My scoops are currently painted the same as the body color but am considering changing to the silver that Ive seen many. But what color exactly is it? Silver? Hammertone?
Per the JCNA Etype Judging Guide:
HEADLIGHT BUCKET COLORS
Earliest cars - body color (Porter ā Pg.185)
All other covered headlight cars - the color varies from light to medium silver/gray with a slight metallic finish
Open headlight cars - body color
All covered headlight cars had a rubber seal around the front of the bucket (J30 ā Pg. 177 & J37 ā Pg. 160)
Note that the judging guide specifically mentions Hammertone where appropriate for other items, so as a judge I would say that using hammertone on the sugar scoops would be incorrect.
Do we know what āearliest carsā means? I have seen the judging guide as well, but donāt have a copy of Porterās book. I assume that it is substantially earlier than my 886939, built September 1962. Mine currently has white (body color) scoops, but I presume it should have silver scoops. I kind of think the body color looks better, but I donāt know.
Thanks much Harvey! Iāll peruse the paint aisle.
I donāt have (or canāt find) Porter, but Haddockās latest tome has the exact same language as contained in the judging guide, with no date range. This is not a new question, Iām sure there is something in the archives, if not on Jag-Lovers then on the UK forums. I suspect if there was a definitive cutoff, Porter and Haddock would have mentioned it.
Scott, personally as a judge, I would never deduct for your situation, since your car is plausible either way with respect to the judging guide.
Thanks for the info, Harvey! Repainting is a year or so down the road, with my first priority actually getting it operational after about 25 years of storage. Iāll keep these thoughts in mind when the time comes.
I have always thought so, but itās a personal choice.
To my eyes, the silver sugar scoops would stick out like a sore thumb, on any dark color.
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My car came to me with hammertone silver and I can say itās not only incorrect, itās also ineffective. It caused excessive flaring of the light, especially with high beams. I ended up painting them a deeper shade of gray than would probably be original and the light beams have perfect focus now on both settings, and it looks reasonably good to my eyes.
I have silver scoops on my ots and chromed ones on my fhc(previous owner). The chrome ones definitely look wrong but to my eye the silver ones look a bit downmarket. I am planning to paint the ots ones body color when the time comes. Nice thing about sugar scoops is that if you do not like the way it turns out you can always remove them and change the color.
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I donāt think we know this definitely. In addition to Porter, Haddock & Mueller simply refer to āearlierā cars having body colour (pg43) in their very thorough āE-Type Six Cylinder Originality Guideā.
As an aside, Iād highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in originality.
Appreciate all the info, and thanks to Larry for letting me butt in on his thread.
Happy to get the feedback from all. My main interest in going away from the body color, opalescent dark green, it because I have never been able to fully seal the cavity. Living in a dusty environment inevitably creates a dirty look. Iām thinking itāll be less noticeable with the silver.
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Mine came with a very dark silver that looked almost body color. I used a pealable spray paint (similiar to plastidip) to paint them a light, metallic silver, and I like it. And it can be pealed off at any time to take it back.
I can tell you the light silver color does a very good job at showing all the dirt unfortunately. 
Do as I did: I just didnāt seal them (I think itās wasted effort): I left off ALL edge seals, and with a pressure washer, enough washing water āpeeksā in around the chrome trim seals, to keep it washed out just dandy.
It does?! Argh!
Best regards,
Larry Trom
804-677-5090
Yes. Light color dirt (dust and water spots) show up on dark colors, and dark colored dirt (rust flakes, debris, sandy water stains) show up real well on light colors.
You canāt win.
Making it easy to take off the headlight covers for quick cleaning is the best option. Right now mine are easy to get off, but a royal pain to get back on.
As are mine. Wish I could use gold paint. My āold man goldā color F150 does very well at reducing the noticeability of dust and dirt here. And yes, Iām an old man 
Harvey,The reference in the JCNA judging guide to Porter PG 185 refers to a factory photon of a group of E-Types I assume ready for shipment and all have two things in common, body colored headlight scoopās and all are outside latch cars. Many many years agoI talked to the then Jaguar USA archivist if there might be anything in the archive concerning colors of various parts and was told that there might be but theyād not have the resourceās to do a search
Hi, went through this ordeal years ago. They are NOT bright silver! I have an NOS sugar scoop and it is not nor ever was hammertone. They were painted a medium silver gray and I mean gray. Most judges are clueless as they have never seen an NOS scoop.
Regards,
Allen
Allen- any chance you could take your NOS scoop to a paint store and have them read the color then post the color codes here? Would be a greatly appreciated service to the community!
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