What Bl**dy Colour should it be????

[wilf]

Joy, Oh Joy - I have now saved up enough pennies to have the Crendon painted this winter. Now I have the worst decision to make that faces all of us - what colour??? After a summer of running around in a disgustingly tatty naff (not polished or even de-flashed) gelcoat matte black scratched and battered Cobra, which I have to admit I have gotten quite used to, and which consistently pi**es off Porsche and Ferrari owners (not quite the thing to be blown off by something looking quite so "nasty" ),....I have to paint it.

Bear in mind the following:

1/ I am a traditionally minded boring old fart
2/ It is a 427 s/c - they only ever came in "Guardsman Blue" with two white stripes front to back
3/ It is a Crendon - so John Kerr (he of Crendon) won't speak to me ever again if I do anything not quite "proper"
4/ I think I might actually quite like "Guardsman Blue" with stripes
5/ I might also like some showstopping "Mallard Blue" (looks alternately Black/Blue/Green depending on how the light strikes it) thing I found
6/ Once it is actually sprayed, her indoors will never, ever, ever, allow me to change my mind and re-do it in another shade. The 3-piece suite (and that luvverly conservatory) is next on her list!!!
7/ I actually quite like the naff tatty look, and don't have to worry about stone chips or Levi's buttons when I lean over it to caress the rocker covers.
7/ I value your input!! Well, some of the time.

So - what should I do????? Here is your chance, Oh CobraClub forum members, to influence my choice. If I paint it, what colour???


Wilf
:9

[dave]

The thing is Wilf,If your car has chrome sidepipes and or 3piece split rim wheels then the purists will know at a glance without even opening the bonnet,In this case ANY BL**DY COLOUR YOU LIKE, but....if you have spent huge sums of money on some very authentic (dare i say replica in the truest sense)knock on wheels then you have got to do it justice and go with the Guardsman blue.

As for mallard.....far to Cosworth to do a cob.I would never want one of my cobs. to be associated with a 2.0 litre 4X4 Escort with forced induction ,perrish the thought,Oh yuk imagine this ...a cob with forced induction,it's cheating....if you can't play fair don't play.Where am i going with this, i think it's time for my medication againx( :7 :9 :* :+ :'( :P }>

http:/forum/Images/Avatars/bean_1.gif

[wilf]

Dave - I have mentioned your medication before now, perhaps it's time to be a little more regular with it???

Thanks for your thoughts - I know you know your Cobra's, and any Crendon is meant to be a "proper" replica - as it happens mine's the first of the new s/c bodyshape - guess it can only be "Guardsman Blue" then??? That's if I can find the "correct" colour since there appears to be more than one.

No sidepipes at all yet - that's next year's project, and when they do go on, they will be matte black!!! ( or maybe white???) Knock off wheels (and I don't mean from a car boot sale) will be the year after that.

Saw John Woolfs' original 427s/c is for sale - wonder how much they want for that, bearing in mind he bought it for under 10 grand in the sixties?? Bet it's 200K plus!!!

Never, and I mean never, will my car feature anything other than a naturally aspirated potatoe engine. 408 stroker is enough for me, and more than enough for the Ferrari 355 I met last weekend!! (think it may have just been a poser driver - he chickened at 140mph) Don't you just love these fake plastic sh*tboxes???

Wilf

[Trigger]

Hi Wilf, I think your car sounds ok in the matt black gel coat. And no worries about nicks and scratches. But dark blue would be good but maybe without the stripes. Of course when it's painted that will be it finished and then what will you do? Spend time filling in the stone chips of course! Thinking about it though, I do like that stuff that changes colour but maybe it's a little poncy for a cobra. I'm sure my comments are of no help at all to you for choosing your colour but I'm also sure it will still be great whatever you do.
Regards, Trigger.

[RigMan]

Wilf my man!

Colour, Oh Colour....now that was the hardest decission that I had to make during my build by a long way! All I knew was that I wanted blue with white stripes, but there are loads of blues, and not all of them suitable.

Firstly, I wanted guardsman blue, but my paint shop mixed some up for me and sprayed a sample sheet. It was too petrol blue for me and I didn't like it. In the process, we found out that there are two Guardman Blues one paler than the other. The darker one is the correct one and looks better but I could never quite convince myself to like it sufficiently.

Secondly I then decided I wanted Viper blue, a lovely pearl blue, which is popular with the Americans. It was just the right shade of blue with loads of character. However, my painter who was more fussy than I was said he wouldn't paint the car in a modern pearl (and certainly no Ford Pacific Blue which was toooo common!)This also ruled out other modern colours that I fancied such as BMW Montreal & Biaritz and Rover Taihiti blue.

