[Healeys] Coronet Cream

Peter Svilans peter.svilans at rogers.com
Tue Apr 22 07:33:38 MDT 2008


Ed,

There is an actual chip for Coronet Cream in the 1954 issue of the RM colour
chip charts which are shown on the tcpglobal.com site.

It is, as you say, quite a bit lighter than the Beige chip which you indicate
matches the Pikovnik Coronet Cream chip.

I say '1954 issue', because ALL the tcm chips on their site from '48 to '59
refer you to only a single issue of RM (Rinshead-Mason Canada- now part of
BASF) sheets dated 11/59 (with the RM logo whited out).  These RM sheet sets
were in fact issued yearly to incorporate the current year's new colours, and
by 1959 some of the earlier colours- like Coronet Cream- were no longer
included (although the formulas were still there).

So my set of RM chips dated 11/54 does show the actual Coronet Cream chip, and
you're welcome to it.  The formula would no longer be directly applicable
because modern tinting bases are different, but it is still useful in showing
the proportions of the colour components as a guide for a modern mix.

These RM chips are a valuable historical resource because they were issued at
the same time as the cars came off the line.  RM would have been supplied with
current up-to-date master chips by the original paint manufacturer (ICI).
Although Don's paint chip reference book is a magnificent effort, it was still
produced decades after the fact, and there is still a point at which he made a
judgement call and said "ok that's as close as we can get with our modern
tinting bases", as with his Coronet Cream.  The original RM sheets show
different shades of Healey Blue for '53 and '54, two slightly different shades
of Florida Green for BN2 (darker) and BN4, and two lightly different shades of
Colorado Red for early (more orangey) and later 100-Sixes. And slightly
different formulas for Old English White and Ivory White (more creamy), which
were later merged together.

I enclose a scan overlaying the '54 Coronet Cream chip over the '59 Beige chip
(same as the tcm site) to show the relative difference.

Best regards,
Peter
Austin Healey Concours Advisory Committee.

[demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of RM Coronet Cream0015.jpg]


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