I am about to make a decision about the color I paint my 63 coupe. The Jaguar certificate says the car was Opalescent Golden Sand but the car was repainted (and properly as it was very hard to find any trace of the original color) many years ago by the original owner back in the early 70’s.
What is very strange is after stripping the car completely down to strip all the paint I could see some trace of a gold color that was very light over-spray inside door panel but the color I found under door hinges and in a few remote tight spots that someone doing a total color change probably would not have removed unless they were doing like I am and taking the car to bare metal. I have heard of special color requests being made when the cars were on the assembly line, and sometime not being accurately reported on the paper work which means te color on the certificate could be wrong.
I am probably not going to change my mind and match the color on the heritage certificate because I don’t really want a Golden Sand car but I was considering it because some people prefer to buy a car that matches whats on the Heritage certificate and increases the value to some. I may sell the car some day so it is still a thought and I did order the correct color interior. But, the color I found that has to be from the factory is non of the colors that were offered by the factory, its a very interesting green that I have never seen on any Jaguar, a
kind of metallic light lime color. I suppose it is possible someone did decide to do a very detailed respray that I am not aware of from the history I have of the car. I plan to paint the car a a Dark Green that was one of the standard colors offered that year, with a Tan interior.
What thoughts do people have regarding original colors, Opalescent Golden Sand isn’t a hideous color but it isn’t a color I would want if I was buying a Jaguar and had a choice which there always is.
Keep it a Jaguar color. What color was the interior according to HC? I‘ve seen Ian’s Opalescent Golden Sand with Tan interior in Bicester England, it looks absolutely gorgeous. I don‘t recall the name of the interior color (brown) but a really nice looking car. Do the golden sand.
Martin
Here some pics
Agreed. Either go back original or to a color that was offered for that particular model. My 63 was originally Opalescent Silver Blue. The previous owner was in the middle of changing it to red when he abandoned the project in 1986. I was considering going back with Opalescent Gunmetal until I saw the clip of Prince Harry and his bride departing in the silver blue E-Type yesterday. That blue pops on a sunny day.
Think hard about doing that. Me? I’d rather paint the car the color I love and worry about maybe losing a few grand ,if I ever sell it, at that time. That’s assuming, of course that the color you love isn’t something truly bizarre. I’d rather go to the garage, see the car in a color I love, and break out in a smile than go down and think to myself, “well, maybe the next buyer will like it”.
Sean;
I agree with John on the color.
If you think you will keep the car for 2 to 20 years paint it to suit you and let the next buyer worry about the color of car to be purchased. If you plan on turning the car quickly then an ‘original color’ might work to your advantage.
Joel.
Have you seen Gold Sand in person and in good shape or just in photos ? I saw a Gold Sand FHC on display at one of the dealer tents last year at Goodwood. I normally like the darker colors better on E’s but I fell in love with that one the way it caught the light. I stopped and stared at it every time I made a trip from my Grandstand seat to the beer stand and it is now one of my favorites but I can see how it would be very bland looking if faded or oxidized. Not sure if photos do it justice
David
68 E-type FHC (Carmen Red)
Thanks for the feed back, I have not seen Golden Sand in person just photos.
The photos of one coupe I saw were impressive, though it does seem that there is a slight variance of Golden Sand in the photos of the cars I’ve seen. Could be the way the cars were photographed because of the variety of light sources, one open top roadster had a darker gold that looked very nice and deep.
Black interior would look good with Golden Sand but the original Tan would look classy as well, especially with all leather no vinyl like I have coming for my car and can’t change that now which I wouldn’t regardless.
The comment about it looking bland was a thought I had already, it is the kind of color that would look great when clean, polished and well kept. Would look a bit grungy if dirty from days of driving threw wet road conditions or if faded or worn.
