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Re: Triumph colors

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Triumph colors
From: "TeriAnn Wakeman" <twakeman@apple.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 95 11:57:26 -0700
In message <950426134923_97097906@aol.com>  writes:
> Folks,
>      I'm doing a frame off, from the ground up restoration on a 1964 TR-4.
>  It is now in primer and almost ready for the color coat.  But I don't like
> original TR colors. I figure I remade the car I can paint it any color I
> want.  But will you throw rocks at me if I show up at meets with an
> 'unofficial' color?  What I want is an off white.  So, Du Pont 4775,
> Wimbledon White is my choice.  (Ford truck white) with a clear coat on top.
>  Urethane base from  BASIF. Tan leather interior, tan carpets, tan top,
> walnut dash.  
>    Or---  Does anyone have a color chip or code for Valasquez Cream, a color
> used sparingly in 1961? Ditzler no. 81383 does not translate.  Fred

Someone might.

I'm rounding the far corner on my TR3 restoration and at the last minute bit the
bullet and decided to return it back to its original factory colour, signal red.

I was planning to paint her a very dark green from a '64 Dodge Stelth (the kind 
that looks black or dark green depending upon how the light hits).  I put a lot 
of thought into the colour and decided it was one I liked and would show off the
chrome wire wheels and other bright work.  A couple of months before the 3 was 
to go in for painting went to a major British car meet.  I met some people with 
a very nice looking gold/orange big Healey.  Its paint looked great! It showed 
depth and looked very different depending upon how the light hit it.  After 
reaching the meet and parking the Land Rover, I went out to tour the field.  I 
ran accross that beautiful big Healey again.  It was parked in a row of big 
Healeys and it looked WRONG.  The colour was so far off from the stock colours 
of all the other big Healeys it looked wrong.  The car looked very nice by 
itself but it did not look like it belonged with the others.  I went down the 
rows of Triumphs noticing that most all were stock colours or appeared to could 
have been stock colours. They fit in.

Now to the point of this.  There will always be those who will pooh any TR that 
is not a factory colour, preferably the original colour for that car.  Hopefully
they will do so quietly, but they often don't.  But most people will never 
notice a car that could be a stock colour.  So if you have a paint that looks 
like it might be a stock colour for a car of that period, your car will probably
look right in a group of TR4s but if its a paint type that would bever come on 
that period of car, it may look wonderful when the car is alone but it will 
stand out and look wrong when in a clutch of TR4s.  

So your car is yours and you have the right to paint it any colour you want, but
if you find yourself in a crowd of stogey conservative TR enthusiasts on 
occasion you will thank yourself if you stayed away from metalic, or pearl 
paints, and the ones that reflect light differently depending upon how the light
hits it.

My personal decision was based on 1. I did not want the car to look out of place
because I do go to a lot of meets and events. 2. No BRG because I already have a
BRG MGBGT and green Land Rover, 2 of the remaining TR colours that I liked, I 
thought the chrome wire wheels & brightwork would get lost in spa white but 
would really stand out in signal red.  So back to the original factory colour.


TeriAnn Wakeman              .sig closed for remodeling
twakeman@apple.com         
              
                         
                       


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