Universal Beige

Since I have a Luzon Red '48 (187593) in my possession since 1989, I have been obsessed with finding a correct match for UB.

Closest I could get was information that there was a Mercedes-Benz color from the early '80's. Too many close matches and too much of a chance of picking the wrong color. I will make a trip in the near future to confirm this info and edit this post. Stay tuned.

Recently, I was successful in finding two old cards of original paint chips that had UB:

Click on pix to expand:







Armed with these original ships I started visiting powder coaters to see if there was a close match out there. Sure enough , it didn't take me long to find a match close enough. Their chips were a  smidge darker than my paint chips, but they ordered a sample to check and it came back dead on.
They used Tiger Coatings brand color RAL 1002 which should be available at most powder coaters. Keep looking if the first place looks at you funny

Having this bit of information will save you gas money you can put towards your baby. I decided to go with powder coating because of it's durability primarily. Secondly, cost is about 60% less than having a body shop sandblast, primer and finally paint the wheels. I paid $50 a wheel - blasted and coated I was quoted $145 a wheel for paint. Too much sanding and fussing about for me.

Powder coating is so simple after blasting, it's scary. Here is how mine turned out:

With a flash.........


No flash...........


I am really impressed with the results. Simply Perfect.

Now if I can just get the body done..............


Edited by misterberry - 22 Apr. 2009 at 5:30am