True color of the General Lee...

[Spike]

https://www.autoclassics.com/news/448014/general-lee-true-shade-orange/

Interesting, I always thought it was a cheap color and the cheapest colors that was carried in the paint store I worked at many years ago were school bus yellow and an orange color that a local industrial rental shop bought by the barrel. Both of those colors were about $9 a gallon.

[RogerDuke]

Good thing it was the only color Cooter had in the shop. I can't imagine the General Lee anything else.....the show would have still been just as good though. 

[JRC99]

So, here's my take: I intensely dislike (hate's too strong a word for someone I've never met) TB (Mainly because of what went down with LEE1), so I took it with a grain of salt.

 

I've been binging Kibbe and Friends, and they actually just released an episode on this:

http://www.themusclecarplace.com/kibbe-and-finnegan/kf-show-165/

The gist is Corndog, one of the co hosts (he also runs the Real General Lee website/Facebook/Instagram page), is a bodyman by trade and says that depending on many different factors, a paint reader can return many variations because it matches the color with a database. Whatever color the paint was sprayed over (T3 Bronze in Lee1's case) can also play a role. 

 

Now, Renaud Valuzet, one of the crew that built a majority of the TV cars (If it's in CA and has the narrow bar, it's 98% likely to be a Valuzet car) told Kibbe at one point they used "Dulux Code 70 Enamel". 

 

Code 70 is the GM color code for 1975 Corvette Flame Red. 

 

I may be messing a bit up, I only listened to it once. But it's worth a listen. 

 

In other words, it's highly unlikely that they specifically went for TNT Express Orange. We'll probably never know unless the guys that built the first 3 Lees ever come out and discuss it (if they're still with us- I don't think I've ever heard who they were, come to think of it).

 

I've also heard that the first 3 were Hemi Orange, but they didn't like how it showed up on cameras so they switched to Flame Red. The first three may have been repainted Flame Red after Hemi Orange. I don't have a source because I can't exactly remember where I read that. 

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by JRC99

[RogerDuke]

Now that's some really interesting information. Thanks for posting it JRC99. 

[floyd012010]

On 10/9/2020 at 11:22 PM, JRC99 said:

So, here's my take: I intensely dislike (hate's too strong a word for someone I've never met) TB (Mainly because of what went down with LEE1), so I took it with a grain of salt.

 

I've been binging Kibbe and Friends, and they actually just released an episode on this:

http://www.themusclecarplace.com/kibbe-and-finnegan/kf-show-165/

The gist is Corndog, one of the co hosts (he also runs the Real General Lee website/Facebook/Instagram page), is a bodyman by trade and says that depending on many different factors, a paint reader can return many variations because it matches the color with a database. Whatever color the paint was sprayed over (T3 Bronze in Lee1's case) can also play a role. 

 

Now, Renaud Valuzet, one of the crew that built a majority of the TV cars (If it's in CA and has the narrow bar, it's 98% likely to be a Valuzet car) told Kibbe at one point they used "Dulux Code 70 Enamel". 

 

Code 70 is the GM color code for 1975 Corvette Flame Red. 

 

I may be messing a bit up, I only listened to it once. But it's worth a listen. 

 

In other words, it's highly unlikely that they specifically went for TNT Express Orange. We'll probably never know unless the guys that built the first 3 Lees ever come out and discuss it (if they're still with us- I don't think I've ever heard who they were, come to think of it).

 

I've also heard that the first 3 were Hemi Orange, but they didn't like how it showed up on cameras so they switched to Flame Red. The first three may have been repainted Flame Red after Hemi Orange. I don't have a source because I can't exactly remember where I read that. 

 

Me and a close friend spent the weekend at the late Henry Holmans place in butler GA several years back. He said the first three cars from California were painted hemi orange. The hemi orange and 75 flame red were very similar and the reason they started using the flame red was because they were working on alot of corvettes at the body shop which was H&H body shop and they had alot of the flame red readily available.  This came directly from him, he let us make copies of some of the work orders he still had from when they were working on the cars in 1978. I have a picture of me and him and my buddy standing under the infamous Lee 1 deck lid. Whether or not that was the actual Lee 1 deck lid who knows but maybe Travis Bell. But that's a whole different story. Was glad to meet Henry and his wife,  such nice folks. 

[Hobie Hartkins]

I simply call the color orange, the General is painted, as " Duke Boy " orange and I'll guarantee you everybody in Hazzard, knows what I'm talking about! 

[Mr. Lee]

On 2/25/2023 at 1:45 AM, floyd012010 said:

Me and a close friend spent the weekend at the late Henry Holmans place in butler GA several years back. He said the first three cars from California were painted hemi orange. The hemi orange and 75 flame red were very similar and the reason they started using the flame red was because they were working on alot of corvettes at the body shop which was H&H body shop and they had alot of the flame red readily available.  This came directly from him, he let us make copies of some of the work orders he still had from when they were working on the cars in 1978. I have a picture of me and him and my buddy standing under the infamous Lee 1 deck lid. Whether or not that was the actual Lee 1 deck lid who knows but maybe Travis Bell. But that's a whole different story. Was glad to meet Henry and his wife,  such nice folks. 

Do you have work orders from LEE1?

[floyd012010]

On 3/6/2023 at 12:55 PM, Mr. Lee said:

Do you have work orders from LEE1?

Not from any of the chargers, the first three were painted in California and then delivered to Georgia already painted but they did not have the flag or the 01 and general lee letters on them. I haven't looked at those old work orders in years but best I can remember one was on the blue Plymouth fury, one was on the gray Ford in high octane and one was for a police car.