At 01:35 PM 5/12/03 -0500, Chuck Renner wrote:
>....
>.... but when I'm doing things like repainting the radiator or heater box,
>I want to use the correct paint gloss. The pictures in Clausager show all
>of these items to be a very glossy finish, which doesn't seem to agree
>with what I see in some of the factory literature.
>....
This has been one of my pet peeves for many years. Most of the paint on MG
chassis and some accessory parts (like heater and radiator) has
traditionally been sattin black (otherwise known as semi-gloss black) but
definitely not gloss black. Concours show winners often have all black
parts painted in high gloss black, which sort of rubs me the wrong way, but
seems to have great appeal to the judges (especially in popular vote car
shows).
Appearantly rules for concours preparation allow or even encourage certain
such "improvements" from the factory specification, and it seems that this
tradition has been around about as long as there have been car shows. This
sometimes even extends to high luster polish finish on pot metal or
aluminum or copper parts that were originally left in natural state, or
even to adding chrome to parts never made that way by the factory. If I
was a concours judge, any gloss paint on a radiator or heater box or any
chassis parts would definitely lose points, but then I suppose I would
never be allowed to judge again. Such is life I guess, but it does
certainly place a severe tilt on the public view of originality of the cars.
$.02,
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://MGAguru.com
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