2001 Diplomat Restoration Project - Paint Codes

[VinceB]

The time has come to repaint and restore. Thanks to this site, I already have headlights and tailights ordered. The Accuride Wheels will get polished in the last step.

I was fortunate to find the original paint code and thus the formula for my Pacifica Blue - but only the painted part - see graphic below. Industrial Finishes (who supplied the original paint) is still in business and is very responsive and helpful. They supplied the formula in a heart beat.

Unfortunately, in 2001 not 100% of the exterior was paint. The rest was tape/vinyl stickers over the gel coat.

IIRC 2002 had the same color option but was by then full body paint. So there must be paint codes for the stickers. I've asked Industrial Finishes but, without a paint code, I'm afraid it is a shot in the dark.

My hope is that someone here can help with the paint codes for the colors of tape/stickers I have on the coach that were changed to paint in 2002. This will facilitate the body shop duplicating the color scheme. Call me old school, but I want to get as close to original as possible.

Here are the 2 TAPE COLORS needed:

Lt. Pewter Metallic   Vendor P/N P2984  
Lt. Swedish Blue Metallic   Vendor P/N P4723  

Blue Jewel Metallic   Vendor P/N PN5458  looks like matches the paint and so I'm not concerned about that one.

Failing all the above, I'll have to rely on technology to match the color of the stickers but would rather not.

Any input is appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest ronspradley]

Create your own colors.  That is what I did on my 1995 Windsor.

 

ronspradley

[SundanceKid]

Try this ...

COACHMEN RV P2984 LIGHT PEWTER METALLIC Gallon of Paint Single Stage | eBay

 

[Notn2bars]

Just wondering, did any of you do your own prep and paint? God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage.

[jacwjames]

2 minutes ago, Notn2bars said:

Just wondering, did any of you do your own prep and paint? God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage.

I've done some on my rig, by no means am I an expert.  I did a lot of googling and Youtube videos to get up to speed. 

In 2013 my wife side swiped a pole pulling out of a fueling station.  The height of the pole was at the bottom of the driver side slide, she did a little damage to the aluminum edging.  But she pancaked the two part door hinge on two of the doors, and scratched two of the doors pretty bad, and slightly warped the small door in front of the wet bay.  No telling what it would have cost to get all that fixed so I just tackled it myself. 

I removed the three damaged doors and cut the two part hinge off  where it wasn't damage.  Monaco at the time sold the portion that attached to the door, bought a 20' section and they cut it into lengths that were easily shipped.  They didn't stock the part that attached to the side of the RV but I got a used piece from Visione RV in KY, a short piece cost more they then new but not other choice.  I removed the top hinge on each door and cut the new pieces to fit and riveted on.  For the doors that were heavily scratched I sanded and filled with filler until they were smooth.  For the door that was bent I put it on a heavy bench, clamped it down, and used a large pipe wrench with wood to protect the door and bent it back straight,  Had to use a little bondo to fill in a slight depression. 

Sanded everything down and used a spray etching type primer.  I got the the four colors of my coach from a auto paint store in Knoxville, it is Diamont paint but others might work.  Mine seems to be a good match.  I had to paint 3 colors, never had done that before so it was back to Youtube .   I did stop at either a paint change or door break.  Overall it looks pretty good, the clear coat was harder to get to blend then the paint and I can still see a slight difference in finish.  When my brother, who does quite a bit of auto/bike painting, looked at it he really couldn't tell from a distance.   It ain't perfect but good enough for me.  My neighbor who is a car enthusiast looked at it and says I can buff out the clear coat and it will look like factory so that is another thing on my list to do.. 

But if you have any experience in auto painting you should be able to this. 

 

[VinceB]

10 hours ago, SundanceKid said:

Try this ...

COACHMEN RV P2984 LIGHT PEWTER METALLIC Gallon of Paint Single Stage | eBay

 

Thanks. I'll check it out.

Looks like the sticker numbers are taken off the paint codes.

7 hours ago, Notn2bars said:

Just wondering, did any of you do your own prep and paint? God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage.

No. It looks like an incredible amount of work.  I'm too old for that. And I'd have to do it in my RV bay that is visible from the street - not sure the  neighbors would appreciate it. Plus it has been over 100° here for the last few days and will be high 90's for the next few weeks.

I have a paint shop near me with 2 spray booths for large vehicles. Right now they have around 6 busses from Orange County, CA in various stages of repair and several RV's waiting for parts or insurance claims. So they have a large crew with a lot of experience. I'm just biting the bullet and paying the labor.

[VinceB]

In case any here have the same color scheme, Industrial ran my vinyl sticker part numbers and came up with the following paint codes that were used on the same scheme in 2002.

Thanks to Sundance, I noticed that the sticker and paint codes were relative to each other.

Whether or not they are exact matches remains to be seen, however.

Just need to find 'Moncao Diplomat" emblems now.

Edited September 8, 2022 by VinceB

[Notn2bars]

Thanks for the reply Jim, something I may tackle when all the other stuff gets done!  God Bless, Ed, Sylvia and Sage