Dodge Paint Code: Where to Find It and How to Read It
The exact label to look for on a Dodge, how the code is printed, what people mistake it for, and 12 verified Dodge colour codes.
NHTSA vPIC has no colour field, so no VIN decoder returns one. The label on the vehicle is the reliable route.
On a modern Dodge the paint code is on the white sales-code label in the driver's-side door jamb — the label covered in three-character codes, not the certification label with the VIN. The exterior color is the three-character code beginning with P, such as PW7 or PX8, sometimes printed after PNT. Older Dodges carry it on a body code plate on the radiator support. A VIN does not contain it.
Where is the paint code on a Dodge?
- Driver-side door jamb. Open the driver's door and look at the shut face or B-pillar for the white label printed with a grid of three-character sales codes — not the safety certification label beside it that carries the VIN, GVWR and tire pressures. The exterior color code sits in that block, usually toward the bottom. Wiltse's Auto Paint says Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep codes are "for the most part located in the driver side door jamb" and gives PW7 as its example; AutomotiveTouchup says Dodge codes are on the driver's-side door or under the hood, with the color code at the bottom of the label. Applies broadly to 2000s-onward cars, trucks and vans, but no source names an exact changeover year, so on 1990s and early-2000s Dodges check under the hood as well.
- Top of the radiator support, under the hood. Older Dodges carry a metal body code plate fastened across the top of the radiator core support. PaintScratch states plainly that "older Dodge paint codes were placed on top of the radiator support, often obscured by engine grease and oil," and that later models moved to the door jamb; AutomotiveTouchup independently lists under-the-hood as one of the two Dodge locations. Degrease the plate before reading it. Roughly pre-2000s, but sources disagree on the cutoff and some vehicles of that era carry both a plate here and a jamb label.
- Driver-side inner fender (fender tag). On 1960s and 1970s Dodges the information is on a riveted or screwed-on metal fender tag. MaxWedge.com places it "on the driver's side inner fender on most models," adding that on older cars it is sometimes attached to the radiator core support, cowl, or A-pillar instead. Read the tag bottom to top, left to right: the body color is the first code on the line, followed by the interior trim code and then the upper-body or upper-door-frame color, which reads 000 when the car has none.
How to read the Dodge paint code
Three characters on modern vehicles: a capital P plus two more, printed in the sales-code block and sometimes preceded by the abbreviation PNT (paint) — PW7, PX8, PAU, PVP, PR3. The P is a prefix, not part of the color. Refinish databases print the identical color with a different leading letter — Sherwin-Williams' 2018 Chrysler guide lists them as pairs: PW7 / GW7, PX8 / DX8, PQD / FQD, PVP / NVP — and only the last two characters identify the color. PaintScratch calls that first letter "a confusing year code." Two things get mistaken for the paint code: the interior trim codes in the same block, which are two characters (X9 Black, A8 Diesel Gray, R5 Ruby Red), and wheel codes such as DX8. On 1969-1974 Dodges there is no P at all: the code is two or three characters like B5, FJ5 or EV2.
- Open the driver's door and read the white sales-code label on the jamb or door shut face — the one covered in three-character codes, not the certification label that carries the VIN and tire pressures.
- Find the three-character code that starts with P, usually near the bottom of the code block and sometimes printed after PNT: PW7, PX8, PAU, PVP.
- If the jamb shows nothing, open the hood and check the top of the radiator support and the driver's-side inner fender — pre-2000s Dodges carry a metal body code plate or fender tag there, often under a film of grease.
- Write the code down whole, P included, and ignore the two-character interior codes (X9 Black, A8 Diesel Gray) and wheel codes printed alongside it.
- Tell the paint supplier whether the color is a tri-coat: Sherwin-Williams lists Redline as both a 2-coat (PRM) and a 3-coat (PRY), and a three-stage color needs a translucent midcoat over the base.
- Verify before you buy. Check the code against a supplier's color chip or a sprayed test card, since one P-code carries different marketing names across Dodge, Jeep and Ram, and a repainted car may no longer wear its factory color.
