Paint code 99

So a friend of mine is restoring his 69 coronet convertible which has a B7 blue interior color. His fender tag shows a paint code of 99. I only know of three special order paint colors in 69. Rallye green, bahama yellow, and orange. None of those would go with a B7 blue interior. He has since had the body soda blasted and all the original paint is long gone as when he got it, it was painted B7 blue on the outside to which he painted it over with B5. He is trying to get the car back as accurate to the fender tag as possible.

Any help he would appreciate.

Fender tag reads:
End
J25 L31 m31 m33 r11 y39
A01 a04 c16 c55 g31 g33
99 99 p6c b7 113 060835
E44 d31 wp27 f9g xxxxxx

99 paint is special order for a reason.

ANY paint commercially available at the time from any other car make / model, tractor, etc. could be specified.

any color other than the ~18 STANDARD factory colors would be Y39 & "Special Order Paint"

GM, Ford & other Corporate identity colors could be ordered for extra cost on a car.
the car itself (behind kick panel, windshield jamb, floor boards, tops of inner quarter panels, etc.) would be the best source for the answer to this question, but if the entire car has been blasted that evidence is gone.

Thanks guys. I'll pass it along to my friend.

another possibility .....
a 1969 color not available on Coronet could've also been ordered ..... 1969 B9 was available on Monaco "dark blue metallic" & Imperial "midnight blue metallic" ONLY

simplest, cheapest, available "99" special paint OPTION

Monaco in the showroom in that color & customer wants it on a Coronet!

poorly worded

Guesses are useless.

Wait for facts.

what facts are you going to wait for?

Any that become available, when they come available.

Guesses & WAGs are useless.

Facts are well worth waiting for.

He found some paint under the rear seat near the top pump.

is that a current picture of the car?
original carpet?
are the interior door frames still original B7 paint?

is the windshield still in the car?

Yes. Upper door frames are b7 still. I think he said he replaced the carpet with the same color shortly after he firs got the car about 20 or so years ago

I strongly recommend your friend identify the tiny scraps of original 99 paint left on the car & take pictures NEXT TO THE IDENTIFIED PAINT CHIP as a reference.

Cameras, computer screens, phones all "distort color" so you need to have some type of body shop paint chip of the identified color right next to the scrap of paint left on the car to positively identify the color. The idea here is that when your phone camera (& screen for that matter) distort the color, at least it will be right next to the paint chip, so they "should" be distorted about the same.

Sorry this sounds weird, but I'm a paint scientist. That would let you identify the original color. 99 paint jobs are rare. Convertibles are rare. Some day, somebody might want to document the car & restore it 100% original and having this paint information with GREATLY increase the value of the car in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

The ordering paperwork would be needed.
Maybe that's a prior year color? what you've shown is fairly pale and the pre 69 colors always seem that way to me.

For instance C Medium Blue is a 68 color. Just a thought.

6bbl
Thanks for that picture! It seems some colors are a mystery as they were Imperial/C body only.

You got any pics of R8, T8, A9, F9, M9 cars?

any updates/thoughts/conclusion on the Coronet's color?

here's a '70 Imperial in EF9 (F9)

R8 (DR8) "burgundy metallic" was a '68 color (R) that was available on some C-bodies for '69-'70

FT8 "walnut metallic" was a '70 ONLY Imperial/Chrysler/Plymouth c-body ONLY color, often seen on the paisley top & interiored Fury Gran Coupes

& deep plum 1969 Imperial

Like to have seen that on the showroom floor...

& EA9 "charcoal metallic" c-body ONLY that appear to have been a popular "999" color on some Chargers & Challengers

I was able to see a 99 paint 1969 Charger original order blank for a car ordered by a customer at a Dodge dealership.

Hand written on it was 'dark burnt orange' & nothing else.

The factory invoice to the dealership mentioned the 99 paint, but no further data on it about the actual color.

That's no help at all.

