For the 57 era dash knobs, consider Duplicolor Metalcast Yellow Anodized #M2282.

Rich Barber writes:
I don't have any specific written reference, but here is what I have been told and have come to believe and apply to my '55 C-300.
Block, intake manifold & pan are silver/aluminum. Exhaust manifolds are raw cast iron but can be painted with a gray tone that will emulate uncorroded cast iron.
Air cleaners and valve covers are flat to semi-gloss. I re-finished mine in 1970 Cadillac Byzantine Gold with flattening agent to 80% gloss and tinted to take some of the red out of the formula made up by my painter. We were attempting to match the remnants of original paint on the Delta wing air cleaner. Less glossy would have probably been more accurate, but the results looked great. See: http://www.kolumbus.fi/paivi.autere/e12.html for a picture of a Caddy in that color. I've also been told that the gold color varied somewhat over the two-year period the Delta-Wing air cleaners were used and that there may not be an absolute color standard for the color of these items.
Plug wire covers were also semi-gloss black, but glossy looks better. I was able to order slotted pan head screws in stainless steel for the spark plug covers from Ace Hardware. The originals are chrome-plated carbon steel screws and the chrome is almost always damaged at the overly-wide slot from the stress of removal and installation. I've seen where maybe the spark plug cover screws on the 300B engines were Phillips-head pan head screws which were a stock item at Ace.
You might want to consider powder coating the items if your coater will work with you on color. Just don't get them too glossy-the wet look isn't quite right.
Properly done, the engine, air cleaner, rocker arm covers and accessories form an impressive and attractive example of mechanical art. These Brutes are as Beautiful with their hoods up as they are closed up and ready to go.

Ray Melton writes:
I recently had the air cleaners and valve covers for my 1957 Chrysler 300C repainted in what I believe to be the correct shade and gloss level as originally supplied. On the back side of the oval ends of the air cleaner housings, I found what I am certain was the original Chrysler color, untouched by previous owners who had painted the exterior only. I had a local paint and body shop match the old paint color by trial and error until I was completely satisfied with the color - when the custom mix was sprayed right on top of a masked portion of the original paint, I could hardly see the transition. The parts were painted with a urethane primer, sanded, then two coats of the urethane color base coat, followed by a clear coat with approximately 50% flattening agent to give a satin gloss level. The final outcome was a tint slightly more silvery and less reddish-gold than the Plasti-kote #452 that had previously been applied, and with a more subtle satin gloss, rather than a too-bright high-gloss.

However, since the color matching was a multi-step trial-and-error process (add a little green and silver here, take out some red there, add more black, etc.) there was not an easy way for the painter to replicate the color for future applications, either by myself or someone else. So, I took the finished pieces to my local paint specialty shop and had them analyze the color using a special hand-held electronic color matching device. In less than five minutes, they were able to come up with the formula for tinting, and I thought I would share that with other interested members.

The starting point for the color base coat was one pint DuPont Chromabase clear. I don't know what all the numbers and letters mean, but your own paint specialty person will! Also note that a urethane-compatible primer must be applied before the color coat.

259663 K CC: M CHROMABASE BC Alt: (EUR)
Daewoo - 67U
Mix size: 16.0 oz. (pint)
Tinting Guide: Formula #259663
882J LS yelo oxide 27.1 (I was told this means YELLOW)
811J Med aluminum 45.4
891J Transox Red 62.1
819J Fine bright aluminum 69.8
806J HS Black 75.5
833J Green Gold 79.0
1005S Gold Pearl 89.6
1009S Super Green PL 95.2 (I was told the "PL" means PEARL)
150K B/C Balancer 317.1
175K Binder 444.5

The top coat was DuPont Chromabase clear, with ~50% flattening agent to yield a satin gloss level. Not being an automotive painter myself, I was shocked at the price for this base coat/clear coat paint: the base coat alone was $112 for one pint, plus a few bucks more for the activator! On the other hand, the guy who painted my parts mixed up only 8 ounces of color base coat, and there was still some left over after applying two coats of color, so that would be only ~$56.00 for a half-pint of the color coat. I didn't ask about the cost for the clear top coat, but it will be considerably less. I had the parts stripped and bead-blasted by another place ($55.00 - and careful NOT to strip the inner surfaces of the oval air cleaner end pieces to preserve for subsequent color-matching!) before taking them to the automotive body/paint shop -- the final charge for priming, sanding and painting the two air cleaner housings and both valve covers was $280.00.

Note: I've had no need to try out this formula myself, since my parts are already painted, but if you decide to go with the formula above, you might want to do a bit of custom color-matching yourself: do a test shot on a few square inches of a smooth metal surface (tin can lid?) and see how you like it, then add/subtract tint components to fine-tune to your personal preference.

Hope this helps some of you out there, so you won't have to go through the somewhat tedious trial-and-error approach that I did.

Henry Schleimer writes:

A couple of years ago when I had my air cleaners and covers painted, advice from some club members was to use Mercedes Benz Byzantine Gold colour from the 1970's. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this in this (and other) threads.

Did that and they look terrific. My car isn't going in a museum so close is good enough for me. It isn't a bright gold - which is good. Here is a link to an advertised car that is pretty much how it turned out.
http://bringatrailer.com/2011/03/24/bat-exclusive-1973-mercedes-benz-450se/

This may suit others who just want to tell their painter a known colour. Might be even able to get it in a rattle can.

Hello 300 Fans: Would one of the members please let me know the paint code for passenger side of the dash board (beige) for a 300B. Sincere Thanks Ross

Hi Ross: The color that I use is stock no. 9886 BASF/ limco acrilic enamel. It is called camel beige, it fits a 79 -86 Chevy pick up. Color code 64 / wa8057 . I leave the red oxide out and put in 25 more units in one pint of paint. This color matches Gary's vinyl very well. Bob Hayen

Click here for a reprint of Gil Cunningham's article on L interior colors