1965 Chevelle Paint Colors

 

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

 

There are no known numbers for any particular color for a particular series or body style whether it be a solid color or two-tone. The numbers shown below are valid for all series and body style Chevelles except where noted for the Malibu SS. There are also no known numbers for the different colors of convertible or vinyl tops. So just how many red (or any color) Malibu SS Chevelle sport coupes (or any other series) were built is not known and cannot even be calculated with any accuracy. There are a known number of Evening Orchid, Glacier Gray, and Crocus Yellow Malibu SSs that were built but not by body style. All Chevelle assembly plants have the lower body color first followed by the upper body color (or convertible/vinyl top) color.

 

PAINT CODE - ALL U.S. ASSEMBLY PLANTS	SALES NAME	COLOR NAME	SALES QUANTITY + 1
A	Tuxedo Black	Black	11,749
C	Ermine White	White	67,060 (36,636 + 30,424)
D	Mist Blue	Medium Blue	49,764  (17,293 + 32,471)
E	Danube Blue	Dark Blue	24,299 (16,548 + 7,751)
H	Willow Green	Medium Green	13,765 (7,530 + 6,235)
J	Cypress Green	Dark Green	10,131 (5,831 + 4,300)
K	Artesian Turquoise	Medium  Aqua	53,925 (30,441 + 23,484)
L	Tahitian Turquoise	Dark Aqua	15,445 (7,810 + 7,635)
N	Madeira Maroon - © ChevelleWorld	Maroon	23,526 (14,503 + 9,053)
P	Evening Orchid - © ChevelleWorld (1)	Orchid	5,075
R	Regal Red - © ChevelleWorld	Red	22,886 (13,525 + 9,361)
S	Sierra Tan - © ChevelleWorld	Light Saddle	20,031 (10540 + 9,491)
V	Cameo Beige - © ChevelleWorld	Beige	26,615  (14,241 + 11,374)
W	Glacier Gray - © ChevelleWorld (1)	Slate	5,452
Y	Crocus Yellow - © ChevelleWorld (1)	Yellow	8,345
Two-Tone Combinations
PAINT CODE - ALL U.S. ASSEMBLY PLANTS	SALES NAMES (lower/upper)	COLOR NAMES	SALES QUANTITY + 1
CK	Ermine White / Artesian Turquoise	White / Medium Aqua	3,761 (1,398 + 2,364)
DC (2)	Mist Blue / Ermine White	Medium Blue / White	6,383 (718 + 5,665)
HC (2) (3)	Willow Green / Ermine White	Medium Green / White	No numbers on report
JV	Cypress Green / Cameo Beige	Dark Green / Beige	680 (212 + 468)
LK	Tahitian Turquoise / Artesian Turquoise	Medium Aqua / Dark Aqua	1,036 (349+687)
SV	Light Saddle / Cameo Beige	Light Saddle / Beige	4,186 (1,266 + 2,950)
VN	Cameo Beige / Madeira Maroon	Beige / Maroon	657 (218 + 439)
WA (1) (2) (3)	Glacier Gray / Tuxedo Black	Slate / Black	609
YC (1) (2) (3)	Crocus Yellow / Ermine White	Yellow / White	331
Notes of Interest
Convertible top color numbers: 1 - White (Std. C05AA 2 - Black (RPO C05BB) 3 - Beige (RPO  C05AB) Vinyl top color numbers: 6 - Black (RPO C08BB) - 2,442 sold
Two-tone paint was not an option with 13380-13480 series Sedan Pickup (El Camino)
(1) Evening Orchid, Glacier Gray, and Crocus Yellow are Malibu SS series only colors (Crocus Yellow is the only one of the three colors to be used on the Malibu SS 396 (RPO Z16) as well). Naturally any Malibu SS could be ordered in any of the other colors but these three were only a choice with the Malibu SS. One could order any available color in 1965 via the Fleet & Special Order (F&SO) process. People often ask how many Malibu SS sport coupes (or Malibu SS convertibles) were done in Malibu SS-only colors. There are no specific numbers of how many of either were done in one of the Malibu SS-only colors. But, if you like to play with numbers: By knowing how many Malibu SS sport coupes and Malibu SS convertibles were reported by GM (U.S. and exported to Canada) one can get a total of Malibu SS series - 81,112. (1) Calculate the percentage of each body style of the total; 88.75% sport coupes and 11.25% convertibles. (2) Calculate the even distribution of each body style to each Malibu SS-only color (example for sport coupes - Evening Orchid 4,504, Glacier Gray 4,838, and Crocus Yellow 7,406). Then one can come up with a equal distribution by percentage for each body style. Are these number factual? Probably not but they are a starting point for discussion. Note the percentages of each color is only shown to show the percentage of each color against the total reported for the Malibu SS-only colors.
(2) Not available with 131xx-132xx and 133xx-134xx series
(3) Not available with 135xx-136xx and 13580-13680 series
SALES QUANTITY + 1 Chevrolet's internal report for 1965 is different from other years. All colors except Black, Orchid, Slate, and Yellow have two sales numbers. One is the color itself, such as C for white at 36,636 and one for C+1 at 30,424 for a total of 67,060. It's not certain what the "+1" represents or why the colors were broken down this way. One reasonable assumption would be the color by itself, the first number in parenthesis, is that color with black painted wheels and the second number in parenthesis is with body color painted wheels. Since all Black, Orchid, Glacier Gray, and Crocus Yellow Chevelles would come with black wheels anyway, only a single number is shown for those 4 colors. A Chevelle that was ordered with optional full wheel covers would get black wheels, those with no optional full wheel cover (i.e. hub caps) would get body colored painted wheels. So in the example of a white (C) painted Chevelle with full wheel covers would have 36,636 sold while those with white painted wheels would be 30,424. But, this is only a theory. If you have another theory or know why the report was done this way, please contact me.
The Fremont, CA. final assembly plant included a third letter for the wheel color through at least the end of May, 1965 then seem to have stopped the practice as of the first week of June, 1965.

