Gunmetal Gray

[Guest Kurt Franz]

I have noticed that there are not many references to owners who have the Gunmetal Gray Metallic paint scheme. Understood that it was available only in 90 and 91 model years, however, it still seems to be somewhat elusive in the posts....

just an observation....

[NCReatta]

It is a pretty rare color combo. I've only seen about a dozen or so ever. Steveskyhawk has a Gunmetal convertible. There have been a couple coupes for sale locally here that I've contemplated acquiring. Another fellow close by here also has a gunmetal convertible. They exist, just few and far between.

[Guest steveskyhawk]

[Guest Kurt Franz]

In the quest for my Reatta, I looked at 2 whites, 1 dark blue, 1 black, 1 red, 1 maui blue. I am glad the keeper was the Gunmetal Gray as it is nice to have one that is not so common. The interior is what I believe to be gray as well along with the carpet and the floor mats. I wish it had the cargo straps though......

[Guest steveskyhawk]

Kurt and all,

I have a set of cargo straps for sale if you want them.

[Barney Eaton]

kurt, there were 411 (6.4%) coupe and 37 (1.7%) convertibles made in 1990 in Gunmetal Grey.

Driftwood coupes are even rarer, only 363 were made.

[Guest BJM]

kurt, there were 411 (6.4%) coupe and 37 (1.7%) convertibles made in 1990 in Gunmetal Grey.

Driftwood coupes are even rarer, only 363 were made.

Wow I had no idea that few Driftwood coupes were made. I love either color.

Steve,

Can you possibly post some photos of your convertible that show the "shade" of the grey better? Maybe hard to translate but I would like to see a better shot.

Barney,

Any Gunmetal Grey or Driftwood at the Concord meet?

Edited August 29, 2012 by BJM (see edit history)

[Guest BJM]

Kurt,

I do not want to highjack your thread but on these rare colors, is the club and division aware of better original examples to track for the purpose of color matching or authenticity when a car requires a repaint? With those low numbers there can't be many in the database.

[Guest steveskyhawk]

If you want to see rare check out this Reatta! How many Reattas do you see in California with a rainbow coming out of the roof?

[Guest BJM]

There is a Driftwood 1990 convertible in Hemmings now. Driftwood and tan

[Barney Eaton]

there were only 60 driftwood convertibles (1990 only color) and it appears all had tan interior.

[KDirk]

Steve's photo above of the white coupe aptly demonstrates that the proverbial pot of gold at the end of a rainbow is in fact a Reatta. While not quite as valuable per ounce, it is certainly more enjoyable IMO.

KDirk

[Bushwack]

....and about 60 silver convertibles.

[Bushwack]

Steve's photo above of the white coupe aptly demonstrates that the proverbial pot of gold at the end of a rainbow is in fact a Reatta. While not quite as valuable per ounce, it is certainly more enjoyable IMO.

KDirk

Unfortunately, the equivalent cost of a couple ounces of gold is the average going rate for the average Reatta. The gold inside Steve's car is probably nickel plated.

[Barney Eaton]

The other year we have good info on is 1988........

'88-'89 Grey was called Pewter Gray Metallic (code 87) 116 total were made out of 4708 coupes.

Only 1 had blue interior, 15 had red, and the remaining 100 had gray

Next lowest for '88 was Claret Red (burgundy) with 187 made, 102 had red interior, 30 had gray, and 55 had tan.

On the other end.....there were 2066 Bright Red coupes made. 11 had red interior, 460 had gray, and 1595 had tan.

Someday we may have similar breakdown by color for all years.

[Guest BJM]

The other year we have good info on is 1988........

'88-'89 Grey was called Pewter Gray Metallic (code 87) 116 total were made out of 4708 coupes.

Only 1 had blue interior, 15 had red, and the remaining 100 had gray

Next lowest for '88 was Claret Red (burgundy) with 187 made, 102 had red interior, 30 had gray, and 55 had tan.

On the other end.....there were 2066 Bright Red coupes made. 11 had red interior, 460 had gray, and 1595 had tan.

Someday we may have similar breakdown by color for all years.

That would be good information to have for many reasons. I just purchased the bright red/tan 1990 convertible which is a color combination I like but is so often seen as to be a little redundant. I love Claret / Tan and would love a Claret / Tan 1990 coupe but don't know how many were made or IF they were made at all, which is part of the deal. You state that 1990 was the only year for Driftwood and I like that color but it is rare even in 1990.

The original poster likes Gunmetal Gray as many of us do, but again rare.

There has been a Driftwood coupe in poor condition on Ebay/ Craigs List out of Florida for awhile. I even offered on it with no response or was high bidder on his reserve auction. I liked the color but now I see it's also rare.

Having color combination information helps this active Reatta pool of collectors identify and post CL and ebay ads for everyone's consideration. They may not want it, or it may be half way across the country and be impractical to purchase, but maybe someone closer can purchase it and preserve it - if it's a rare color combination with few database entries.

[Barney Eaton]

One of the reasons I started the Reatta database way back in 1990-something....... was to gather color and option data.

I had no expectation of ever getting all 21,751 cars on the database. Tom Jenkins offered to put the database online and there are roughly 6,500 Reattas listed. Tom is presently working on merging a couple of files I had and he will be updating the online database probably next week. That web site is www.reatta.net which also has a 1990 online service manual. Until we get good info on all years, the Excel file can be massaged to give "projected" number on colors (this would be like "sampling" data)

There are people that comdem the database because it is not 100% accurate. All anyone can do is enter the info give to them and sometimes Reatta owners have called their Grey interior Blue because they have never seen a blue interior. Sometimes they say the car is loaded so it must have the 16 way seat option. If I catch errors, I correct them. Sometimes I will not enter a cars info because I know it is wrong based on the surrounding cars on the database. Reattas were painted in color batches... if you have a white car in the middle of a bunch or red ones, something is wrong. It could be an error in the vin number, or the car was repainted, but without seeing the car I must take what is given me.

As mentioned before, back in 2007, Larry Gustin loaned me 443 pages of "official" GM printout on every Reatta built. The problem was the format.....there was none. Other than being printed by year, the vin numbers were scrambled. If you were looking for a vin number, you needed to scan many pages looking for that number. When found it tells you the exterior color (in code) and the interior option code (color and if it is standard or 16 way) no other option info was on the printout.

I had the info scanned and converted to Excel so it could be sorted. The scanning generates errors. (example it will think a 8 is a B etc)

So it takes hours of searching and correcting to get it in condition to release.

1988 is done and the color/interior information was printed in the Reatta newsletter.

1990 is being corrected.

1989 was scanned but the data is misplaced the people scanning

1991 original sheets were lost by the people scanning.

I have documents from Buick on 1990 coupes and convertibles and we know how many were made in each color and that was printed in the Reatta newsletter. The document from Buick did not tie interior color to exterior color, but when we get the scan document done that will be corrected.

I also have excellant information on the 305 Reatta convertibles made in 1991. It tells us everything, even the pinstripe color.

All of this information has come to me from Reatta owners, the Buick Archives, and the data sheets from Mr. Gustin.

I can tell you there were 668 Bright Red 1990 convertibles made. When we finish the scan, we will know how many had tan, or gray interior.

We also know there were some Bright Red convertibles made with red interior (burgandy) this was a special order and the Service Parts label will have a D60 code meaning it was a "color override" (not an approved exterior/interior combination)

[Guest BJM]

Great work Barney and thanks for the response above which took a lot of work.

[rrs814]

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