69 Camaro COPO paint colors
 

I was just looking at how many of each color 1969 COPO Camaros are accounted for in our registry:

code 10, tuxedo black - 19
code 40, butternut yellow - 2
code 50, dover white - 19
code 51, dusk blue - 14
code 52, garnet red - 15
code 53, glacier blue - 2
code 55, azure turquoise - 3
code 57, fathom green - 79
code 59, frost green - 5
code 61, burnished brown - 11
code 63, champagne - 0
code 65, Olympic gold - 11
code 67, burgundy - 5
code 69, cortez silver - 32
code 71, lemans blue - 74
code 72, hugger orange - 84
code 76, Daytona yellow - 61
code 79, rallye green - 46
code --, special paint - 3


I would have guessed that fathom green was the most common color for COPOs, but hugger orange beat it out. Also, surprised at the number of black cars accounted for.

A list like this of 1969 COPO Chevelle's would be very interesting as well.

Ryan

69 chevelles

code 10 - 3
40 - 14
50 - 3
51 - 2
52 - 9
53 - 0
55 - 0
57 - 22
59 - 2
61 - 1
63 - 0
65 - 2
67 - 1
69 - 2
71 - 25
72 - 11
76 - 14
79 - 0
spec - 1

probably not enough data to draw statistical conclusions on 69 Chevelles, but FG & LB highest

Cool list..thanks for sharing.

Interesting how FG was so in vogue in 1969. green in general. Now it is not near the top of the list of favorite colors.

I assume it was a patriotic feeling from the war ? lots of soldiers also ordering cars or coming home in the next few years and buying cars also. Army/camo green??

any thoughts?

Is Bill Stephenso's new car the only Special - Paint code COPO Chevelle?

Ryan

As a vet returning home in 1969, personally, I wouldn't have bought a green car because of my attachment to my military days. I bought a new GTO in 1967 and my first color choice was burgundy, I couldn't find one in that color, so I ended up buying a gold one.

The really bright colors were just starting to come out in 68-69 and some of the colors were a bit bright for some, so they stuck with more traditional colors. Why the green's were popular I'm not sure, but I do remember that the darker shades of green were always on the lots .

I almost bought a dark green with white stinger 427/435 Vette coupe at VV Cooke in Louisville at the time I bought the GTO, but it was a bit much for a newly minted 2nd Lieutenant. I can still picture that car sitting in the showroom, it was beautiful.

Not surprising to me that HO is the most popular color on the Camaro. One of those 84 is mine and I think that would have been my color choice if I were buying back in the day.

Look around you with stuff from 1968/mid-1970s and you'll see Earthtones were in vogue.....greens, beiges, browns, yellows, and any variation of such. Visit a local estate sale and I bet the recently deceased 90 y-o didn't update his/her kitchen in 40+ years. Take a look at what it looks like and think back to our beloved cars because there's a symbiotic relationship.

The interesting part is our sensibility of colors and how colors have aged over time. Look at Azure Turquoise and it looks great today, but we know from observation that it was not a popular color for performance cars (can't speak for regular modes of transportation, but I bet it was middle-of-the-road at best).

And when it comes to green and other Earthtones? Lots of them haven't aged well to contemporary eyes. I think Fathom Green is alright, but there was plenty of other colors (some of the Mopar greens come to mind) that are simply gawdawful. Sometimes there's a color like Frost Green that is not to my liking (and is surprisingly uncommon for the COPO cars listed in the above registry), but when you see a fresh coat of that color you can see its strengths, although the choice of interior color plays a role on how tolerable it may be IMHO.

I think you're right about the popularity of colors, Diego. Back then, Harvest gold, Avocado green, and Coppertone were all the rage in appliance colors. I would think someone getting out of the service back then would have had their fill of green or camo colors!

An old salesman from back then recently told me that in general,he ordered almost every color in the spectrum for their dealership he worked @,that was possible.
These were dealer ordered cars,not customer waiting cars.
Said they always sold the Red-Blue-Black-Silver colors first,within days of delivery.
The earth tones took longer,sometimes weeks.They didn't care at first,as they wanted to satisfy everyone as much as they could.But as the days wore on,they saw the earth tones were being overlooked too often,and customers would request the exact same optioned car in a different color instead.
He said this was one of their teachable moments.

Another insight I've acquired, right or wrong, is the meaning of colors.

Today, black is a popular color for performance cars and just about everything else.

But back in the 1960s, it was more formal. It was not unusual to find a Cadillac or Lincoln in black; ditto Buicks and Cadillacs. But for other classes of cars, it was prob MOR at best, and it most certainly didn't carry the cache of performance the way it does today. Look at documented production numbers for cars like Mustangs and Mopars and you'll never see black at the top of the list.