Thanks for those photos! I really like dark green for some reason. A few years back I saw a new Ford pickup at the local dealer that was a gorgeous super dark green.

FWIW, my old code "99" '63 Savoy wagon was Air Force Blue, per their order. Somehow, the paint dept had to know what color a 99 car was to be, and that paint supplied in time, so there must be SOME way to determine what went on the car; but it'll take some detective work to figure that out now, assuming such records were kept.

My friend ended up deciding to go with a blue from a chevy line up. It is more of a brighter blue than what he had on there originally. Its his car so I'm not going to tell him how to paint it. If it were me, I would have tried to match it back to that original color as close as I could have.

I have seen in person a plum crazy 1970 nova SS 396 4 speed that had the original sticker with a special order paint code from GM. The oddest original mopar color combo I have seen was a 383 4 speed sublime challenger with a top banana trunk stripe. I went to the dodge dealer the other day and was looking at new 3500 diesels and I asked if I could get a dually diesel with a R/T hood with sublime paint and he just laughed at me. So I left.

When you say "ANY", what exactly does that mean? To me, that means "without exception" and "ALL". So, if any commercial paint manufacturer offers any color, you could special order it? Do you have any documentation to prove this? You must have a dealer bulletin or some documentation to back up this outrages statement?

If it's a "WAG", how about one that at least makes sense.

See the note on special order paint at http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/FleetBook/1970/70_Fleet_Colors_tops0004.jpg

I was also able to talk to one of the guys that worked at Hamtramck. I asked him about this & he said each of their major paint suppliers had a rep. present that could "mix any special paint color needed as needed on site".


"WAGs" are useless to me.

Yep, "WAGs" are useless to me also. Every plant may have had a fulltime paint rep and you might be correct they could mix any color they offer. That is a far cry from "ANY", “ALL” or “without exception” I don't get. So, the way I would take your “guys” comment is that he can mix any paint “they” offer or is an already established “fleet or leased” color. How you’re getting to where you are with his comment? is beyond me.

Show just one documented 999 paint code car that wasn't either a past/present Chrysler or a fleet/lease color.

That is not all I know on the subject. I have done my own research on it for decades because I think it is an awesome part of the history of these cars.

I would never say to just 'trust me, I am right'. Do some research on your own & see where it leads to. Look into the paint codes like 15A also, doing your own research is fun.

I encourage everyone else do their own research as well.

Why don't you post the complete tag so we can have an intelligent conversation, I am familiar with those.

To the best of my knowledge Porsche still has a Paint To Match program where, for a fee, you can have any car painted any known color. Just provide the paint code.

So it's easy more me to see Mopar doing this for fleet vehicles.

Barry - you could have thrown out a bigger bone for all of us to chew on.

Just askin.....

If all you have to go on is the 999 code how would you know what actual color the car was to make that comparison?

Again, just askin........

What on the tag, other than the VON, should we be looking for in order to determine the color? Interior trim?

Isn't Omaha Orange a non Chrysler Color?

Anybody remember the 69 Super Bee that was a topic here? The car was obviously pink from the factory, there was some rumor about being a FM3 test mule, which couldn't be proved. Wouldn't that have been a non Chrysler color too in 69?

I'm not an archeologist like some others here, but it doesn't make sense to test a color for production the following year. Could the car be pink? Sure. But FM3? I'm not convinced other than someone seems to want others to think they're sitting on a gold mine.

Nonetheless, I know the car's gone to a new owner who likely will do the proper research.

I wouldn't call it odd.....

The '69 car did look a lot like FM3.

They also did 'test spray out' colors for the next years models to evaluate them in person. (Like the A15 mentioned above)

The earliest known 1970 car in what appears to be FM3 is the auto show 1970 Challenger R/T convertible & the paint code on it is 999. Did it stir up enough interest to add the color to the lineup? Could be, but we may never know for sure.

Petty blue wasn't a factory color yet in '68 either, yet there was a group of '68 Petty blue Roadrunners built for some sort of tie in with the '68 Daytona 500.