Common Dodge paint codes
| Code | Dodge colour name | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| PW7 | Bright White | Marketed as White Knuckle on Challenger and Charger. Listed as PW7 / GW7 in Sherwin-Williams' 2018 Chrysler guide and sold as Mopar touch-up pen 68626445AA. |
| PX8 | Black | Marketed as Pitch Black on Challenger and Charger. Appears as PX8 / DX8 in both the 2011 and 2018 Sherwin-Williams Chrysler guides. |
| PXR | Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl | Widely used from 2003 across Caravan, Durango, Magnum, Intrepid and Stratus; PXR / AXR in Sherwin-Williams' guides. |
| PAU | Granite Crystal Metallic | 2013 onward on Challenger, Charger, Durango, Journey and Grand Caravan; shortened to just "Granite" in some 2017-2021 listings. |
| PSC | Billet Silver Metallic | 2011 onward. Sherwin-Williams prints it as Billet Metallic (PSC / JSC). The same code was Light Arctic Gray on 1990s Dodge vans. |
| PR3 | TorRed | Challenger and Charger, 2007 onward; PR3 / ZR3. |
| PVP | Go Mango | Challenger, Charger and Dart, roughly 2016-2022; PVP / NVP, a mica finish. Not the same paint as 1970 Go Mango, which was code K2. |
| PQD | B5 Blue | Challenger and Charger. Sherwin-Williams lists the same code pair as PQD / FQD under the refinish name Surf Blue Pearl. |
| PHG | Plum Crazy Pearl | Challenger and Charger; PHG / FHG. Distinct from the 1970 Plum Crazy, which was code FC7. |
| PDN | Destroyer Gray | 2017-2021 Challenger, Charger, Durango and Journey. Sherwin-Williams calls the identical code Ceramic Gray and Mopar sells the pen as Sting Gray. |
| PRV | Octane Red Pearl | 2015 onward on Challenger and Charger. Sherwin-Williams and Mopar both name PRV Velvet Red Pearl. |
| PCD | Hellraisin | 2020-2022 Challenger and Charger, a pearl. Verified in PaintRef only (PPG 976679); the published Sherwin-Williams Chrysler guides stop at 2018, so check it against your own label. |
This list is not every colour Dodge has sold. Always confirm against the label on your own vehicle before ordering paint.
What to know before you order paint
- A 17-character VIN does not encode the paint code. NHTSA's vPIC database publishes 144 vehicle variables and not one is color or paint; decoding a 2021 Challenger VIN through vPIC returns 52 populated fields — make, model, plant, trim, engine — and no color field. Free VIN Lookup does not return a paint code from a VIN, because nothing can from the VIN alone.
- What does hold the code is the manufacturer's build record. A Dodge dealer can pull it from the VIN in Mopar's system, and the original window sticker names the exterior color. That is a records lookup behind the VIN, not VIN decoding — which is what sites advertising "paint code by VIN" are actually doing, when they are not simply guessing from the model.
- One code, several marketing names. Mopar's own touch-up catalog sells code PDN as Sting Gray and PRV as Velvet Red, while PaintRef records the same PDN on 2017-2021 Dodge Challengers and Chargers as Destroyer Gray and PRV as Octane Red. Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram share one code system, so quote the code and not the brochure name.
- Tri-coats have their own code. The Sherwin-Williams Chrysler color guides list Redline as a 2-coat (PRM, on Avenger, Durango and Nitro) and as a 3-coat (PRY, on Charger and 300) in the same model year, plus Ivory 3-Coat as PWD and Arctic Tricoat as PWH / KWH. A three-stage color needs a translucent midcoat over the base, so a single bottle bought by name will not match.
- On 1969-1975 Dodges the first letter of the code is a year, not a color. MaxWedge.com's fender-tag guide gives E 1969, F 1970, G 1971, H 1972, J 1973, K 1974, L 1975: Hemi Orange reads V2 on a 1969 car and EV2 on a 1970 one, and Sublime reads FJ5. The tag also carries a separate field for the upper-body or vinyl-top color, which reads 000 if the car has none.
