Unboxing Goldvarg's '68 Buick Electra

Posted by: @moe-parr

With regard to the Buick, I'm in the "It's the wrong color but I love it anyway" camp.

Reading ALL these "colored"  (😏) opinions & comments, which seem to re-surface bi-annually (I dare say fist fights would break out if we were all at the local bar & grill   😬 😬 😬)  it appears there are distinct levels of tolerance with regard to this issue:

1) "I could care less about the color. I like the model, therefore I buy it."

2) "I do care about the color, I know it's wrong-it may/may not have been a special order but does NOT appear on factory color charts-but I'll buy it anyway."

3) "I do care about the color, I know it's wrong-it may/may not have been a special order but does NOT appear on factory color charts-therefore, I will never buy it."

4) "I do care about the color, the manufacture has noted this is a special order or one-off, therefore I may or may not buy it."

5) "My opinions regarding scale-color do not reflect my tastes regarding 1:1 collector cars."

6) "My opinions regarding scale-color mimic exactly my tastes regarding 1:1 collector cars."

I'm, without question, a "3, 6."   When I owned my 1959 Cadillac CDV, for example, I hated to see pink 1959 Cadillacs!  GM never offered pink as a color on 1959 Cadillacs. The pink most often seen on 1:1s painted that way was offered on 1956 Cadillacs (Moutain Laural ).

Barry, may I ask a question?

Must your 1:1 collector cars be color-factory-accurate  or could you live with the scenario indicated with regard to your 1/43 1968 Buick?

Posted by: @chris

Posted by: @moe-parr

With regard to the Buick, I'm in the "It's the wrong color but I love it anyway" camp.

Reading ALL these "colored"  (😏) opinions & comments, which seem to re-surface bi-annually (I dare say fist fights would break out if we were all at the local bar & grill   😬 😬 😬)  it appears there are distinct levels of tolerance with regard to this issue:

1) "I could care less about the color. I like the model, therefore I buy it."

2) "I do care about the color, I know it's wrong-it may/may not have been a special order but does NOT appear on factory color charts-but I'll buy it anyway."

3) "I do care about the color, I know it's wrong-it may/may not have been a special order but does NOT appear on factory color charts-therefore, I will never buy it."

4) "I do care about the color, the manufacture has noted this is a special order or one-off, therefore I may or may not buy it."

5) "My opinions regarding scale-color do not reflect my tastes regarding 1:1 collector cars."

6) "My opinions regarding scale-color mimic exactly my tastes regarding 1:1 collector cars."

 

I'm, without question, a "3, 6."   When I owned my 1959 Cadillac CDV, for example, I hated to see pink 1959 Cadillacs!  GM never offered pink as a color on 1959 Cadillacs. The pink most often seen on 1:1s painted that way was offered on 1956 Cadillacs (Moutain Laural ).

Barry, may I ask a question?

Must your 1:1 collector cars be color-factory-accurate  or could you live with the scenario indicated with regard to your 1/43 1968 Buick?

I'm a #2 as described above. 

I made a mistake several years ago that still haunts me. I LOVE the '73 Chrysler New Yorker. BoS made a beautiful 1/18, but somehow they left off the gold "Chrysler New Yorker" script on the trunk lid, and don't ask me why but that's what stopped me from buying it...

@nickies I feel compelled to comment here, particularly with your insistence that "This is completely impossible GM or others manufacturers of the time would pull a car out of the production line for a special paint request."  It was indeed very possible; I saw it happen myself.

In the summer of 1970, my parents took me (and a buddy of mine from high school) to Detroit.  We visited Greenfield Village, The Henry Ford Museum, and intended on taking a tour of the Ford Rouge plant.  Unfortunately, it had already shut down for model-changeover, and the tours were not available.

We found out that the GM plant at Willow Run had not yet shut down for model changeover, and tours were still being given.  The four of us showed up on bright sunny morning -- and were the only ones who showed up for the tour that day.  So, we got a "private tour" of sorts, from the head of plant security, who was very knowledgeable about plant operations.  This plant made the Chevrolet Nova, and we watched plant put them together and then ultimately down the final assembly line and out the door.  That day, every Nova being produced was brown (Desert Sand poly, I believe).  He explained that that was how the plant worked -- the would make all brown ones for a while, the switch to green for a while, and so and and so on.  As we turned the corner to watch the final line (inspection, testing, and out the door), there - in the middle of this sea of brown Novas, one after another, was a bright pink one.  Stood out like a sore thumb.  Our guide said - "wow, haven't seen one like that before - that definitely not a standard color.  But if a customer wants a certain special color, and is willing to pay for it, we can do it".

