2; just one is coming. (maybe a wrong manipulation from my side) Here is the second one.

[35-709]

Lovely car!
Geoff N.

[steve m]

Thanks for the extra pic Roger. I think that is the colour.

Above there is a link to a complete documentation of a repaint from blue to Cape Ivory. That was a bit of a wake-up call for me, that IS a LOT of work to do properly. Also finally checked what the cowl tag on my car says: my car was originally Cape Ivory and Alpine White. If only they had used this instead of these similar metallic flake colours 

Next question, this is a fine rust free Arizona car, how much would I be impacting negatively the resale value of this car by changing it to say Chantilly Maroon, instead of repainting it Cape Ivory and Alpine White (a very nice colour combination actually just too similar to another car I have...)? Everything is all original.

[steve m]

Roger,

you interested in trading your Caddy for mine?

[Roger Zimmermann]

Geoff: thank you!
Steve: about the value. I doubt that there is an impact in Europe if the repaint is well done. Maybe in the USA, but not here. My '57 Brougham was white from factory, it's now black.

Sorry if I don't bite your proposal. I know what was done on my car; to have a "new" one is again a lot of work. I prefer to build car models from scratch now!

Roger