Peter, and all,
This is very interesting. I've personally seen a couple of early Hundreds
with what was obviously a plain (non metallic) shade of light grayish blue.
In the meantime having been personally involved in the restoration of Blair
Harber's preproduction Hundred (AHX-14) and the first production car BN1L
138031, I can attest to the fact that these two cars had what was
immediately recognized as metallic Healey Ice Blue.
This tells me that both the non metallic and the normally recognizable
metallic versions were produced from the beginning.
We also know that Jensens (who painted the bodies) were using at least
Dockers and I.C.I. paints early on. This fact alone would contribute to
varying shades of colour.
As a further point to confuse, my painter has been experimenting with the
Healey Blue metallic shades, and recently showed me a sample spray out card,
one side sprayed with a formula we've been happily using for a while now,
but just the bare paint, the other half of the sample card oversprayed with
a thin coating of clear.
It was amazing how much darker the cleared sample was to the eye. It was
actually hard to imagine it was the same colour!
It is for these many varying reasons that when judging a car in Concours, we
first let the owner comment on the colour appled if he/she so chooses, and
then when evaluating the colour itself, work on the premise of "a reasonable
attempt at accuracy" has been displayed.
Rich Chrysler
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Svilans" <peter.svilans@rogers.com>
To: <healeys@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 11:19 AM
Subject: Early Colors
> Looking through the color chip library at www.AutocolorLibrary.com
> brought up
> this page:
>
> http://autocolorlibrary.com/cgi-bin/search/searchpic.pl?1955-ahmg-pg11.jpg
>
> It shows THREE shades of Healey Blue in use as early as 1957. One shade
> ("H-1 Blue Iridescent") is for 1954, one ("Ice Blue Iridescent") is for
> later
> 100's to 1957 (the year of the chip card) and a solid, ie: non-metallic,
> shade
> ("Ice Blue") for the earliest 1953-54 Healeys. There is also Spruce
> Green,
> Carmine Red and Ivory. I have this same R-M card, and the one shade of
> blue
> is definitely non-metallic.
>
> What is interesting is that these are not modern recreations of old
> historic
> colours, but practical chips meant to repaint cars that were then current,
> ordinary, on-the-road vehicles. In other words, 'these shades had better
> be
> pretty darn close, or we pay to repaint the customer's car again'.
>
> Best regards
> Peter
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