Lawrie Alexander wrote:
>I've been rebuilding engines professionally since the mid 70s. I always >have
>them hot-tanked which means that every trace of original paint is removed
>chemically. I then prime and paint the rebuilt engine after it's back
>together. Those that I did many years ago are doubtless greasy again and
>some of them may be needing another rebuild by now. Will anyone drawing
>conclusions as to correct colors from what I used be correct or be further
>clouding the issue if they believe they have discovered an original
>combination?
I've got to agree with Lawrie, and add my own rant. Many of you
know my take on all this "it's got to be *original*" mania. Paint
is just like everything else: they used what they had. Yes, I'm
sure they had their suppliers and used one part number etc, but, do
you really think this happened?
Boss: "Nigel, we're out of engine paint, go fetch some more."
Nigel: "Okie dokie boss."
Boss: "Oh bloody hell Nigel! That's just the wrong shade of maroon!
It looks red! Don't you know in 30 years some retired American is
going to be whining because his engine is the wrong colour!"
Yep, a pet peeve of mine. Our great cars were built by out of
work plumbers. *Always* remember this. The reason your '68 has
'67 lights could be because the DPO screwed up. Or because the
DFG (Dreaded Factory Guy) ran out of '68 lights, and had some '67
lights stashed away. After all, the DFG was in many cases paid
by the number of parts assembled. Using what he had meant more
money in his pocket.
Dealing with old competition cars makes the originality thing even
more painful. I remember running across a fellow with a set of
original magnesium mini-lights on his car. He was complaining
because the DPO had put non-original wheels on the car. Well,
I'll tell ya folks, if you've got funny really light-weight
non-original wheels, alloy body panels, and any other DPO "bodges",
I'll be happy to take that junk off your hands.
-Keith Wheeler
Team Sanctuary http://www.TeamSanctuary.com/
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