Correct Color for Inaccessible Areas of the Bonnet

Jay, I think I am going to take the same approach as you. That said, I think the answer to my original question is “There is no primer, paint, etc. on the truely inaccesible areas.” They built the body shells and bonnets before they ever went through any paint process, as described in David’s literature. So by definition, any area that was truely inaccesible didn’t get any paint. But I do believe they had tools such as wands to get into the “hard to reach” areas. I am not going to try to emulate that approach!

Dollars to donuts there’s corrosion under the old air duct adhesive. Note the faint dark (phosphated) lines in the old adhesive areas in the first photo. The second photo shows the masking used to redefine the adhesive areas over the previously applied epoxy sealer coat. The duct flanges were prepped and sealed before adhesive application…and the ducts themselves were prepped and painted ahead of time (easy access to the insides)…along with the backside of each of the front sections. Nut, bolts and washers were pre-painted and touched up later if the finish coat got damaged.


bonnet paint 1

Until someone “recreates” (read counterfeits) these stamps. If this ever becomes worth $$ then you can count on it… :rage:

I wonder if Jaguar Heritage could track those stamps and verify them though. If they had the painters apply those stamps, then they must have wanted to track who did what to which car.

If they kept those records, then at the very least a person would have to know what the original stamp is to get away with a counterfeit while claiming it was original paint. Let us say, for example, a Series III OTS is stamped JAG 319. If JAG 319 retired or quit in 1968, that wouldn’t be possible, would it?

I actually wouldn’t be too worried about someone claiming original paint despite a repaint because I think it should be possible to figure out if it was repainted on close examination no matter the expense or skill level. (duplicating imperfection is pretty hard to do.)

It would be the more pedantic types claiming "matching original painter’s stamp) that would be caught out.

Dave

I may not be able to duplicate the stamp but I’m very good at runs!

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Just a few minutes into looking over my car before I bought it I assumed it had a re-spray at some point since I saw red over-spray in the wheel wells and underneath. Therefore I did not think to ask the original owner in 2000 if they ever had it re-painted. I did not know until fairly recently that it was common for original paint cars to have over-spray in these areas. A few months ago there was a red Series 1 FHC on BaT claiming to be original paint. It showed red over-spray in the same areas as my car. Soon after that a primrose Series 1 OTS on BaT that claimed was mostly original including most all of the paint. It was local to me so went and looked it over. Paint job on it looked very similar to my car so made me wonder about mine. Looking at things closely I am still of the opinion that my car had one re-spray at some point long ago but continue to wonder if it was over the whole car or just in certain areas. I did pull off the rear number plate and see no signs of a stamp like in David’s photo but the paint in this area has the runs and flaws like his photo shows.

David
68 E-type FHC

David,
I bought my 64 in 1988 from a fellow that had owned it since 1968 and he had never had it repainted, in fact we called it the Gray Rat, and when we stripped off most of the paint I can’t recall seeing any stamp of any type under the license plate. I was a stickler when it came to originality and if we had seen something there I’d have sure checked into it.

Jay
I am looking to build a stand so my bonnet can be painted on both sides and yours looks like a suitable model to copy.
Could you provide more/better photos, maybe some measurements, and/or notes or comments on anything you would have done different? Anything would be helpful/useful.
TIA
Craig