Oro Kelso – The Rarity Of Color

The owner of the Oro Kelso Dino is comparing a color spray out (bottom) with the original color from the inner door jam filler plate.

Painting a rare color has its challenges. Only three were painted this special Oro Kelso color from the Pininfarina special color chart. Furthermore, this Dino had only two paint jobs — the factory Oro Kelso and a very inexpensive, quick red paint job. The good thing about the second paint job is that the shop taped and masked everything off. So that left me with plenty of Oro Kelso color to match.

In an effort to find a paint formula for Oro Kelso I spent many hours researching either PPG or BASF, which were primary paint manufacturers used in Europe. Unfortunately, I found nothing. Since we had plenty of original color in the jams we opted to take the time to do a color match.

It wasn’t easy! We could tell that it was a fine metallic and we started from there. After over 15 spray outs we got pretty close. We got the face but it still needed more time spent to get the correct side cast and fall off. By using a little extra fine silver and flop control we nailed it! I don’t know if this color was considered a gold or a medium brown metallic but I can tell you that it is a beautiful color for a Dino! Pininfarina was a genius and surely knew his colors! The Ferrari world will surely miss this world class automobile designer.

I formulated this color and if any one needs this color just send me a note and I will be more than glad to send you the color formula. It would be great if we knew where the other two Oro Kelso Dinos are. Anybody know?