LanciaInfo Blog

So what color were those Lancia white wheels?  In general, stock steel wheels from Lancia (Aprilia through Fulvia) were painted a Lancia creamy white, often called Avorio Antico. Finding that color in today’s paints can be difficult, although there is one English paint company that lists it on a website. People have tried to determine a modern equivalent to this color:

1. Jean Marie Levallois did some careful research on Aurelias and found some original white color (unfaded) behind some bits on his car before it was painted. He noted:

“On the back-side of the half-ring of horn control, there is an original avorio antico paint having resisted time (fading)… It matches Dupont de Nemours for fiat/lancia: code color 234, avorio antico, 1967 to 1975 (old colors were translated into new chemical formules), number 36194. You use it in one measure with two of pure white and you will have the right colour…with patina.”

2.    I have used the color of Summer Beige, Nissan RF, 1994-2006, or Glasurit SM 003.50 to match Jean Marie’s white. I was quite happy with this color. For my B20, which is painted a light beige, I used this color in the central part of the wheel, and the outer rim was painted the  color of the car. This “two tone” approach was used in period by Lancia, although perhaps not consistently.

3. Don Cross has noted that for Appias:
“The nearest match I  have found to the cream colour is a Rover colour called Arum White and I have used this on my cars.”

4. Paolo  (PG 1964 on line) notes that the correct color for Lancia wheels in the mid-1960‘s was Avorio Chantilly, which he noted as Lechler32/MaxMeyer12043,, with its color formula: 

5.Posted 10.2014 was this from Klaus Jeschke on VivaLancia.com. I don’t know him or how accurate this is, but he says the ICI Paint code for the wheels is:
buttermilk BS4800/10C31 ICI paint recipe: P425-900 356.0 gms, P420-904RT 372.4gm, P420-908RT 379.5gm, P420-905 408.8gm, P190-376 586.5 gm,Hellfenbein P4206Bp9

6. Recently (4.2016) from the Alfa Romeo BB, from Don000:” For those unable to access Lechler / Max Meyer color references, # 430B5 seems to be the best match in the Asko Sikkens book for the Lancia wheel color.”

Paint colors remain an issue. Original colors are no longer made; original samples, if found, have faded.

Finding and matching early Lancia paint colors is quite difficult. There is information on what colors were used, but typically Max Meyer numbers are given. I know of no conversion chart for them to current paints.

Lechler (Europe) made a major committment in the early 1990’s to convert vintage paint colors to current numbers, and they maintain a pretty current listing. Their list from early 1990 is on this blog, dated 5.2/06.

Unfortunately, Lechler is not represented in the US, and thus for the American, this is of little help (except for the friendly European, who sent paint swatches to me – thanks again!).

Glasurit and PPG are much more common in the US. In 1990, Glasurit paint chip books had a section on Lancia and listed paint codes back to 1968, thus of use to US Lanciste. The first page (of eleven) is shown above – but rather than rely on scans for colors, one should use the name and number and have the paint made up – and see if you like it.

There is a catch tho – some of the paints have slightly  different formulas for different years! There are multiple listings for: blu Lancia, amaranto, beige mirabello and rosso corsa. Still, one can work from this number list and make pretty good progress.

Thanks to Ed Levin (Fulvia, Los Angeles) for this information.

Here is the full list of Lechler paint codes for Lancias, as published in 1990 in Ruotoclassiche. The list is provided with thanks to Carter Hendricks.

Lechler numbers:

What were the  interiors of a B20? They appear not to be standardized, especially not the early ones. Later ones (from 4th series on) are more regular, with the later 6th series  being the most predictable, according to the literature.

Did the interiors of the earlier cars have door panels in cloth or vinyl? Most think they were cloth, maybe some vinyl along the bottom.Thus, an early car would be cloth around the driver, not only on the seats, the door panels but also the headliner. Two s.2 cars were examined, one having the seat “buttons” which were sometimes installed. Note the it also has vinyl on the seat sides, where the other one has cloth. Vinyl on the seat backs was common.

Here are some pictures of redone door panels with vinyl on the top and bottom and cloth in the middle. This is fairly practical.

redone 2nd s. panel, vinyl on bottom

redone 4th s. with vinyl trim and bottom

very well done 2nd series, with vinyl on bottom

The real trick was to find unrestored cars, however. And they tell a different story: an original 1st series interior shows use of the vinyl detailing was original:

original s.1 B20 panel – note the vinyl

Then there are some panels from a 2nd series interior, also unrestored, which show all vinyl (I believe) on the rear quarter panels and heavy use of vinyl on the door panel:

unrestored rear quarter panel from original s.2 B20

Lastly, a s,4 B20 was found with an original all leather interior. While uncommon, it did look nice.

This car used to belong to Bill Shakespeare, in southern Illinois, of Bugatti fame. The car was originally a  two tone green car (when I saw it in 1980) but is now been repainted to a single green. Some “speciale” cars had their interiors in full leather,  nice to see how they looked.

full leather interior, unrestored s.4 B20

The color research is beginning to pay off. From Carter Hendricks comes a  xerox of a  1990 article in an Italian magazine, which says: “ from work by Elvira Ruocco & others… who worked to transfer old Fiat, Lancia and Alfa paint color codes to current Lechler and other color codes.”  So here are the 1990 Lechler codes for the Aurelias B20’s from that article (my transcribing, but their exact words!).  There are some later corrections from Lechler in Italy from recent correspondence, indicated by (  ).  One can assume the later numbers are more likely to be correct, but take care!

B20 1, 2 series:

• Argento Aureuil metall.               1325
• Celeste Ardenza metall.              1327
• Grigio Inglewood  met.                8001
• Grigio Marones                           8021
• Grigio Albany metallizz.              1358
• Grigio Newmarket met.               1338
• Grigio York                                      33
• Grigio Tor di Valle                       1336
• Grigio Cascine                            1334
• Grigio Montebello                        8042
• Grigio Vinovo                               1335
• Grigio Laurel Park                            13 (1181)
• Grigio Belmontpark                          57 (8083)
• Blu Scuro                                     1195  (Lechler uses same number called Grigio Scuro)
• Beige                                            1077

For the B20 s. 3,4,5 (6 isn’t listed separately):

• Celeste                                             8012
• Grigio Newmarket met.                    1338
• Grigio Chiaro, V/VI series                1194
• Grigio Metal.,V/VI series                    104  (Lechler calls this Grigio Milano Metal.)
• Blu Scuro                                          8015
• Blu                                                     1179
• Azzuro, V/VI serie                             1173
• Amaranto                                          8027 (1176)
• Rosso La Plata                                 1360
• Avorio                                               1196
• Beige                                                1077
• Verde                                                8013
• Nero                                                    122

A few more thoughts:

A Max Meyer colorwheel from the 1950’s lists some of these paints, but with older (no longer valid) numbers. In that wheel, the “Lancia Blue” is listed as  MM  # 1.272.7069, and is probably the same as the Blu above.

And the  Lancia beige is probably the same as Max Meyers’ “Beige Mirabello” (old # 1.252.3918). Jean-Pierre Baumgartner sent me the following sample which he said had some 30+ years of age on it:

For the B24, we have a color wheel (image from Steve Katzman) with the following paints:

color wheel with better color correction

B24 Spider color wheel