*Part two continued...*
Now to your specific question on paint. Several years ago a fellow Concours
committee member was restoring his car and he prepped the body for paint,
which was then to be done by a local paint shop. The shop refused to paint
the car since they wanted an absolutely perfect surface. Now, the paint
prep done on this very original a straight car was perfectly acceptable but
what the paint shop wanted was well above and beyond. My friend ended up
taking the car to another painter and believe me the final paint and body
work were just fine, I should know I was the lead judge on the car and it
scored a Concours Gold. Also, remember that modern paints are inherently
better than the old cellulose lacquer that was used at the Jensen factory.
I brought up Corvettes for a reason since there are at least two different
Concours standards for Corvettes, the Corvette Club of America and the
Bloomington Gold standard. Bloomington Gold standard came about since these
folks are way too anal, and they decided that the other Concours standard
was not tough enough. Therefore, they replicate everything as it came from
the factory, orange peal in the paint, factory crayon numbers on the chassis
frame, etc... and all of the other flaws in a mass produced production car.
There was a story circulating several years ago that a wealthy Japanese
investor purchased a Bloomington Gold standard Corvette and when he examined
the car, he was shocked and wanted his money back since the car wasn't his
idea of Concours perfect. Too bad, that's what the Bloomington Gold
standard is all about.
If we were to adhere to these standards, then the Austin Healey chassis
would be first painted in the original "Chocolate Brown" primer, then the
body panels hung on the car and only then would the final color paint be
applied. This would leave all areas of the chassis under the body panels in
this dark brown primer. No one does this nor is it encouraged or
recommended, and in fact every single restoration I've seen paints the
entire chassis body color.
I hope this clarifies things somewhat. Remember that our Concours
standards/cars do not include trailer queens as many misinformed folks on
this list have accused us of, since we encourage Concours cars to be
driven. If a US Concours car is a trailer queen *then that's the choice of
the owner and NOT our standards*.
Cheers,
Curt Arndt
Chairman - AH Concours Committee, USA & Canada
Carlsbad, CA
'55 BN1, '60 AN5 :{)
PS If you want to know how our Concours works, may I suggest you order our
2010 guidelines. I hope to have a Concours website up soon that will
clarify our philosophy.
_______________________________________________
Healeys@autox.team.net
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