I’ve begun work on my winter project which I hope to have completed by the beginning of March 2011. In a moment of insanity before Thanksgiving I started toying with the idea of recreating the style of ‘Lackstift’ paint touch-up pencils that Porsche once offered as an accessory starting in about 1960.
How hard could it be?
I began by creating a paint code/name spreadsheet with my Red Book, color charts and other resources to see what kind of paint challenge/nightmare I created for myself. It’s a BIG one: 32 unique standard paint colors from 1960-1973, with usually between 7-9 standard colors each cycle. It’s a little different than the standard black, red and white of today!
However, since Porsche indicated not just the paint name but the paint code as well on the outside of the bottle there are actually 63 unique standard color Lackstifts from 1960-1973! As an example, many of you know when Slate Gray was offered the paint code changed over time from 6001, 6201, 6401, 6601 and finally 6801. As a result there won’t be just 1 Slate Gray Lackstift but 5 variations of it spanning 1960-1969. Naturally, some colors will be more popular than others, more Ruby Red (1957-1965) will be needed than Smyrna Green (1962-1963) but my goal is to have all 33 (standard and optional color) Lackstifts available from the outset for 356’s 1960-1965.
Of course that’s just the paint data… there are many more steps. In no particular order: 2 different die cut boxes to make, drawing and injection molding of the red button on the cap top, painting the bottles themselves, creating the bottle graphics and screen printing them on just like the originals. As you can see I have lots of after-hours work ahead of me in the next 3 months. I hope to document all of it here and hopefully it goes smoothly!
but more importantly I needed to make sure they would actually fit the Lackstift I would be making!
I was sent one white and one black. I've only ever seen Porsche use a black top so black it is!
