Any Ontario Orange Fans?
 

Anyone have good pictures of Ontario Orange on anything other than a Corvette? I'm running up to get a small sample to do a spray out and hopefully get a better idea of the color in person.

I tried to post photos earlier and couldn't get the links to work...
Here are some original paint photos I took last year, some are VERY close - some outside some inside the NCRS national show... I wanted to get the color and metallic grain in detail.
Go view and use the magnifier to zoom in - these are very good representations of the REAL color.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/CA7PLSK5XdkUqMQ78

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/74...-no?authuser=0

Interesting. Almost has a bronze appearance in some pictures, and a slight orange hue in other pictures.
Being original paint those photos are 50 year old lacquer?

My hope is that going base/clear might give it more "pop" under the sunlight.
I couldn't get my sample today so I'll have to wait for a spray out with base clear until next week. I'd like to compare those to what you have posted here.

Much appreciated :biggthumpup:

Have a Merry Christmas!

Many, many years, I was driving alongside an Ontario Orange LT1 Corvette at sunset and there’s something about that particular color the just pops at that time of day. So much so that I have not forgotten it decades later!

:naughty:

My dad's '71 LT-1.

Always thought it was a love it or leave it colour.

That's what I'm trying to decide.

Makes it more difficult that I've never seen this color used on any other body style. I thought it might look good on an A-body with some black stripes, and a bit more chrome to help set it off.

I could never really decide if I liked the Ontario Orange on my dad's Vette.Somedays I'd look at it and think it looked not bad and other days not so much.I found that sunlight really changed the look of the paint.

Ontario Orange Fire Mist Poly was an exclusive Corvette color.

That is correct. However I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen it used on anything else. It's either a forgotten color or it's just one of those colors that people aren't attracted to.

Yes I've noticed sunlight really changes the color and that was one thing that attracted me. I've been looking for an orange that was just a little different.

What you're struggling with is the same thing I've found from many others about Carolina Blue, the original color of my car. Seems there are a few on here that like the color but literally everyone that I show the color to in person absolutely does not like it at all. I've struggled with it myself for a while now.
It's been hugger orange for the last 35 years and while I like it, I just want something a little different. Thought about adding a little metallic to the Hugger but then remembered Ontario Orange and that appealed to me, the metallic in the paint, the way it changes with different light, and I thought it might work well with black SS stripes and the larger amount of chrome that an A-body has. I just haven't seen it done yet, and was curious if someone had.

https://i.postimg.cc/fLS87MT6/5.jpg

That's all I could come up with. It looks like OO the way the sun reflects off the car.

Thanks Lee :beers: It seems impossible to find an example

That does look like it could be it. Looks very bronze or copper in that picture and maybe some orange where the sun is hitting it. It's one of those colors that is hard to get a good read on.

When Corvette Bronze came out in 68 it was seen on other Chevrolets as a special order color, and today there seems to be a lot of Camaros that have come out of the woodwork with that color special ordered.

With that in mind, I would think Ontario Orange could have been special ordered in 71-72 on any Chevrolet, but I have yet to see or hear of it.

I found some of these videos of corvettes forsale in Ontario Orange to give more of a "in action" view of how the light reflects on this color. These are more than likely base coat/clear coat paint systems too.


https://youtu.be/AZIRXJn5_dU

https://youtu.be/cO5yltTYy4Q

I had a GM poster of an Ontario Orange Corvette on the garage wall for years. Your Dad's LT-1 is THE car I dreamed of, even while driving my '68 427.


Years ago I painted a few motorcycles and one of my personal favorites was a mildly chopped Triumph. It was Ontario Orange with Metallic Gold and Candy Root Beer accents. (Sorry, no pics.)



As for 'Love it or Leave it', ..... I've always loved it.

Perfect stance...:drool:

My dad bought his Vette in Fall '71.Was a 4 speed,leather interior.Think he paid $6300.00 for it.Kept it until 1999.Sold it for $25k.That pic is from the for sale ad.Still had original tires on it.The only parts ever changed were a muffler,couple batteries,belts.Everything else was original to the car.He took the pollution parts off when new and they went with the car.Spare tire was never used and original paint!He sold his '68 Chevelle SS 396/350 convertible to buy the Vette.

I think the fact that it is next to impossible to find on other cars and it is not all that common on Corvettes tells you everything you need to know.

I always liked Ontario orange

On my Corvette, if it helps?
https://youtu.be/TEjgRMe3iSg

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NP46WipG9ASq2qab8

Love the paint scheme on that. Nicely done, and goes well with the color.

:D I say the same thing about stuff you don't see very often, lol.

It sure isn't making the choice any easier. I'm trying to stay in the time period and stay away from non OEM colors but I fear I'm going to be tempted to get out the orange color book and start looking at color chips.

If I had an original Carolina Blue car, I would paint it back that color.
Nothing wrong with that color at all IMO.

