Enamel and Cellulose paint history/practice

[Peter Naulls]

Well I've got an exact match for Chris's RP, at least in its original colour!

This is the box saloon bonnet side in original paint; brown primer or etch primer, grey primer which has clearly been rubbed down (see the blue lines where it has filled the sanding marks across the grey) and then the colour coat. 

This is all getting very anorakish!

   

[JonE]

Peter - so is that outer ring colour merely oxidised blue? - i.e. does it polish to the brighter hue with TCut or brasso? Or is it later coat of something black? If the former, then that is potentially more valuable than the paintcards, which can't be cut back...

[Peter Naulls]

The very outer ring is oxidised paint, the true colour is very dark, the bright area being where it is super thin. Using it as a colour reference for a spectography thingy would be challenging because of the limited unblemished area. 

As I said on another thread, the colour is visually an exact match for our Ruby which was sprayed Triumph Royal Blue (1969 -70) many years ago. At that time we were able to polish a significant part of a bonnet vent back to the original colour. I carried it in my pocket for weeks, comparing it to any parked blue car! The formula for the Triumph colour is still available (but it can no longer be mixed in cellulose). The vent has since been lost.