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Color Rating by Sales

 

There is no known breakdown of color and specific series or body style, numbers are for all 1965 Chevelles including convertibles where they would have a convertible top. Colors are listed total number of sales from most to least. Two-tone combinations are listed separately.

 

Sales Rating	Total Reported Sold	Color
1	67,060	(C) - Ermine White
2	53,925	(K) - Artesian Turquoise
3	49,764	(D) - Mist Blue
4	25,615	(V) - Cameo Beige
5	24,299	(E) - Danube Blue
6	23,556	(N) - Madeira Maroon
7	22,886	(R) - Regal Red
8	20,031	(S) - Sierra Tan
9	15,445	(L) - Tahitian Turquoise
10	13,765	(H) - Willow Green
11	11,749	(A) - Tuxedo Black
12	10,131	(J) - Cypress Green
13	8,345	(Y) - Crocus Yellow (1)
14	5,452	(W) - Glacier Gray (1)
15	5,075	(P) - Evening Orchid (1)
Sales Rating	Two-Tone	Colors - lower/upper
1	6,383	(DC) - Mist Blue / Ermine White
2	4,186	(SV) - Sierra Tan / Cameo Beige
3	3,761	(CK) - Ermine White / Artesian Turquoise
4	1,036	(LK) - Tahitian Turquoise / Artesian Turquoise
5	680	(JV) - Cypress Green / Cameo Beige
6	657	(VN) - Cameo Beige / Madeira Maroon
7	609	(WA) - Glacier Gray / Tuxedo Black
8	331	(YC) - Crocus Yellow / Ermine White

 

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GM of Canada Paint Code Chart

 

General Motors of Canada, LTD. offered many of the same colors as their U.S. counterpart. Although these colors are listed as 1965 Passenger Colours on the paint code chart. It's unknown if these additional colors were available on Chevelles as well. Several Canadian colors were identical to U.S. colors, only the sales names were a bit different and note the paint code is a letter.

 

Paint codes are shown as a single letter for solid color Chevelles and convertibles. Only when a two-tone paint scheme was ordered were two letter codes used. On convertibles, a single letter paint code is used and the convertible top color is shown on the bottom line of the trim tag with mixed verbiage but generally something like "TOP10," TOP 2," "TP2" or something similar.

 

 

 

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Color vs. Sales Name

Paint color names often differ from the advertised Sales Name. One example might be where the factory paint color is simply RED but the sales name may be BOLERO RED or CRANBERRY RED. Yes, the paint mixing formulas are different between BOLERO RED and CRANBERRY RED but to the factory it was still just red. In a case where their may be two or more hues of a color with sales names such as DEEPWATER BLUE, NANTUCKET BLUE, and MARINA BLUE, the factory colors are simply shown as MEDIUM BLUE, DARK BLUE, or BRIGHT BLUE. A given paint color for a year may have a different sales name for Chevrolet than it does for say Buick, Oldsmobile, or Pontiac. An example of this is the 1969 sales name for Chevrolet of HUGGER/MONACO ORANGE is the same color as the 1969/1970 Pontiac sales name of CAROUSEL RED. Same color, same OEM supplier mixing formula, just different sales names for the two GM divisions.

 

 

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