Now I am going to have to think even harder, I may get the paint code and spray a larger piece of card and look at it in the sunlight, evening and give myself a week to consider.
bad pat is I’ll have to redo the front clip and firewall since that was done when the Engine,gear box, suspension and IRS was overhauled, I masked it off when we blasted the car yesterday. I guess it would add about 3 or 4 more days more work to pull the front clip and engine, worst being the fight with the torsion bars.
their is a FHC in golden sand freshly restored on the Classic Jaguar web site in the workshop section comes up second row down 61 FHC. would not kick that out of the garage
THE ONLY 61 I SAW THERE WAS PAINTED BLUE. UNLESS I’M NOT LOOKING AT THE RIGHT SITE
scroll to the bottom of workshop and its one row up . its a 65 FHC sitting on a trailer. my mistake, it is quite nice looking
OGS is in fact a beautiful colour. Stunning with red interior.
Yes I found it, was wondering if I was blind or on a different Classic Jaguar page.
That does look very nice, classy and I think with my new Tan (Biscuit) interior it would look quite attractive.
Did you notice the old color on the car before restoration, looks quite different and darker.
This does make it harder to decide, I definitely will be trying to get a paint sample sprayed to see how it looks in real. I’ll have to try to find a paint code that is accurate to mix up some paint. Anyone have a good reference for paint codes? I ended up using paint cards to match the color on my car before I blasted it all off and we tested it. Ended up being a color Jag has used not only on earlier E Types but in the early 90’s as well.
I wonder if the car on Classic would share the paint code.
Looks like I might be going backwards and stripping the front clip and and stripping the front end down, maybe I was looking for confirmation that I should take the car back to it’s original color, bugged me once I saw the tiny bits of gold here and there.
David Jones has put forward much work compiling information and documenting knowledge on E-Type paints. One has to appreciate all the effort that goes in to these forums! Here are codes:
https://tinyurl.com/etypeukforumpaint
and here are some pictures to go with it
https://tinyurl.com/etypeUKpaintpictures
Martin
p.s. here a link to Classic Jaguar‘s Glasurit equivilant codes:
Him
A couple of comments.
- Are you aware that Jaguar “Tan” interior is NOT beige, or a light tone, but a very saturated brown, the same colour as “Pigskin” and very much the same colour as an American football.
Most US restorations where the owner says the interior to be “Tan” look more like either “Biscuit” or “Cinnamon”. “Beige” is very, very light, what Ferrari folks would call “Crema”.
-
Dark Green is a metallic very dark green, also called Opalescent Dark Green.
-
Golden Sand is a neautiful colour, not at all like the pimp gold Lincolns & Cadillacs of the era.
I’m one of those folks who thinks the original colour is the ONLY option and any other colour is a big mistake.
But I am in a minority, i know.
Cheers!
Totally why Tweety remained purple: MY enjoyment is what counted, and I didnt give a toss about resale value.
Yea, but…yer Finnish!!
And there is room for both schools of thought on this subject. Which is why I’ve always maintained “It’s your car do with it what you want”. Your and you being used in the everybody and anybody meaning.
Well, original metallic paint was not ‘base/clear’. Most restorations you see are base/clear. This is no more “original” than a color change, in some sense. Also. it matters whether the car is completely taken apart and resprayed to a fair-thee-well, in a “period” color. When I worked in service at a big Chevy dealer I saw plenty of metallic '72 Impalas and the like - and they were all DULL. No base/clear in those days. So a color that many recall as not popping may look different and more appealing in a modern paint. Our car has not one molecule of red as it was dipped, this is a different animal than a masking tape respray like was done when these were $ 1.5 k cars.
Yes: it’s a freakin’ paint job!!!
I appreciate the variety of opinions and in the end I have to agree that no matter what color I paint it won’t be as original since it is very true, you can’t match the paint that was used by the factory, nor would you want too.
Same for the interior really since most of the materials used back then are no longer available and are only as close as the interior resellers can find. I have already ordered my interior and it is all leather which was never how a E Type came but I prefer to make improvements than try to copy what was done by the factory, especially when in the early years such as when my car was built the factory was changing the materials and various parts according to what they had available that day.
