Where is the paint code on an 81?
I have an 81 that I've been working on for a while. The car needed painting so I stripped the body. My son-in-law then sanded down the body and filled in the flaws. The door jams are still a light blue though.
Doing a little research, I noticed that there was only 1 81 painted light blue.
Now i seriously doubt that this is it, but I should check the paint code. I found a table online at corvettepaintcodes.com that lists all the paint codes for all years. Not sure where to look on the car for the paint code.
Dave

 

In the drivers door jamb , the chrome tag

 

look for the trim tag on the A pillar of the drivers side door

 

Thanks guys, looks like dark blue, built in Bowling Green?

 

Not very light blue after all

 

Code 38 is dark blue metallic used at Bowling Green. The E denotes acrylic enamel.

 

That's a Bowling Green trim tag, and the Bright Blue 81 was built at St Louis.

People have been looking for that lone blue 81 for years. Through my involvement in the NCRS, I have been contacted a number of times about it.

To start with, it was not "light blue", the color of the 81 was "Bright Blue Metallic", and it was more of a medium blue. The paint code for the 81 Bright Blue Metallic was 24.

The Bright Blue 81 was a pre-production, pilot line car, and the color was cancelled long before 81 production began in August 1980. For production, Bright Blue was replaced with Mahogany Metallic.

The lone Bright Blue 81 was shown on the cover of the December/January 1981 issue of Corvette News. Inside the magazine, the following description is given about the cover: "Dave McLellan, Gregg Zuccker, Bill Scott and Jerry Palmer show off the '81 prototype. (This color is not available on production models.)

Pilot line cars were usually kept by GM for use in the press pool, or used by engineering for additional testing etc. Depending on what the car was used for, and what condition it was in, eventually they were either sold to a GM employee, sold to a local dealer, or destroyed. It's generally believed that the Bright Blue 81 was kept by GM engineering, and likely destroyed?

If the Bright Blue 81 ever turns up, it should be easy to identify, since the VIN would have to be one of the first 5 or so 81 VIN's issued.

Here is the cover of the Corvette News issue, with the Bright Blue 81 on it.

 

Great history lesson, thanks!
I knew a little about it, and was pretty sure it was a very early VIN number.
Here's pic I had on my phone - someone speculating they found it? - must have looked into this same time in the past.

 

Same with the lone '77 in Corvette Chartreuse.
....chances are, they're probably both painted red by now.

 

The chartreuse 77 does (or did) exist. It was featured in Vette Vues Magazine years ago. I forget the exact story on it, but I think it might have been bought by a GM employee, you worked at GM's Mesa Arizona Proving Grounds.

If I get chance, I'll look for that Vette Vues issue tomorrow.

 

gb, that would be very interesting to know. Thanks for the heads up.
Greg