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1975 Buick “Free Spirit” Pace Car Decals

Saturday Aug 25th 2007

To note, I only title this post with “decals” in the title because that’s what most people are (incorrectly) looking for when looking for replacement placards. This graphics kit appears to be the closest match to the original.

“Closest match?”

Yes, closest match.

I’ll explain.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a shop in Canada that has this kit available. I would ordinarily post the business’ phone number and other contact information, however I haven’t seen this kit applied to the car yet. The shop guy said he will send photos of the kit applied in a few weeks.

One thing that has proven to be difficult is getting the red and blue in the right hue - and there’s a good reason it’s tough to match; the placards aren’t made any longer. What shop guys do is attempt to grab a closest match color. The kit shown above are colors made by 3M. The shop guy said it’s very close to the original which is good news.

More often than not what happens is that the blue is too “bright” and the red looks “off”.

Today I received an e-mail from a person named Jerry who owns not only the ‘75, but also the ‘76 and the ‘81 Buick pace cars. To note, the ‘81 is not a “Free Spirit” but it is a pace car.

Here’s what the car looked like originally:

As you can see from the above photos, the all-too-familiar blue placard cracking on the front fenders is obvious. This is very typical to the car. You absolutely cannot restore them, so the car must be stripped, repainted and have the graphics put on new.

Like this:

As you can see from the above photo, Jerry got the blue mostly right. She looks great - no doubt about that, but that blue is a really difficult color to match to the original.

When the time comes that I put a graphics kit on my car, I’m seriously considering putting a gray base when the graphics go. When I apply the graphics, the gray should (in theory) darken the blue and red enough to match the original better.

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