paint availability

[kaiserpug]

My 53 is in the shop now ready for paint,  The code is listed as 443.  My problem is the shop, although they do good work, is not up on older cars.  Does anyone out there know where paint can be obtained to match the original colors.
Thanks!
Mike

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Your local Ditzler/PPG jobber can get a current mix formula for almost any Kaiser-Frazer color through the PPG Color Library.  There is no charge for this information but the jobber will not pass the formula on to you (they use the info to mix your paint).  The library has a spectrometer hooked up to a computer that scans an original chip kept in a special vault and converts it to current info.  PPG can do this for Hudson, Nash, Packard, Dodge...just about anything going as far back (with some makes) as the late 1920's.

[Jim B PEI]

The process is like Jack says--here is a link to a company which can do this (but the local jobber can do this too)
http://www.tcpglobal.com/autocolorlibrary/aclchip.aspx?image=1953-kaiser-pg01.jpg
If you adjust the info in the URL in your browser, you can see just about anything that is available, like 1963-Studebaker or 1956-Nash etc. These chips online are just a vague approximation of the real colours, due to fading, and computer screen colour limitations, so the special vault chip scans and the other proprietry formulae information is what is needed, not the physical chips you can buy off Ebay
Getting the colour match just right is not only based on having the right combination of pigments in the correct amounts, but also correcting for other factors, such as the size of metallic flakes (which has changed over time!) and also for the different paint in use. The black of a 60 Studebaker Hawk's original paint is vastly different in depth, gloss and overall look from a modern black, which is far too hard and glossy, and not anywhere near as 'velvety' at all.