Andrew, I assume you have searched the internet for a mist grey XK-150? I just attempted that and was able to find a couple examples. That grey is a bit subtle and can appear white on a computer screen. That said, it is distinctive enough to distinguish it from white to make it a compelling color. A recent auction on BAT (Bring A Trailer) featured an XK-120 in a powder blue color. The car was beautiful, the color was great (on its own) but in my mind - it was the wrong color for that car. The car didnāt reach the reserve and I think it was, in-part, because of the color.
Hi Roger, yes I am in the XK club and will be doing a similar RHD conversion as my storey is a very similar one to yours.
I also had something scary for 16 years before this but sold it thanking my lucky stars that I hadnāt killed myself with it!
Thanks for all your info on the decision. I think it just shows how difficult and how personal this particular choice is. I understand your point about being different and in a world where the word āoriginalā has a high level of importance attached to it, its difficult to be different!
Yes, I have seen your posts in the magazine and you are one of the people who I would like to talk to so please let me have your email address if you can.
My car originally had a red interior and a black hood.
Yes, I found that there are a couple of Pearly Grey examples if you dig deep on Google but they are either the wrong model or very low res. When you look at Pearl Grey online you get the feeling that the colour might not be true. It seems to be a colour that is very hard to appreciate in a photo. Iām considering paying to have a sample panel sprayed so that I can bring it home and look at it against the real world.
I found pics of a Pearly Grey XK140 and a Mist Grey XK150 so that people can try to see what we are talking about. The one with the Blue hood is Pearl Grey and the one with the Grey hood is Mist Grey.
Some time ago, I found a photo of an XK140 in Mist Grey for sale. I photoshopped the inevitable chrome wires to dark blue - probably overdid the darkness - but this is the sort of thing I envisage for my car:
Drive through any office parking lot these days and you will see nothing but monochrome cars. Try to buy a new car off the lot and you will be hard pressed to find a car that is not dark gray, white, or silver. Find a maroon pearl and you are really living life on the wild side. This is not the way it always was. There was a time when color was celebrated, particularly in the sports car market. Paint your cars whatever color you desire, but give some thought to whether the current taste for monochrome cars is not creeping into your decisions. Tastes do change, whereas originality and the tastes of the time do not. Who hasnāt seen more than a few older restorations where the color choices said more about the era of the restoration than the car? On the other hand, when you see one which looks truly original, it takes you back in time ā assuming you are old enough to remember how these cars looked and didnāt just read about it in a book.
Iād say that depends on your car park! I already have three red cars, which is one reason why I donāt particularly want to paint the XK Carmen Red. My '16 Abarth 124 Spider is Corsa Rosso (with a matt black bonnet), my '74 GT6 is Carmine and my '68 Mustang fastback is Royal Maroon. All of these are virtually impossible to touch up after 2-3 years if required due to redās propensity to fade, even in Britainās sunless climate.
Pastel greys, pearls, suedes and powder blues are very much colours for fifties sports cars and were in themselves a protest against the ubiquitous black cars of post-war Britain, which I remember very well. My fatherās first car was a 1950s Triumph Mayflower, available in only black or grey - Dad was a rebel, his was a 5-yr-old grey one.
The colour choice for my XK has nothing to do with todayās car parks. Itās a 140, so metallics are out, and I spent a lot of time considering period Jaguar colours only. As I said, Pearl Grey nearly got my vote, but Mist Grey just won out, even if it is a year too recent. Iād still count '56 as period.
The time when colour was really celebrated was not so much the fifties, but the seventies. My '76 Triumph Stag was Java Green - I could have had Mimosa, Magenta, Siennaā¦ the list goes on. And if you were in the US, well - Sub-Lime? Grabber Orange? Great daysā¦
As a quick follow-up, today I happened to see a You Tube with a XK-150 restoration - done in Mist Grey. The site is :āMark Hammonds Jaguar restoration hasnāt gone to planā¦ā Donāt be put off by the title as, for some reason, the guy has fully restored the body and interior before addressing the engine and chassis. ??? (Hence, āā¦Hasnāt gone according to planā) He ended up removing body āagainā to address mechanical issues. Bottom line is you get to see the finished body in the mist grey color - it is well done.
Itās Richard Hammond - one of the old Top Gear presenters from the BBC days.
It looks nice in Mist Grey, but in some of the shots the real close-ups are a bit revealing! Thereās a whole series on his car, and some of his XK120, too.
I managed to take a few pics of an immaculate freshly painted Pearl Grey car at the E-Type at 60 celebration just to show you all the colour. Its important to say that it looks quite different on screen to how it does in the flesh. It was a very pale grey colour close up and trust me it did look amazing. A trick of the light on the day was that when I first glanced at the E-Type, I thought it was a cream car!
I have now come to a final decision on colour though and that is to stick with Old English White. Iām doing this for three reasons really. Firstly, I do like the colour and think it suits the car really well. Secondly, the car is already freshly painted Old English White internally, in the boot and in the engine bay. Finally, I think Pearly Grey would be a tough colour to get right and if I spent all the money and got a shade or hue I didnāt like then I would be devastated.
Muncie just sent me their spray out of Creme. Love at first sight, it reminds me of my Popās TR4A (heās the original owner). I picked it for my OTS.
How about Birch Grey, or the darker Battleship Grey??
This 14 was painted before I acquired it, and I am not sjre that it is the correct shade, but I love it
