Help with Colour Identification

[M. Pied Lourd]

Gentlemen,

 

I am wondering if anyone might be able to identify the colour of this 1960 3A (TS 62551 L )that is listed for sale on Ebay. According to the owner, this car has had one respray in the "original" colour....I emailed the seller and asked if he might know the name of the colour but he didn't.

 

I am in the process of prepping my car for paint and am trying to decide on a colour and I quite like the look of this car. Here are a couple of photos.

 

 

 

 

I have looked at the colour charts and am wondering if this might be Medici Blue, Salvador Blue, Cotswold Blue, Cornflower Blue or other....

 

If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

M. Pied Lourd

Edited January 26, 2010 by M. Pied Lourd

[stuart]

Not sure but it could be similar to this TR6 colour Mallard Blue.

Depends a lot on the settings of your monitor.

Stuart

[vivdownunder]

Bit of a puzzle really, but it's a nice colour.

 

After TS37000, the only blue available for TR3A's as a regular production line colour was Powder Blue. Earlier cars came in Salvadore Blue, which is much lighter than this colour, and Winchester Blue, which isn't all that far from Salvatore.

 

There is a colour in factory records during sidescreen production called Jay Blue of which nothing is known, and LHD CKD kits were apparently painted in non- factory colours in the Belgian assembly plant.

 

Later TR's were available in Wedgwood, Midnight, Shadow, Royal, Valencia, Sapphire, Mallard, French, Delft and Tahiti Blues, but I've not heard of TR's in Medici, Cotswold or Cornflower Blues.

 

Perhaps it was a very rare special order colour, in which case a Heritage Certificate would be needed to identify the paint's name.

 

Of course memories fade, and the original colour story could be a bit of a fantasy.

 

Regards,

 

Viv.

[TR 2100]

My first thought was that Midnight Blue would have been the original coloiur,

but not matched too well by the sprayer - this is a bit lighter.

Also, I hadn't realised that Midnight Blue was not available on later 3As -

when did that become available?

 

The colour seems to be very similar, as far as I can recall, to the TR3A

of Darryl Uprichard. That, though, was a one of the last three bodyshells

that the factory had, cleared out to a TR specialist, DCM, back in about

1969/70. I thought Darry had opted for an original colour, but maybe not.

(always assuming the shell didn't come painted - I think not)

 

AlanR

Edited January 26, 2010 by TR 2100

[stuart]

My first thought was that Midnight Blue would have been the original coloiur,

but not matched too well by the sprayer - this is a bit lighter.

Also, I hadn't realised that Midnight Blue was not available on later 3As -

when did that become available?

 

The colour seems to be very similar, as far as I can recall, to the TR3A

of Darryl Uprichard. That, though, was a one of the last three bodyshells

that the factory had, cleared out to a TR specialist, DCM, back in about

1969/70. I thought Darry had opted for an original colour, but maybe not.

(always assuming the shell didn't come painted - I think not)

 

AlanR

 

Midnight blue or Royal blue didn't become available until early 63 I think.

Stuart.

[angelfj]

Gentlemen,

 

I am wondering if anyone might be able to identify the colour of this 1960 3A (TS 62551 L )that is listed for sale on Ebay. According to the owner, this car has had one respray in the "original" colour....I emailed the seller and asked if he might know the name of the colour but he didn't.

 

I am in the process of prepping my car for paint and am trying to decide on a colour and I quite like the look of this car. Here are a couple of photos.

 

 

 

 

I have looked at the colour charts and am wondering if this might be Medici Blue, Salvador Blue, Cotswold Blue, Cornflower Blue or other....

 

If anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

M. Pied Lourd

 

 

 

mp: This matter of colour is not as straight forward as it may seem. Unless everyone's monitor and printer were calibrated it becomes very subjective. of course one can distinguish between say red and blue and so forth, but Triumph used many colours that were quite similar.

 

I have attached a colour chart which indicates that the car featured is most likely Winchester Blue or Cotswold Blue - can't be sure.

 

All the best,

 

Frank

 

[vivdownunder]

Powder Blue (no number) seems to have been dropped for Midnight Blue (#16), and Wedgewood Blue (#26) when they started numbering paint colours from the beginning of 1964 production.

 

Recall having the hots for a stunning Midnight Blue TR4 with a matching Surrey and chrome wire wheels that lived a few streets away circa 1965.

 

I think Bill P documented that Midnight was replaced by Royal Blue in 1966 during TR4A production, and Royal was then dropped for Sapphire Blue during TR6 production in 1971.

 

Regards,

 

Viv.

[TR 2100]

Frank,

 

Interesting to see all the colours set out, despite the unpreditability of

how our different monitors will display them.

 

BUT - there are certainly some of those colours that were never available

on a TR - this seems to be the whole Triumph range.

 

Is there any more information on the chips? What year, for example?

 

The Winchester Blue (on my monitor) is much darker that other examples of

this shade that I have seen, though I can't be sure that the other examples

I've seen were correct.

