As I know Rob Garofalo quite well, the story he tells about the seat material is
that he acquired a large bolt of the material from a BMC dealer many years ago.
It is supposed to be original vinyl for the Sprite. He was not going to paint
the car Leaf Green at first. He was going to dye the seat vinyl another color to
match another exterior color he had in mind, but when he found the green ribbed
rubber floor mats (a guy just happened to mention them off-hand when Rob was
inquiring about the 40 year old Dunlop tires he had for sale) the die was cast.
Too much original green to ignore. That's Rob's story and I guess he is
sticking
to it. If you looked close you could see the imperfections in Rob's car, like
the aluminum cast water pump instead of the cast iron type, or the hand painted
chassis I.D. plate (a little sloppy), etc. Still a very impressive effort for a
first restoration I'd say.
Mike MacLean
60 Sprite
2000 F-150
2002 Harley Davidson FLSTS
1986 Mazda 323
"Wm. Severin Thompson" wrote:
> I've seen a lot of "representations" over the years of Leaf Green. Since I
> own an umolested original paint car, I thought I'd chime in again. The
> photos and story of "the Bishop" are at http://www.thicko.com/bishop.htm
>
> I recall at Breckenridge '92, Rob Garafalo's gold concours winning bugeye
> was parked near mine, and they went back and forth from my car to his
> checking on some details. (Garafolo's car had some really goofy color on the
> seats... almost a turquoise tint, but the judges didn't seem to care. The
> rest of the car was quite impressive.) Despite its 40+ years, the paint on
> the Bishop shines up pretty well. Geoff Healey once commented to me that the
> fit and finish of the early Sprites was far superior to what they got on the
> big Healeys.
>
> Garafalo's car, and others I've seen, suffered from too much gloss... 2 part
> epoxy paints, etc. While I think certain original colors benefit from modern
> paints, Leaf Green isn't one of them, in my opinion. Also, the color match
> some go with seems too bright... the original color is truly a bit drab (and
> kind of grows on you).
>
> The pics in the story are kind of dark, but I can roll the car out into the
> sun and take some pics if anyone needs some.
>
> WST
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Amy Turner" <justamy@bellsouth.net>
> To: "Spridgets" <spridgets@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 11:20 PM
> Subject: Re: Amy?
>
> > > Hey, is Amy of the leaf green Bugeye still lurking out there? Anyone
> have
> > > her e-mail? A friend of mine is looking for a pictute of a leaf green
> BE
> > and
> > > I seem to remember she has some posted.
> > >
> > > AMY! Where are you?????????????
> > >
> > > Robert Houston
> >
> > Do you mean me? I'm still here! I get the list in digest form, so it
> takes
> > me a while to reply.
> >
> > I have a leaf green bugeye in the (extremely slow) process of restoration.
> > This was one of the barn bugeyes that was given to me. The body work is
> > done, the engine and transmission are rebuilt and installed, and I NEED to
> > get moving and get this car put together! I have almost all the parts,
> but
> > not the time and energy to put them together.
> >
> > I don't have many good photos of the leaf green Sprite, but I'll be happy
> to
> > help however I can. Laura Peaple's Sprite is on the web in a few places,
> > and hers is a gorgeous example. An article about her car in a British
> > publication was what convinced me I wanted a leaf green Sprite. Here's a
> > good shot of it, although I don't think it's a very accurate
> representation
> > of the color.
> >
> http://www.mgcars.org.uk/midgetspriteclub/surrey/images2/laurafrogeyeBook.jp
> > g
> >
> > This one looks to me like a better shot of the color:
> >
> http://www.mgcars.org.uk/midgetspriteclub/surrey/images2/Glaurafrogbrookland
> > s1.jpg
> >
> > I have the ICI code somewhere for the leaf green paint. If you'd like me
> to
> > look it up for you, I'll do my best. It's been a while since I had the
> car
> > painted!
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/spridgets
|