[alfa] Paint codes for 73 Spider

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In ad v10#66 Al,with a Spider due for repaint, asks "I just wanted to check if anyone knows if the codes are different between the GTV and Spider. The color I'm interested in is an off-white/cream color which I might guess would be the AR013 Chalk." In 67 Richard Arnold replies "According to my source,the color is AR103 ivory or in US, straw."

Reasonable assumption, but maybe, maybe not. The first part, "if the codes are different between the GTV and Spider", is easy; Alfa had Alfa colors on the Arese-built cars, the coupes and Berlinas, and Pininfarina had its own colors on the Grugliasco-built Spiders. (And Zagato its colors, Bertone, Touring, and OSI all had their own.) Of the sixteen colors on US-market cars of the early seventies only one, the AR727 Silver Metallic, is shared by the Spiders and tintops. 

The "off white/cream color" description introduces some uncertainty. The Pininfarina 008 "China White" on Spiders is a relatively cold white, probably not in the running. The 103 Straw, Richard Arnold's reasonable suggestion, is Ivory, but the old ivory of the keys on a vintage piano, or Cream, but rich Guernsey cream or Cornish Clotted Cream or other scrumptious real creams; I would not call it "off-white". The 013 Chalk White (or Biancospino) on the coupes and Berlinas is a lovely warm slightly off-white, could be Ivory but the fresh ivory of the keys on a new piano, or Cream, but muted US grocery store cream rather than real dairy-farm cream.

My color characterizations are to be taken with a grain of salt, as I am color-blind, which skews perception of many color relationships, but the basic fact that PF/Spider colors and Alfa-Arese (tintop) colors are only rarely shared holds as long as Alfa's corporate autonomy held. Fiat-Alfa colors are a different question, beyond any of my interests.

Enjoy yours,
John H.
Raleigh, N.C.
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