 

Viv - Midnight Blue and chrome wires looks great on any TR, preferably NOT

with black trim.

 

AlanR

[Alec Pringle]

Hi Alan,

 

easy way to check your monitor's colour rendition . . . . get an ordinary shade card for paint, any sort of paint card with pukka chips on rather than just print, that is also available on the manufacturer's website. Compare actual chips with the same on screen. Play with monitor colour settings until they match. You'll now be pretty close.

 

Hi Viv,

 

Jay Blue was an old ICI standard colour, in other words one of their proprietary range as opposed to a 'special' colour. It was used to occasional special order on Standards of the latter 1950s, and resurfaced in the late 60s as a BMC colour.

 

Most of the Standard and Triumph colours of the 1940s, 50s and 60s were drawn from British Standard ranges, BS381C and BS2660 dating back to 1948 and 1955. If anyone can lay hands on ancient BS colour charts you'll find most of the Standard Triumph colours, in many instances S-T used the BS names as well as formula. I'd guess this was for reasons of economy, and doubtless it would have made supplier changes much easier ?

 

Cheers,

 

Alec

[Herald948]

Folks, I'm a bit confused about these references to "Midnight" Blue (#16); I thought that was strictly an interior trim color??

[stuart]

Folks, I'm a bit confused about these references to "Midnight" Blue (#16); I thought that was strictly an interior trim color??

 

Midnight Blue as an exterior colour is code 56.

Stuart.

[M. Pied Lourd]

Thanks Everyone for your responses. Looks like it is going to be pretty difficult finding the exact colour of this car.

 

Most likely I will end up using a later TR colour such as Mallard if I decide to go with a blue hue.

 

Cheers,

M. Pied Lourd

[angelfj]

Frank,

 

Interesting to see all the colours set out, despite the unpreditability of

how our different monitors will display them.

 

BUT - there are certainly some of those colours that were never available

on a TR - this seems to be the whole Triumph range.

 

Is there any more information on the chips? What year, for example?

 

The Winchester Blue (on my monitor) is much darker that other examples of

this shade that I have seen, though I can't be sure that the other examples

I've seen were correct.

 

Viv - Midnight Blue and chrome wires looks great on any TR, preferably NOT

with black trim.

 

AlanR

 

 

Hello Alan

 

If you go here, VTR

you will find several listings. The Martin Senour reference states, "This is a complete chart from Martin-Senour for Triumphs, circa 1965. It has the color chips, their names, and M-S code numbers for colors used approximately 1957-65." Unfortunately no other details are provided.

 

Frank

[Don Elliott]

Dave - I suggest that you contact the owner of that TR3A on e-bay and ask him more about the colour. Can he provide a colour chip ? Etc. ???

[M. Pied Lourd]

Hi Don,

 

Prior to posting here, I did as you suggested and contacted the owner of the car by email. Not much help. All he could do was to confirm that it was the original colour (or as close as they could match) that was re-sprayed. You can see the original untouched but weathered paint in the engine bay on the Ebay listing. He didn't know the name of the colour and didn't have a sample chip that he could send me.....

 

Cheers,

David

[vivdownunder]

That's another wrinkle with factory records as colour numbers were all jumbled up between duco and trims.

 

And to further confuse, they used the same numbers for duco and trim, so #16 could easily have been Midnight Blue duco and Midnight blue trim.

 

My records show #56 was Royal Blue duco, yet Stuart has it as Midnight Blue !.

 

Rubbery figures, as accountants say !!.

 

Thanks Alec for the Jay Blue info which clears up yet another mystery.

 

Regards,

 

Viv.

[stuart]

That's another wrinkle with factory records as colour numbers were all jumbled up between duco and trims.

 

And to further confuse, they used the same numbers for duco and trim, so #16 could easily have been Midnight Blue duco and Midnight blue trim.

 

My records show #56 was Royal Blue duco, yet Stuart has it as Midnight Blue !.

 

Rubbery figures, as accountants say !!.

 

Thanks Alec for the Jay Blue info which clears up yet another mystery.

 

Regards,

 

Viv.

 

Viv somwhere in amongst my paint references it says that midnight blue would henceforth be called Royal blue. Cant find the reference at the moment as my paint files are a mix of hard copy and PDF files.

Stuart

[Don Elliott]

Dave - Take the best photo that you have shown above to all the paint suppliers in your area as well as asking at any Classic Car Restoration Shops in Newmarket and see if one of them can test that colour and give you a sample of 1/2 pint for about $35.00 or so. Then spray it on a piece of sheetmetal on onto your parts car to see if you like it.

 

Don

[M. Pied Lourd]

Dave - Take the best photo that you have shown above to all the paint suppliers in your area as well as asking at any Classic Car Restoration Shops in Newmarket and see if one of them can test that colour and give you a sample of 1/2 pint for about $35.00 or so. Then spray it on a piece of sheetmetal on onto your parts car to see if you like it.

 

Don

 

 

 

Worth a try Don.

 

Thanks

David