1961 Buick Touch Up Paint (15 OEM Colors)

The 1961 Buick Vibe

Welcome to 1961, the year Buick finally told the tailfins to take a hike. They traded the 50s chrome-fatigue for the "Clean Look of Action," giving the LeSabre and Electra 225 that sharp, arrow-like profile that looked fast even when parked at a stoplight. With 15 shades in our stash, Buick was clearly obsessed with the "polychromatic" look. If you weren't rolling in a sophisticated metallic like Dublin Green Poly or Laguna Blue Poly, you were probably making a statement in Tampico Red. It was a time of transition-sophisticated, sleek, and dripping with enough "Poly" flake to catch every ray of the Sunday sun.

Paint Health Check

Here's the deal: you're dealing with the Single Stage Era. Back in '61, they didn't wrap your car in a protective plastic clear coat; they just sprayed the pigment and called it a day. While that gives the color a depth that modern paints can't touch, it's also a ticking time bomb for "The Chalk." Without a clear layer to take the hit, the sun cooks the pigment directly. If your Sable Black looks more like a dusty chalkboard or your Kerry Green has turned into a flat, milky mess, you're looking at heavy oxidation. In this era, the paint doesn't peel-it literally starves to death and turns into powder.

Restoration Tip

Because this is single-stage paint, the color goes all the way through the film. This is good news: you can often "shave" off the dead, oxidized layer to find the original 1961 glory hiding underneath. Use a high-quality rubbing compound to lift that chalky haze, but listen to me closely: it needs wax or it dies. Once you've exposed that fresh pigment, it is completely unprotected. You've got to seal it with a heavy carnauba wax or a sealant immediately, or you'll be back to square one before the next oil change. Keep it fed, keep it greasy, and that Rio Red Poly will keep turning heads like it's 1961 all over again.