With no one else reporting having encountered white wheel wells I decided
that further research was required. This is a very early car #174 and if
I'm going to spend my time restoring I really want to get it right.
I had surmised that the white in the wheel wells may have been original
because it had been painted directly over the black (primer) frame paint in
the wheel wells. I had done a paint coat sequence check of the outside of
the doors and front fenders and found that they were Healey Blue directly
over grey primer!! (No white)
Today I decided to try to get to the bottom of all this so I selected the
drivers door for more intensive study.
As noted the outer surfaces were Healey Blue over grey primer.applied
directly to the steel.
Inside the doors was Healey Blue over red oxide primer over black (primer)
frame paint!! (Again no white!!)
But the outside latch face of the doors provided the real story. Here we
have a much more interesting sequence of paint layers.
Starting at the steel we have black (primer) frame paint, red oxide primer,
non metallic blue/grey, metallic Healey Blue, grey primer, white, grey
primer, metallic Healey Blue.
My bet is that this car was originally non metallic blue/grey... anyone
care to comment or take a guess as to the sequence of paint procedures.
One hint....The interior door liners have at some stage been removed and
had red leathercloth over the original dark blue.
A second hint. The blue leatherette was still glued in place in the sheet
metal hinge boxes inside the front of the door. The paint under them was
the non metallic blue/grey.
Third hint..read the last paragraph on page 40 of Anderson & Moment.
Michael Salter
http://www.netbug.net/blogmichael/?p=756
On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 8:36 PM, Michael Salter <michaelsalter at
gmail.com>wrote:
> No Alan,
> I don't think so. I guess you have to see how it was applied to appreciate
> what I'm talking about.
> This white paint was definitely applied to the wheel wells, and only the
> wheel wells, over the black/brown frame and inner body paint. there is no
> sign of over spray on other components so it was almost certainly applied
> before the mechanical (Longbridge ) parts were installed.
> I'll attach a couple of photos for Alan. Anyone else whants a copy let me
> know.
> It would appear that no one else has seen this before..
> I may be being a little anal about this but I just hate to delete
> something that may have been installed when the car was new.
> As they say when it comes to restoration "the devil is in the details".
> Incidentally as I research things further it appears that this particular
> car was originally painted "Gunmetal Grey" see Anderson & Moment pg 40.
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