Dodge and refinish sources
Open the underlying public source and verify that its scope matches the question you are asking.
- 2018 Chrysler / Jeep / Dodge / Ram Color Compatibility Guide (PDF)Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes
- 2021 Dodge Challenger paint options and cross-referencePaintRef.com
- vPIC vehicle variable list and VIN decoder APINHTSA
- Where is the Paint Code on a Dodge?AutomotiveTouchup
- Documenting Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth and Mopar Fender Tags and Body StampingsMaxWedge.com
Dodge paint code questions
Can I find my Dodge paint code from the VIN?
No — a 17-character VIN does not encode the paint code. Decoding a 2021 Challenger VIN through NHTSA's vPIC service returns 52 populated fields, including make, model, plant, trim and engine, and no color field at all; vPIC's full list of 144 variables contains nothing for color or paint. Sites advertising "paint code by VIN" are reading a dealer build record behind the scenes or guessing from the model.
Where is the paint code on a Dodge Charger or Challenger?
On the driver's-side door jamb, on the white label printed with three-character sales codes. The exterior color is the code beginning with P, usually near the bottom of the block, sometimes after the abbreviation PNT. If that label is missing, painted over or unreadable, open the hood and check the top of the radiator support — PaintScratch notes older Dodges carried the code there, usually under a layer of grease.
What is the paint code for B5 Blue on a Dodge Challenger?
PQD. PaintRef records B5 Blue on the Challenger as color code QD, which prints on the door-jamb label with its P prefix as PQD, and Sherwin-Williams' 2018 Chrysler guide lists the same code pair as PQD / FQD under the refinish name Surf Blue Pearl. B5 on its own is the 1970 Mopar code for Bright Blue Metallic, which is where the marketing name came from.
What is the Go Mango paint code on a Dodge?
PVP. Sherwin-Williams' 2018 Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram guide lists Go Man Go Pearl for Challenger and Charger as PVP / NVP, and PaintRef records PVP on 2016-2022 Challengers and Chargers cross-referenced to PPG 942106. It is a mica finish, so the shop needs the code rather than the name. The 1970 Challenger color of the same name was code K2 — a different paint entirely.
What is the Hellraisin paint code on a Dodge Challenger?
PCD. PaintRef lists Hellraisin on the 2020-2022 Challenger and Charger as PCD, a pearl, cross-referenced to PPG 976679. That is a single-source code in the references checked here, since the published Sherwin-Williams Chrysler guides stop at 2018, so confirm PCD on your own door-jamb label before ordering paint. Frostbite (PCA) and Smoke Show (PAE) come from the same palette and are easy to confuse.
My Dodge Challenger is gray — which gray is it?
Read the code, because these grays are not reliably distinguishable by eye. Destroyer Gray is PDN, which PaintRef records on 2017-2021 Challengers and Chargers and which Sherwin-Williams calls Ceramic Gray. Granite Crystal Metallic is PAU, Billet Silver Metallic is PSC, Triple Nickel is PSE and Smoke Show is PAE. On a dusty or faded car, at least four of those look near-identical.
The label is gone on my classic Dodge. Where else can I look?
Look for the fender tag. MaxWedge.com places it on the driver's-side inner fender on most models, and notes it is sometimes fixed to the radiator core support, cowl, or A-pillar on older cars. On 1969 and later cars the body color is a three-character code whose first letter is the model year the color was introduced — E 1969 through L 1975 — so Sublime reads FJ5 and Hemi Orange reads EV2.
Does a Dodge paint code mean the same color on a Jeep or Ram?
The paint is the same; the name usually is not. Mopar's own touch-up catalog sells code PDN as Sting Gray and PRV as Velvet Red, while Dodge markets those identical codes as Destroyer Gray and Octane Red. Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram share one code system, so give the paint supplier the three-character code and ignore the brochure name entirely.