Color

The Werk Shop

28814 Nagel Ct., Unit B

Lake Bluff, IL 60044

(847) 295.3200 Telephone

(847) 615.9375 Fax

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E-mail: Administrator@ProjectM1.com

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As the Seventies were about to turn into the Eighties and the M1 could be bought as a new car, would-be owners could choose from 5 different exterior colors. These colors were white, orange, red, blue and gray. I have data for 392 non-Procar M1s and the breakdown of the original colors of these cars looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

For the other M1s there was either no information available or they were sold with just a coat of primer. The buyer of the car was responsible for the application of the final coat of paint with the color of his/her preference.

When all is said and done, I would like the NameLess One to look like it just came rolling out of the factory. When a car is completely stripped it can obviously be repainted in any color but to keep the original, factory look I wanted to pick one of these 5 standard colors. With only 0.77% of the total production finished in gray, it was definitely not the most popular option. Although not the most popular I think it is the most beautiful.

The paint for the M1 was manufactured by a company called Glasurit (a subsidiary of BASF) and the gray color had code 211. The formulas for white, orange, red and blue are readily available, directly from the factory (Mfr : BMW, Model : M1 -> Start Search). The exact formula for code 211 paint has unfortunately been lost. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to Wolfgang Melter who arranged for a headlight of one of the original gray M1s –currently in France- to be send to a laboratory where its color was analyzed and captured in a formula. In Milwaukee, this formula was used to mix the paint that will be used on the NameLess One.

It is a dark, non-metallic paint that will hopefully look understated and stylish on the NameLess One.