Hi Jay,
Here are a some suggestions...
I had my TR4 hoodsticks powder coated black and installed black webbing. 6
or 7 years later they still look like brand new. I didn't even need to
disassemble the h'stick assembly prior to powdercoating, beyond removing it
from the
car and removing the webbing. I had the heads of the special mounting screws
done at the same time, to match. The only slightly tricky part was masking off
the chrome snap stud to keep it from being media blasted or powder coated.
However, black is not the orginal color, as you know.
Scanning through Bill Piggott's and Roger William's books, I don't see any
mention of the "correct" color. I seem to recall mine were originally
off-white, perhaps "Spa White" that was used on all the metal dashes and some
wheels
(and also happens to be the original color of my car). My hoodsticks were
pretty beat up, so it was hard to be 100% certain, but seems to me they were
very
close in color to the original paint areas of the car hidden under interior
panels, etc. Spa White isn't a bright white. The original webbing was a
"natural" off-white, too. In my opinion the color photo examples of restored
hoodsticks in Bill Piggott's "Original TR4..." appear to have far too
pure-white paint
on them. One also has light blue webbing, to match a similar color top, which
I'm almost certain are not original colors.
If your hoodsticks still have some paint on them, you might show it to a
powder coater and see if they can come close to matching it. Powder coaters
have far more colors available now than in years past, and even sometimes can
do
custom mixes to achieve a close match. If you do this, use some something to
polish up the color sample area and try to get it cleaned up and looking like
new, for best color match.
BTW, powder coating needn't be too expensive. I went in with a friend and
we had some 60 or 70 parts done at the same time, including all prep work, and
split the total for individual cost of $125 apiece. I got the hoodsticks and
maybe another 25 other parts done (misc. brackets, scuttle vent spring, heater
housing, headlight buckets, etc.), but I also had the largest items and so
assumed half the cost.
Our "secret" was to find an industrial powder coater who had down time and
was looking for jobs to fit in between their normal production work. This was
far cheaper than having the work done by an automotive specialist. There were
limited color choices and we had to carefully label our parts and leave items
with them for a week or two.
Please let us know if you find more specifics regarding the color used on
hoodsticks.
Cheers!
Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif.
'62 TR4 CT17602L
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I have decided to repaint the folding top frame (hood sticks) on my '64
TR4 and I'd like to repaint to the original tan color. Has anyone on
the list done the search for correct color specification - manufacturer
and color name?
brgds, Jay
'64 Triumph TR4 since '67
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