Light and Medium textured argents.

Beepbeep, whats the sample from?

M

Mike,

Those are production line parts. Tail panel is 10/69. Center caps 12/69.

Mike

There is no such thing as "Dark" argent, only Light and Medium. The sample I posted of the medium is probably a bad example as the color is actually considerably darker than the picture shows it to be.

Another shot of the same piece.

Mike,

I have to respecfully disagree, the bubble you posted is light argent.

this is also the color the cuda grilles.
Joe is that how much darker yours is in person?

Yes it is.

I am not doubting the nomenclature as you have way more experience with the paints than I do, I just have never seen the refernce to dark.

Not to get off subject, but the tail panels did vary, at least the ones I have seen from the 80's, same with the headlight bezels. They seem to be missing the metallic "pop" that the production line ones had. Same holds true for the blacks.

Thanks to Mike for the acknowledging the factors that come into play on original argent shaker colors...day of mix, actual batch mix and how they were sprayed.
Shaker scoops, all manufactured in Toronto, Ontario, were, in 1969 sent to Fram bare, and were initially hand painted by one employee in a small booth.

I am by no means a painter and may have some of the terminology wrong as I'm going by memory here, but the following is an account of what that employee told me when when I first met him at Fram in Chatham, Ontario in 1982.

The initial scoops received were required to be painted Chrylers' FE5 automotive red enamel right on to the bare scoop.
Because of the composition of the scoop, the paint would not initially adhere to the scoop. The scoop would resist it.
Scoops were then washed with mineral spirits or vinegar first and paint was applied, sometimes working, sometimes not.
Red primer was used but the paint reacted terribly to it.
The grey primer ( perhaps sealer in reality) was added and the process seemed to work better.
There was a rush to get some red scoops painted for some "suits" from Detroit who had come up and were taking them back with them.
When they saw the first couple red ones, they did not want those.
They stated the orange peel by the nameplate was unacceptable, anywhere else on the scoop was OK but not around the nameplate area.
Several were finally accepted and they left with them assembled.
This would lead me to believe these were going on the first red cars for press release, etc. and the scoops had to have near perfect paint.
Fram was not a paint shop, they manufactured all the steel components for the shaker and assembled the complete system, but painting the initial scoops was thrust upon them for a period of time.
The argent ones, which my friend referred to as "electrolite silver" proved just as much trouble, clogging nozzles, uneven flow, etc.
An electric static process was tried whereby the scoops were grounded and shorted out so as to neutralize, similar to a powdercoat process, but the short would move the paint to where it wanted, in some cases it would fly back.
After more experimentation, they could usually get the argent to stick better to an already red painted scoop, which they would spray directly over. A few were done this way.
As production requirements for shaker assemblies increased, the paint process of all scoops was farmed out and they arrived at Fram painted argent, and later black, for final assembly.
I have yet to have it confirmed, but the vendor of 70 and 71 Cuda grills, North American Plastics in Wallaceburg, Ontario was possibly the vendor who painted the scoops as well and returned them to Fram.
They were 20 miles away and already using an argent for grills. NAP and the Fram facilities have been closed for decades.
So, some argent scoops having been painted by hand, some over top of red and some by a another facility may account for some different shades.

interesting read Terry.

From all the units i have restored (from NOS balck or argent, to nice used originals to not so nice used originals), It appears that whenever they finally got the paint to stck was after they went to a red oxide primer, with gray sealer, then color black or argent. The shades of red oxide and gray sealer did not vary between a black or argent colored part. I have never had the opp to see what was under an original red one.

Joe, yes all the mopar internal specs on blue prints, etc. reference the terms your last pic presented. It's when you get into the paint mfg system paint charts/ formulas and other literature the colors were called what i refer to them as.

When researching the paint codes chrysler provides on spec sheets, to the paint mfg codes and formulas, they come down to the 2 base formulas.

Maybe (and i am speculating), the term medium argent on a spec sheet was a spec to spray/mix it differently per application??

However, As mentioned previously i dont know all there is to know about it... as some info i have runs into dead ends that the paint mfg can't even explain.

But having the 2 main OE formulas i can match just about anything someone wants to throw at me after having experienced the variations and superceded toners over the years.

M

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except for maybe the hood.

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Yea, you did alright on that thing trust me! Want it back

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Yeah sure "My old man is a television repairman, he's got the ultimate set of tools...I can fix it"

I would like to contribute some info but can't post the pictures,they are to big.Can someone make them smaller for me?
Thanks Bob

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last one

Thats a nice looking original scoop Mike, obviously a low mileage original.
Here's an NOS one, one from a batch of the darker shaded ones.