![]() Modern paint finishes, such as polyurethane or vinyl, yield a sleek, high-gloss finish. Poly-Fiber Aircraft Coatings offers three Cub-specific yellows in its spectrum of vinyl coatings: “143 Cub Yellow,” “145 Lockhaven Yellow” and “146 J3 OEM Yellow.” Randolph Paint Products still offers a choice of “Loch Haven Yellow” and “J3 Cub Yellow.” For those opting for other coatings, PTI provides a range of seven yellows to choose for a polyurethane finish. Traditionalists focusing on historical accuracy still choose butyrate over nitrate dope (albeit on polyester rather than cotton fabric). If you’re restoring a Cub today, you have a number of color options. Photo by Flickr User Alan Wilson Restoration and Modern Cubs Even though Piper continued to call it “Lock Haven Yellow,” all Cubs (and successor models, including the Vagabond, Pacer and Tri-Pacer) manufactured after the change to butyrate in 1946 would be “Piper Cub J-3 Yellow.” According to experts, this is pretty darned close to how the original Cubs looked. The closest contender was a brighter, purer shade of yellow, which creator Randolph Paint Products referred to as “Piper Cub J-3 Yellow” (#F-6285). None of the companies were able to create a pigment compatible with butyrate dope that perfectly matched “Lock Haven Yellow.” This solution decreased flammability but created a new problem for Piper. So, aircraft manufacturers developed a new covering process, applying nitrate dope for the base coats, followed by multiple coats of the butyrate dope. However, butyrate did adhere well to nitrate dope. ![]() Butyrate dope had many of the advantages of nitrate dope, but it did not adhere as well to aircraft structures and cotton fabric, as did its more flammable counterpart. However, there was one major drawback: It is highly flammable.ĭuring World War II, a new, less-flammable formulation was developed: butyrate dope. The nitrate dope, which had been used since World War I, had several advantages it was easy to apply and provided strength and a lasting finish. Piper finished the original J-3 Cubs with nitrate dope colored with “Lock Haven Yellow” pigment (#M-9521 by Randolph Paint Products, now part of Consolidated Aircraft Coatings), which was a darker shade of yellow with a slightly orangish tint. The aircraft skin gained its strength from multiple layers of tautening nitrate dope, and yellow pigment added to the dope gave the plane its color. Like most small aircraft of the time, the Cub was covered with Grade A cotton fabric. The earliest models were painted with chrome yellow, so named because the yellow pigment came from chromium, derived from lead chromate. Piper Aircraft manufactured the J-3 Cub from 1938 to 1947.
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