Around 25 years ago I was looking at restoring a 65 S Type which had totally dried and cracked leather and had gotten samples of the interior kits available from BAS and a few other company’s that used Connolly leather and again last year contacted many of the same companies to order a full interior kit for the E Type and all said they need to send new swatches as their suppliers change so even the best interiors are not the same no matter how close they try to match the colors and textures of the select hides Connelly once supplied Jaguar.
Since the car was repainted long before I had it (though done quite well, enough that for years it was hard to know what the original color was as there wasn’t any evidence of the color change until the car was disassembled and I had gotten the heritage certificate.
I am still undecided about the color but I do now think I’ll choose based on what I think suits what I want the car to look like, since I could careless about entering it in any conquers events and I am not trying to replace every nut and both in the car and I do not have to replace any metal any where which I think is more important as far as being an original I’m not going to get to concerned about trying to restore the care to meet some judges list. Companies like Eagle restore Jags beyond what the factory had built and paint more of the metal than any original factory paint ever had covered and will likely out last what the factory had delivered.
If I had an unlimited amount of time and money and two cars I might want to do one pristine, perhaps build one totally stock with no upgrades and one with everything available, fuel injection, engine management, big brakes, modified suspension, big bore engine with a d type head heavily modified, wider Borrani wheels and make my own version in the same way Eagle has done.
I might not get top dollar if and when I sell it as I am installing full leather, Ansa complete exhaust, Wilwood brakes and after I have driven the car for a while I am pretty sure I want a 5 speed, Borrani wheels, Weber throttle bodies converted to fuel injection with a ECU, cams, and already have high compression Hepolite pistons, balanced the crank, line bored the block, trued the cam journals, balanced pistons and carrilo rods, seats, guides, valves, all bearings and a few other improvements such as a high capacity oil pump. So really even though its a complete original matching numbers car its never going to be factory original again, only the very rare e type that was carefully stored and maintained is and has never been restored at all other than repairs can be original. I have seen where a man bought a completely demolished light weight and rebuilt the car, only thing original about that car was the metal that was untwisted and only some of it but because it has a serial number is considered one of the original light weights, ridiculous.
The nicest part about the car is that I know the cars history from 1980 and had driven home for 1200 miles when it was imported from California, car has been pretty much stored since 1984 or so and only been driven occasionally by my older brother. When he started taking it apart in the late 80’s and never got around to finishing what he had planned which was to only rebuild the engine, freshen up the gear box and replace any old bushings ect then drive it since the car had zero rust and really only looked a but aged since the car had sat for so many years. he had removed the IRS, front clip, engine and gear box and soda blasted the frame to repaint it and the firewall then gave the car a respray to freshen up the BRG paint but then sat since for 15 years without bleeding the brakes or clutch. When I finally convinced him to sell it I was just going to drive it as was but noticed the bonnet braces had a few areas that the bonding was needing repair so I made the decision to strip the bonnet completely then figured I may as well blast the whole car to confirm there was no hidden problems and then got carried away.
The car Jay Leno picked up is almost identical to the condition the car was in prior to me stripping it and blasting the entire car, other than the fact it had been repainted in the late 70’s by the previous owner who also dyed the leather and swapped out the vinyl bit for black and changed the carpets and of course over the years it was sitting did get a fresh engine and cleaned up. I probably could have just repaired the bonnet, replaced the interior and driven it but I calculated out what I’d need to spend to do the paint properly and make some upgrades the E Types needed and I went for it.
I think buying a totally rotted e type and rebuilding all the metal and trying to restore the car to original is far less original than a car that has good metal and has a different color. In some cases I wouldn’t doubt that less than 25% of the original car is used in restorations. It’s kind of a shame really.
Another point that some might not like is if a E Type was kept 100% original with the wear most would’t be that happy with the car, especially driving it or parked along side a shiny completely rebuilt better than new E Type.