But then again all my cars are either blue or white :hmmm:

I'm not against the Carolina Blue, but it seems the only people that even know what the color is are a few on this forum, or people that live in North Carolina, lol.

I can't begin to count the number of car people I've already had to explain that color to, what it is and why, and the connection to a sports team before they realize what it is. I have pictures of a 72 SS blown up on the shop wall in Carolina Blue. Then the reaction is bleck, no one likes it.
I'm just not sure I want to go through the rest of my life with this car trying to explain what the color is and why. LOL

I like blues, and I even entertained the idea of maybe tweaking the Carolina Blue with a little metallic to help with the bland pastel appearance. It's not like a 72 SS 454 is a big dollar car anyway, and it's been my day 2 hotrod for 35 years so it's not completely stock. I'm really struggling with the choices.

Hi Larry-paint it whatever makes you happy. I love the Ontario Orange!


That color and the 1972 Pewter metallic that came on Chevelles and Novas look awesome at sunset :) :cool2:

Hey Bruce, hope all is well and you and family had a Merry Christmas!! :biggthumpup:

Yes I like Pewter Metallic too. I also like Golds, Oranges, Blues, Greens, My problem is I like too much. lol

Probably 2 colors I avoid is Black and Red. Not because I don't like them, but because you see a lot of it already. I've painted more Black and Red cars than anything else. We own a factory Black car already and don't really want another one. I like Reds more the darker they get.

My wife hates the Hugger Orange, but she loves the copper colors, Golds, Blues etc... She actually likes Ontario Orange though, as it reminds her of a little bit of copper depending on how the light hits it, and we owned a 71 454 vette in War Bonnet Yellow, which actually looks like Gold, and she loved that too. She sort of likes Carolina Blue but it wasn't the reaction I was hoping for.

I'm really beating myself up over this :grin:

----I ordered a new 72 Grand Prix in Pewter with a white vinyl top, and liked it so much that several years later I painted my 70 LS5 SS Chevelle convert Pewter with a white top and stripes. The Chevelle was originally black, but black is too labor intensive for my taste. .....Bill S

Yes, exactly! While I love black on about anything, one car is enough. It's way too much upkeep and labor intensive. I gave it serious thought for the Chevelle, but the need to then go white stripes, and having perfect black interior in it already sort of killed that thought. I would rather have white interior with that combo but I'm not swapping interior color.

I really like the Carolina Blue more when the car has a vinyl top to break things up. Mine however never had the top. I wish it did though.

So the drive train for your project is missing? Carolina Blue would be a special paint color - rare.

Just be prepared for all the comments like "That's not a stock color for that car is it?"

No, I have all the original drivetrain, it was a bone stocker with one repaint when I found the car in the 80's. Been the car I've enjoyed progressively making faster ever since while still maintaining an original theme, without cutting or aggressively modifying anything.
Original color is Carolina Blue and was special ordered. It's been Hugger Orange for decades which isn't the original color either but oddly I can probably count on one hand the number of people that bothered to ask if Orange was the original color, after they looked at the tag and saw no paint code.
What's more strange is the amount of people I've had to explain what Carolina Blue is. Even self proclaimed sports fans that are car nuts weren't even aware people were ordering their cars with team colors like this, at least not on this side of the country anyway. I'm sure if I were in the Carolina's people would know right away what it is.

Either way I'm finally blowing the car apart for a repaint, it's due, and it's been a real struggle these last few months trying to decide on a color.

You aren't concerned about lowering the value of the car if you paint it any color except Carolina Blue?

Naa not really, these aren't really big money cars anyway. A pretty nice example like mine can be found in the $40k range, so I don't see a correct restored version fetching more than another $10-15k in my eyes. A 4-speed might add a little more, which mine is not. I just don't view these as worth all that much. If the prices got much higher than $55-$60k for a perfect version of one of these then I'd switch gears and start looking at a different car like a Z or an L78 for not much more, but that's just me.
If it were a couple years older and an LS6 or maybe some other solid lifter version of something I'd look at this much differently of course. But people really aren't attracted to the 71-72's as much as the earlier years.

I'm never selling the car anyway. When I'm gone my son can have it and it'll be up to him.

Onterio orange
 

72 Z28 Flame orange. Original paint

Ontario Orange
 

My old 70 Corvette Bronze. Original paint. Another possibility.

----Where in Ma. are you located? Feeling like we might have run into each other,,,maybe!....Bill S

https://i.postimg.cc/SQrd7b1J/3.jpg

1966: Turbine Bronze

That looks fantastic! Does that have any metallic in it?

Edit: Okay I googled it. Can you help me understand the color a bit? It almost looks Hugger Orange to me. Hugger Orange with a twist?
I found this video that is supposed to be Flame Orange but can't really tell if it has metallic.

https://youtu.be/aGXRUxoBP-s

Now that is another interesting color I never considered. Looks really nice in that lighting.