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Re: MGTD Paint

To: elan@efortress.com
Subject: Re: MGTD Paint
From: David Littlefield <dmeadow@juno.com>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 15:52:58 -0500

On Wed, 31 May 2000 13:32:36 -0600 Steve Darby <elan@efortress.com>
writes:
> I am trying to find the origional paint colors for a 1953 MGTD. Does 
> the
> ID plate have the interior/exterior codes on it?
> Steve
> 

Good news and bad news, Steve.  The bad news is that, short of finding
some of the original paint on the car, you will never know what color it
was coming out of the factory.  The ID plate won't tell you and there
isn't a Heritage Certificate available for the TD.  The good news is that
you can paint it any one of the original colors and no one can tell you
that it is the "wrong" color.

See http://www.el-dorado.ca.us/~ccouper/mgtd/mgtd.htm or Anders
Clauseger's "The Original MG T Series" for a selection of original
colors.

As an aside, it is interesting how many cars I see that are painted to
modern tastes.  I see a _lot_ of TD's and MGA's that are painted dark
Jaguar green, whereas that color wasn't available when the cars were new
(although there were some medium greens).  Recently the Texas MG Register
had its Spring GOF and there were eleven MGA's-- eight red and two dark
green.  Originally, many of the MGA colors were 50's pastel.  Mine was
Iris Blue originally and is now red, too.

There were a couple of dark green TD's there, which really looks good
with the tan interior.  Most were red.  There was only one non-green,
non-red "white" (or Ivory) one.  A very well restored car, the owner made
the unusual move of matching the paint to the Moss supplied body piping. 
Unfortunately, I don't think the Moss piping was/is a very close match to
the original Ivory and the car came out a rather odd looking off-white.

If you want to do something unusual, paint it Silver Streak Grey, which
would be correct for your year and would stand out in a crowd!  I'm
thinking of doing my '51 in Clipper Blue in protest of all the dark
Jaguar green cars I see.

David Littlefield
Houston, TX
'62 MGA MkII
'51 MGTD
'88 Jaguar XJ-S

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