So, Nickies, it's not impossible - I saw it happen myself.

Well said, Skip!

@skip Now I'm compelled to comment about your post.

You're crazy! That never happened, you guys were on drugs!

Just kidding....

With regard to "nickies"  I think it's a matter of semantics.  He noted, "....they would never pull a car out of the production line...."   Well, that's true. Nothing interrupts the sequential, numbered, one-piece-flow of that assembly process. Period.  OEMs would never "yank"  a car body from the line, paint it pink, for instance, then return it to the line.

What would happen, as you know, is that a build-sheet would generate the unique specifics and that vehicle would start life as a pink Nova, for example.

Then of course the next topic to cover is....   

How many 1/43 pink Novas would sell if company A  produced such a model despite being 100% authentic but not factory-color-chart correct?

I have hunted for the photos I know must exist of my grandmother's '68 green Buick. It wasn't an Electra, but a LeSabre. I don't have them, I used to have some. I got a polaroid camera for my 7th birthday, and I took photos of everything, I mean everything. My dad yelled at me constantly for the amount of film I used, but he kept buying me more, LOL! Anyway, I can't find them here at my house, so I've reached out to my sister to check the boxes of my old stuff she still has in storage in her pole barn. She hasn't had the time but assures me she will look before she leaves for Arizona. So, I'll see what I have soon, I hope. 

@jcarnutz

So...then.... if your Grandmother's 1968 Buick was painted in a green not represented on 1968 Buick factory color charts who ordered that color? 

Did the dealer have an inventory of "special green Buicks?" 

@chris 

I don't recall the facts exactly, I was 7. I believe it was a demo that the dealer's owner had ordered earlier in the year. My grandmother's '67 LeSabre had been totaled in an accident and she went looking for a good replacement. Unfortunately, my grandmother, my dad and all others involved with this car have passed-on. My sister's memory is as sketchy as mine, but she does remember the green Buick, but we can't recall the exact color shade it was, or the exact facts concerned. 

@chris I wonder if the Playmate of the Year got that Nova? Or was Mary Kay giving cars away back then?

Posted by: @mg-harv

@chris I wonder if the Playmate of the Year got that Nova? Or was Mary Kay giving cars away back then?

Actually Harv, either scenario is highly unlikely. 

Playboy playmates were given pink cars, but most were repainted after dealership delivery, and none were ever as pedestrian as Chevrolet Novas. Most were sports cars like Mustangs, Mercedes, Shelbys, Sunbeam Tigers, etc...  There were a few Chargers & Barracudas and an AMX or two. 

Mary Kay cars, for many years, were always Cadillacs (and some were repainted after delivery ).  Interesting (at least to me...I'm a Cadillac and Lincoln fan ) Lincolns were initially favored for the MK promotion but when women  inquired about pink Lincolns, the men  at the dealerships basically laughed them off the lot. Cadillac salesmen did not.

I suspect diligent research could track that Nova's VIN to reveal the buyer and/or the reasons behind the odd request.   

I have a theory. I think someone MAY have grabbed the wrong color chart at the factory while doing the prototype. I say this because I happen to have a 1970 Buick paint chip chart, and guess what?

The "Verdoro Green" model is very close to 2172 Emerald Mist Poly, and the "Autumn Bronze" is a very close match for the OPEL-KADETT 60594 Copper Bronze Poly. Could it be that someone picked two colors off of a 1970 chart by mistake? And may have also assumed that ALL of the paint chips were for Buick? Especially if the person looking at the chart does not read English?

The model colors are close enough to the paint chip colors for me to believe it is NOT a coincidence. It definitely appears to me that someone tried to match the colors on this chart.

@daveg Yep, just one of many possible theories/reasons behind GV's 1968 Buick color choice but only he, or his staff, can unequivocally answer this question.

The plot thickens.....