[roger1]

I have been struggling for a long while whether to keep this car it's original Liberty Blue or change it to Matador Red. I have finally made the decision and the red is my choice. I know there will be some here that think this will be a mistake but I have some reasons.

Number one is that although I do have quite a bit of painting skill, painting an all over job dark metallic is something I haven't done before. I'm not sure I can do it perfectly. Plus when doing a metallic, it's important to paint the base on all the panels in the same day and in the same orientation as the car will be when assembled. Since I prefer to paint the car with the panels removed, I do not have the space to be able to do them all in the same day and orientation.

Number 2 is that my wife really likes the red better than blue and she has frowned every time I mentioned I was going to paint it Liberty Blue. As for me, I really like the blue and think it's one of the best blues of all. But I like very dark Matador Red just as well. I've always liked it. The kicker is that I know if I choose the red, it will come out perfect and if I went with the blue I'd have to paint the car with the panels mounted which I don't want to do and even then I don't have total confidence that it would look perfect.

So anyway the decision is final. It will be Matador Red. I've also made a decision on what paint to buy and it will be SPI Dark Red base coat and their Universal Clear on top. I will also use the SPI red epoxy for the last coat of primer under the base.

Btw, Pontiac Matador Red is the same as Chevrolet Garnet Red, Buick Signal Red and Oldsmobile Crimson Red. All have the same code and formula for 1969.
I knew Barry was trying for an exact match of Garnet Red when he was developing the color for SPI Dark Red back in 2016. I asked him recently if his final formula did turn out to be a match for Garnet. He told me back when he was developing the color, he had ordered quarts of Garnet Red from 3 different manufacturers and all 3 were a little different so really he couldn't definitively give an answer as it would depend on the manufacturer of what you were comparing his to. Another pro on the SPI forum told me that he went to a concours type show where there were 2 '69 Garnet Red Camaros side by side both claiming to be original colors but yet looked different. He also said one of them was dead on to SPI Dark Red.
So the answer is really a subjective one but I can call SPI Dark Red is Matador Red and it is not a misleading thing to say. I spent the time asking this question as I wanted to be able to respond to anyone that asks without being misleading about it being a color that although isn't the original, was an available choice from the factory.

Here is an SPI Dark Red paint card that SPI sent me. I took of photo of the card in several under several different lighting conditions. I also compared the card to every red I could find around my shop and the card was a darker red than every one of them.