He was right of course and it had to be a coarse metallic paint just like the originals for that 'period look'. Confused and frustrated with a choice, not to mention anoying my friend and family with my 'angst' I started to look at paint swatches the painter had. But these are just not good enough to visualise the the actual appearance of the finished item.

In the end, I went down to the paint mixer, got him to mix up a shade of blue with loads of coarse metallic added, a toch of black to darken it more and 'voila'. Perfect! The down side is that it will be relatively hard to
reproduce, but not impossible should you need to.

White stripes...ahhhhhhh!...., now there lies another minefield. To get the propper appearance they need to be tapered from front to middle, and back to middle, and the white is actually a 'flat' cream otherwise it will look far to brash. Wimbledon, or Ermine white(which is better, being less grey') is the best choice. In the end, the painter took 3-4 months taking his time and letting the primer coats harden for weeks at a time before going back to it.Considering his efforts, the £2550.00 i paid for the painting was good value as the finished article is excellent, and I would recomend Mirror Finish in Southend to anyone.

Wilf, if you are going 'original' which you must be otherwise you wouldn't have a Crendon, then you ought to do it in an original colour. The original Ivy green is real nice....VERY metallic, acapulco blue is also a nice mid blue. However, perhaps the only real choice is the Guardman. If you need the right paint code just let me know.

RigMan :'(

[Bowtie]

I was going to suggest black as the Woolfe car since it looks like you in some ways are pleased with the current color of you car. Another reason is that I find black the next coolest color on a Cobra (Black 289 Roadster with red interior is really nice).

I don’t think that the Woolfe car is a SC though. Isn’t its number CSX 3167? Genuine SC where only made using chassis number up to CSX 3055 and only around 30 was ever made. No later cars with chassis numbers after CSX 3100 were ever supplied by the Shelby organization as SC. Other details giving it away as a non SC is the lack of side pipes and roll over bar, dashboard layout etc. but then a lot has been changed on that car over the years so I guess that I could be wrong.

Looks like you are paying attention to details so black roll over bar and side pipes is right. Just make sure to get other big and small SC details right. The small lip around the rear wheelarch, the glass-fibre bonnet scoop with integral plenum chamber, the visible riveting of the forward section of the bonnet to its frame etc...

All 427 cars was also made as left-hand drive (Woolfe has his converted to right-hand drive later and CSX 3054 and 3055 where originally right-hand drive but they didn’t end up as Cobras) so I guess that your car is left-hand drive. }>

Back to the color issue. I vote for black as the Woolfe car (note that it was originally Red but later repainted by Woolfe) but I think that you should paint the car in any color you want and not what others might expect you to. I will personally paint mine in silver metallic because I find it the coolest color on a Cobra. But I am not looking at my Cobra build as a replica of any specific Cobra. My approach is more like a Street Rod that’s why I will name it Cobra 350 SR Powered by GM. :7

/ Bowtie

Gentleman’s Express by Woolfe:

http://hem.passagen.se/robert.palmqv...167-Woolfe.gif

[wilf]

Bowtie - I think you are right about the Woolfe car - I claim that it was late at night when I wrote that and after a bottle of wine!
Yes- I am trying to get the details reasonably correct, with the one big exception of the car being rhd!!!

Wilf

[wilf]

Hiya Rigman, thanks for the comments, yes I should like that paint code, to compare with what I already have. There are as many shades of Guardsman Blue as there seem to be opinions!!! And yes, I know what a sod it is to lay out the stripes properly. Who would have thought that two simple stripes were sooo hard to make look right?? I am also wondering about whether the stripes should incorporate the roundrels for race numbers front and rear - but that can look a little fussy to my mind, not the result I am looking for.

WIlf

[paul]

Hi there like you said it's a Crendon so it should be correct to a point.I liked the idea of a black car but then I also like the dark blue so I went for a color which is Raven Black (Ihave the paint code)when you see it from a distance (feet not miles)it looks black but when the light hits it then it's dark blue as per Raven.Email me paulnhardy@tinyworld.co.uk and I will send you a picture as doing a small one for the forum doesn't do it justice
cheers
Paul

[robert]

Wilf

I would leave it as it is, why bother with paint as it only chips racing lesser vehicles such as Ferrari or Porsche.

Why oh Why are you putting horrid sidepipes on it? No road going authentic cobra ever had sidepipes.

Robert
Forum Admin

http://www.cobraclub.com/flags/UK.gif