colour

[Ray]

ok, purple shell goes into paint at the end of September, but I'm in a dilemma of what the colour really looked like in 1973, ive found the following photos on the net, they give a varying degree of depth and shine, can any of you oldies advise what would have been the closest to production

whilst I like the deep shine on the crapri, I'm not sure it would suit an escort

[colr6]

Would say pic three, varying light changes the look of the colour. Pic 4 is far to light. The finish on that Capri is unreal, the photo has been taken to high lite the flatness of that paint job. Obviously depends on how many coats and quality of lacquer you put on it will alter the depth look

[Ray]

thanks colin, tbh I love that look on the crapri, but as you say, just too much for a 1300E

[colr6]

Is there no place on the car with full covering of colour on the car that's hidden from sunlight where you can get a colour test done ?

[In The Pit]

I may well be facing the same dilemma in the future as I have a MKII Escort GL in Purple Velvet still in it's factory paint and I have thought the same in that resprayed Fords in Purple Velvet look too deep, too dark and too bright.  The reason I think for this is that owners/sprayers aren't aware that most of the metallics were single coat not two coat that is the case with my MKII as only the Ghia models came in two coat metallics.   Yours being an E could be either I would say it was single coat as I think Ford were just starting with two coat metallics when they launched the MKII Escort in 1975. However I have heard that the first batch of 1300E's were sprayed at South Ockendon as Halewood couldn't get the process right so they could be two coat.   I shall be getting my MKII done in a single coat metallic as the car is and will be staying totally standard.   I shall try and look into whether the 1300E was single or two coat for you but I know more on the MKII than the MKI

Another reason for the difference in resprays could be the use of the wrong colour primer, it should be grey with Purple Velvet.

The inside of your cars bootlid is the best place to see what the original colour would have looked like as it's hidden from the sun and not usually damaged.

[Rally Pack 2000]

I encountered this when I was trying to find an original white for my Mk2. There was so many factors that seem to impact on the colour I actually got in the tin. Thing I found was that the white colour itself had evolved over time by Ford themselves (which I think may be the case wit your purple). So what was at first a very creamy almost beige white had changed into a brighter white by the time later Mk2 Escorts used it. But it all had the same paint code. So nearly half a century later when you ask for Sno White (no W) paint code 9, which version do they have on file? Generally the creamy one that they used on Falcons of course not the later Escort version. So I had to get them to formulate one based on the original but only with two thirds tint. Also it seemed a case of Chinese whispers was impacting what formula they would offer, changing through time as someone tweaked it one way or another for cost savings or tint availability, then labelled it the original and in turn passed that formula on to be altered all over again by the next company to take over the business

Add to that you have brand variability, and as you have also seen, modern paints are far deeper and lustrous than those decades back. Every car I have seen redone has a maginificant rich glossy paint too and it didn't even have to be flat to get there. Even the orange peel finishes had a deeper shine than original. But it always made the cars look "restored" or like street machines without the modifications, it just doesn't look factory to me. I ended up going back to traditional acrylic paints so I could manage the end gloss depth that is closer to the original finish. It isn't as hard a finish though but when weighing everything up I found a DuPont acrylic that was capable of giving me the finish I was looking for. Paint matching on an unexposed area as others have suggested is more desirable than quoting a paint code but I found that the individual calibrations of the spectrometer that each paint shop used also varied the end result, so too the brand of paint that they stocked.

From what I have seen you probably will have a harder time than I ever did. Period Metallic Purple finishes are the hardest to get right. So much so I would suggest you pick the one you like best from the modern finishes as replicating the original will be near on impossible. Get close to the shade and you will find the deep gloss over the original can be attributed to you keeping it well groomed and cared for rather than a paint miss match. Like Col I like the third photo with the Mk1 Escort. The 4th looks like its faded even if that's probably how it was meant to be.

Stick with it though, when done right the purple finish can be very rewarding and stand out unique.

[colr6]

Don't think you will get an exact colour match out the tin even with modern technology, don't care how good it is. You must have a good painter along with his own mixing equipment to add or reduce tints as required to achieve the right shade. With plenty of test cards you should get as near oe as poss. I had a bike done with the meter quite a few years ago then it was down to the painter to alter the so called paint match to correct shade. Umpteen test cards later he achieved the correct result. Loosely based around a Volvo colour plus his magic as we might call it....did it So much so that I had offers purely on the tinware off the bike because it was as near perfect as people had seen. 17 years later I still have the bike and when it comes out you can gaurantee the comments are still there about the colour

its only when you get it alongside other people's efforts  or shall we say attempts yo see the difference. So to me it's 50% product and 50% painter to achieve the right result.

[Vista]

A nugget of purest green Col! Nice!

[Ray]

managed to stop the underside of the bonnet being blasted for colour comparison, as keeping the originality in the shell has had to go out of the window due to rust levels, not rot, but surface rust under good paint seam sealer, so the whole shell is now being blasted, the sprayer mixes his own, I wanted him to use acrylic, as per how ford did it, but he dosnt want to if he can get away with it, as its easier to use modern, but says he can match the pattern in every way

[stephens_xpack]

If I had a choice of painting it with today's paints or like ford did back in the day, i would not be choosing how Ford did it back in the day. Brand spanking new Fords from the 70's and 80's got a film of rust on them whilst waiting for transport out of the factory to forecourts if they were outside.

And that deep shine purple on the Capri so would look just as good on the Escort and Cortina - you cannot beat a really deep shine on any car IMO, and the colour is lovely.

[stephens_xpack]