What colour should the 1600 be?

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What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby mazzo » Sun May 30, 2010 8:55 pm

Decisions, decisions.....

I am about to send the 1600 off to the spray shop for its respray.

Currently the car is Sebring Silver Starmist and it is my intention to keep it this colour. However the engine bay and door shuts are being done, so I could change the colour completely.

It has a red replacement bonnet and it does look good in a bright red. I've had a metallic respray in the past on another car, it was not wonderful and it went dull in about a year. Perhaps that was the quality of the job? Just don't want to be disappointed with metallic if a solid colour would look better longer term.

What do folks think - bearing in mind this is (to my knowledge) the only 4 door 1600 deluxe and so far it is totally original.

Both Paul's putting back in my screen on the first Rust Festival Weekend
1971 1600 HC DeLuxe
1971 Green 2 door HC Base model
1978 Red 4 door Viva E from new
1969 HB 1159 4 door SL
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby pbottomley » Sun May 30, 2010 9:21 pm

ferk that was some time ago!!! I actually almost fitted the boiler suit :lol: :lol:

MY VOTE is to keep it simple and make it silver,
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby hbpeter » Sun May 30, 2010 9:51 pm

Keep it Silver.

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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby classicscrap » Sun May 30, 2010 10:51 pm

Definitely keep it silver. My first car was a Viva SL in Sebring Silver Starmist and the colour suited it really well.
1971 Vauxhall Viva HC 1159 SL (now 2300)
1972 Volkswagen Beetle 1302S (next project)
1985 Land Rover 110 - Ex SAS
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby shamm » Sun May 30, 2010 11:03 pm

Silver.
Steve Hammond

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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby mazzo » Mon May 31, 2010 11:06 am

Thanks all. Overwhelming answer.

Silver it is.

I spoke to the bodyshop guy today and expressed my concern about the fading and the metalic bits all running to the bottom of panels. He's very good! He said "When was that?" (the bad expreience) - I told him about 20 years ago ish. "Yes, I know exactly what that was (says some trade name)- it was a one coat spray used for vans and lorries that looked good enough for you to sell it but then went dull after about a year. It was real budget respray stuff and shouldn't have been used on a car." That is exactly what it did - it looked awful after several months and no amount of T-cutting could bring it back to life.

So he reassured me that the paint he uses won't do that and that it will look fine. Judging by what he did to the green HC, I believe him!

Off it goes this week and I get it back in 4 - 6 weeks time. He's also taking off the front wings and strengthening the tops of the inner wings and making my new wings bolt-on. I still have work to do to the car afterwards: remove underseal that is loose and re-seal, change the gearbox, try to put the GM elec ignition on. Then it's done!

Yet another long journey about to come to an end. :woohoo:
1971 1600 HC DeLuxe
1971 Green 2 door HC Base model
1978 Red 4 door Viva E from new
1969 HB 1159 4 door SL
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby viva les vegas » Mon May 31, 2010 7:55 pm

excellent :D have you thought about a contrasting color in the engine bay? something similar to what Jon's done?
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby Jon-HPF » Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:24 pm

viva les vegas wrote:excellent :D have you thought about a contrasting color in the engine bay? something similar to what Jon's done?


Les I only painted the engine bay /boot / underbonnet / bootlid in black cos im a cheapskate and had a lot of this rustoleom left :D And it was handpainted :oops: But since ive done this i think i will leave it - even when the car gets its full recolour respray.

Mazzo - SILVER - this never goes out of fashion (what do i know - still wearing flares)
I believe the original paint would have been a one coat (colour + metalic , includes shine) done in acrylic :? damn awful stuff to spray and even worse to sand off.
From the early 80's - Modern paints use a base coat (again colour + metalic) but the shine comes from the top (lacquer) coat . Nowadays they are all supposed to be water based not isocyanate based !

Ive heard some horror stories from people with new cars (water based paint) - namely when washing them , they tend to get water stained if not done in correct way :?: :?: :?:

may be wise to investigate this with your painter .
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby viva les vegas » Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:03 pm

Jon-HPF wrote:
viva les vegas wrote:excellent :D have you thought about a contrasting color in the engine bay? something similar to what Jon's done?


Les I only painted the engine bay /boot / underbonnet / bootlid in black cos im a cheapskate and had a lot of this rustoleom left :D And it was handpainted :oops: But since ive done this i think i will leave it - even when the car gets its full recolour respray.

I think it works well 8)
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Re: What colour should the 1600 be?

Postby mazzo » Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:08 pm

Yes, I'm going for silver all over.

Took it in today and he started going over it with a fine toothcomb. I have spoken about paint and basically you've confirmed what he said. He doubts with the current paint regime that he can get the original made up but will go for a very similar silver but possibly slightly brighter than Seb Starmist. I'm happy with that as I think it is not silver enough anyway.

Again he's doing the prep so has started pulling apart bits I'd already done, which is great because it means he thinks he can do them better - and his previous achievement with the green HC shows he can.

He did a repair to my wing. Usual thing where it had rotted out at the bottom of the arch in the fluting and then where the wing meets the body. He made up a repair panel (again with fluting) and welded it in and I cannot actually tell it's there! I won't see the car now for about 4 - 6 weeks (which may mean it isn't ready for Billing) but I'm sure it will be 100% better than it would have been if I'd done it.

Les - I think if it's already silver, keeping the whole thing silver will be quite nice. He did a great job on my other one's engine bay. I'm now not ashamed to open the bonnet! :oops:
1971 1600 HC DeLuxe
1971 Green 2 door HC Base model
1978 Red 4 door Viva E from new
1969 HB 1159 4 door SL
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