What Alpine white?

Probably a question for a Dubboy  :mrgreen:

Just want to confirm the correct Alpine White for my 1981 GTI. Paint factor lists a 1977 L90E and 1978 L90E, but no others after that till 1987. Paint factors say the 78 L90E is a variant and was only used in 78 and therefore I should be using 1977 L90E - is that correct?

Cheers

For 1977 the white was Polar White L90A. Thereafter the Mk1 hatch used Alpine White L90E. I am pretty sure you can't have different colours on the same code but will check it. I have a book at home of every colour VW released from the Beetle to mid-90s so I will have a dig through it for you to see any variants on the L90E.

Thanks I'd appreciate that (thought you'd be the man in the know). Was Alpine white available on any non-Golf VW in 1977, all a bit confusing really :dontknow:

Cheers

From a thread ages ago and discussions with the guy that had my white Caddy before me, there are lots of different 'shades' of Alpine White.
 
Depends if you are doing a complete respray or trying to match up   :dontknow:

Yeh there are nine different shades of Alpine white!  8O   Found out when I went to get a new wing sprayed.  :roll:

 They've been labelled things like yellow shade and grey shade etc. Apparently its due to Volkswagen ordering the colour in batches from different paint manufacturers over the years.  Proper annoying to colour match as theres no way of checking which shade yours is!  But a full respray would obviously not be a problem!

I have 4 shades of Alpine White L90E listed up to 1992. There are also other Alpine Whites on top of this, but they have a different paint code. The L90E's are:

Alpine White Panel 19629 Year 1977
Alpine White/GE Panel 18402 Year 1980
Alpine White/H Panel 17901 Year 1987
Alpine White/D Panel 17706 Year 1985

If it were me I would go for
Alpine White/GE Panel 18402 Year 1980

Looking at samples of the first two they are very close!

Cheers
Rajan

Thanks dubboy - thats great stuff, will go with the 1980 codes. Car will be completely resprayed at some point in the future so not to bothered about matching colours at the moment, but would like as close as possible to original white. Any idea what the 'GE panel' bit is about?

Cheers

The Panel relates to the code after it. What that code means I am not sure, but I assume it is unique and allows the exact colour match to be made.

The GE, H, etc must relate to either different suppliers or batches. That's my guess anyway!