The Challenger show car likely was a promotional introduction for a color that was going to be in the books midyear.

Not sure what the 15A thing is you talk about....I saw a tag with the code, but I don't know what color it references nor do I know what car it was.

Hey Barry I was wondering of the 12,793 cars registered on your Hamtramck Registry how many are Special Order Paint?

The reason I ask is I just got to wondering how uncommon it was to have a car with Special Order Paint...excluding Omaha Orange, Petty Blue and the
use of it in 1969...how many cars have you come across?

For example the 1969 Bee mentioned is the only Special Order Paint 1969 Bee I have come across. I have seen a 1970 Charger R/T that looks like it was painted 1969 A4.

Dave

That one captured my attention, I was pretty close to pulling the trigger on it. I need another project car like another hole in the head. But I just liked everything about it. Super solid as well. I think if it had an axle package as well I would not have been able to resist.

As Barry mentioned I found out that only the Assembly Plant and the original selling dealer would know what the paint code would have been for a Special Order Paint car. It just wasn't documented anywhere else.

Back to the 99 Bee for a second. This was stamped on it but I couldn't find any connection to it. I just thought it might have been a puzzle piece.

Dave

Some dealerships would stamp cars with a 'lot number' when they arrived. This way, if a client was looking at a car, the salesperson would have the lot number & could grab the keys for a test drive & easy access to the paperwork required to sell the car.

For the 1970 LA & Hamtramck registries as of today;

999 paint - 20 known so far.

15A paint - one known so far.

09 paint - one known so far.

9999 Interior - two known so far.

T99 - special order tires - one known so far.

Of course, these numbers can only go up as more information comes in.

I do have a broadcast sheet that was sent in by a member here for a 999 paint T/A that has not been claimed yet....

Thanks Barry for sharng, that is pretty interesting.
I wonder what colour the T/A was spec'ed out for? That itself is pretty interesting!

Dave

Hopefully it surfaces someday so the actual color can be seen.

I've seen stamping like that on the core support on last of mopars of that era. Don't think any were 999 codes.

I've heard one theory that it was a dealer ID marking thing.

Here is one on an original (standard paint color too) survivor.

I also liked it a lot, just for it's "mistery" and neat options. But i just can't imagine myself driving around in a pink Bee. ;-)
Maybe someone wanted a pink Bee for his wife or daughter and maybe the factory said, hey, we have something in the closet for the 70 models - let's take this. Otherwise it would be a pretty good match with FM3 just by mistake.

I found a Superbird tag with color code 999 and the actual color code C37D (Petty Blue)



On other tags with 999 I found C250


C114


and C673


any ideas?

The Lynch Road plant coded things differently as we all know.

This includes the four character C prefix paint code on their 999 paint cars as shown above.

Hopefully an internal plant document surfaces some day that indicates what they all were & their formulas also.

Yes, Porsche does have a paint color to sample program. Only $6k to get the color you want and wait until they do a batch of C2S vehicles. Usually adds three months on to the order.

That said, they do reject requests for color to sample for various reasons but if you pick a color that they have used previously they will usually approve it. They do want that $6k.

Below is a color to sample Macan in Viper green.

Thanks guys for that information. I was searching high and low for a reference to a paint chip #136. I couldn't find anything.

It is weird to me that they would stamp the rad support to keep track of a car as you would have to open the hood to see the number. A paper sign hanging from the rear view mirror is how I have seen it done.

Makes sense that is was done for tracking as you guys are in different parts of the country. Thanks for putting that one to rest.

Dave

Two more I was able to look at recently, this is the first I have seen for a 30A paint code.

Shop I used to work for did a 99 paint code 1971 Challenger convertible.
Car was originally this ugly very light washed out blue.

they did the car in this Deep Plum. with white top and interior.
Turned out absolutely gorgeous.
Last I heard the owner was in the Columbus Ohio area.Ive not seen or heard of it since it left the shop