AK Visit

[Martyn-ak427]

Hey Chaps,

Paid a visit to AK earlier this week to collect my shortened wishbones & driveshafts for the Jag IRS build - Once again I was made to feel extremely welcome so thanks to ken & his team. However I have a dilemma following the visit:

Since I embarked on this project I have changed my mind so many times on the final body colour of my AK but thought I had finally decided on black, however - since visiting AK & seeing Ken's new demonstrator & comparing this to a dark coloured car they currently have in the workshop I have maybe changed my mind again to something more glitzy than black!!! .
I know its all down to personal choice but I thought the lighter colour with the traditional white double stripe of the demonstrator really looked fantastic!
I am hoping to maybe get some inspiration at the shows this year but any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated.

Regards,
Martyn

[snakebite]

Hi Martyn

Choosing the colour, I think, is the hardest decision to make. I am sure that you will change your mind many times over the period of the build.

I would suggest that any colour you might like - that you obtain a little and spray "templates" and look at them both on a dull and sunny day and keep them for a while in order to "live" with them.

Goodluck

[wilf]

Worst decision to make of my whole build was the colour.

Looks as though I am not alone.

You are doing the right thing - go look at cars to see what colour suits both them and you.

[BIGUNDIES]

It has taken me nearly 2 years to decide on the colour I want. When I first started building the car I was going down the blue cream combination, then I went to silver with deep red. Next I went to blue again but with a stripe. I have finally chosen siver with proberly no stripe and deep red interior. Notice I'm saying proberly because I still can't comit myself. I think that nearly everybody will agree that choosing a colour is so hard due to the fact that you can have any colour you can think of, theres just too much choice. I've even told my better half to select 5 silvers for me to choose from because there is also so many different types of silver you can go for. Due to the reasons above I got the trimmer to send me only three different reds so it was easier to decide, this works for me.

[TINKA]

Best thing to do is get what you think will be the final colour in your mind now and get the gel closest to that colour, BUT BE WARNED PICK THE NEXT DARKER COLOUR TO YOUR CHOICE AS THEY ALL LOOK LIGHTER ON A COMPLETED SHELL THAN ON THE FLIP CHART. Live with it for a year or two and then get it sprayed who knows you might have changed your mind again by then. I have

[Bowtie]

I initially decided to build a silver Cobra but I also leaned towards a black one. The problem is matching interior! A Black Cobra with a lipstick red interior is striking but it is a hard color to match with other body colors if you ever change your mind. A black interior looks fears on silver, black or any other body color. Magnolia interior looks nice when new but what will it look like after a couple of years? I finally ordered my body shell in black to be able to get the feel for black before the final paint job. It is a nice color but almost impossible to maintain. Any scratch or dust or imperfection in the body is brutally enhanced and embossed by the black color. Silver is the opposite so I will probably spray it in silver with a black interior. My main problem is seeing Wilfs Crendon. The understated look without side pipes and white stripes and rather dull shade of blue really blow me away! So now it’s not silver or black anymore but rather silver or Wilfs blue. Will it ever end?

Originally Posted by Bowtie

rather dull shade of blue(

Now how would the big Texan fella react to that (let alone Wilf)! LOL

My mate has a RAM with underslungs - it's silver (code came from a real one seen at Rod Leachs) with black leather on 15 inch wheels. Has an extremely original, authentic feel about - but the whole car is understated anyway. I suppose it all really depends on how 'blingy' the trim is going to be...

[Happy Jim]

Can only echo the above - worst bit of deceision making of the whole build!

It's a significant chunk of money, so you don't want to get it wrong. My choice was easy - blue with white stripes, go on...start counting how many blues there are! Wilfs was easy...Guardsman blue with white stripes, er how many shades of guardsman would that be sir? Arghhhh

Best bet is spend a couple of hours at stoneleigh deciding which is your favourite combination (assuming it's been done before), and then discover the owner doesn't know the paint codes that were used.

Cheers

Jim

[wilf]

The more Cobras I see, the more colours I like them in. I like mine, but also:

Greens (dark and light)

Silver

Black (but too much work to keep clean)

Red (like the current Crendon demo car)

Bare naked ladies (bare ally)

If I ever built another, it probably would not be blue with white stripes again. One of the above instead.

Bowtie's comment is OK - the blue I have on mine is not meant to be "bling", it is meant to be understated and like a 60's colour, whatever Steve Hole says. LOL.