Signal yellow with light yellow undercoat

Following on the heels of this thread:

http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...low#post172778


I thought as a data point, I'd post some pictures of this light yellow undercoat/primer/base under a signal yellow top coat. The car is a very early production 73 S Targa with one respray over the factory paint.

Mark

I found the same primer under my original signal yellow paint.

This is very interesting. The previous owner of my car painted it signal red, but it just isn't quite as warm toned as the 356 and early 911s are. The orange paint under the final coat on those cars is no doubt the reason. Seems as though the signal colors were hard to paint, but the additional color under the topcoat really makes it pop.

Other issue is lead in the pigments. I had Jim Newton spray out samples of signal yellow with and without lead. The lead pigmented was much more vivid.

The light yellow is the same I found under the sound deadening mats on the interior of my Burgundy Karmann build '70E.

Steven, did Schmidt put orange under the paint on the 3.8 do you know? It seems to be very close to the early tone.

Following is the first post I made on the S registry back in 2006. It was posted in the midst of the restoration on my '73RS that we took to the '08 parade in Charlotte. When I said, "We have found some interesting archeology of the base coat paint process" it was because we had discovered light yellow used as a primer under the original signal yellow paint. If this was know by others, it certainly wasn't discussed much. After doing some research with folks who were painting these cars at the factory, it was confirmed that they did use a similar colored base primer to enhance the signal "pop". Glad to see others "uncovering" the same thing.

BTW - The Signal Yellow '72 RSR tribute is almost completed. We'll share some updated photos soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsr1975

First post…I’ve read, enjoyed and learned from this site for a few years but haven’t joined in on the discussion until now. John Audette’s recent questions on “Proper Painting” inspired this inquiry. Does anyone know how the factory went about creating the “semi-opaque” nature of the signal colors? We have found some interesting archeology of the base coat paint process during an RS restoration and I would be interested hearing others’ thoughts on the factory process.

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Jim - I think the primer on the WMD is pale gray. I could check with Jeff if important, but I chipped a bit of the hood removing film and when Newton repaired it, I recall it was a light gray.