Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Classic Morgan Colours...

On a recent visit to the factory, it dawned on me that I am drawn to the Classic range in non-metallic colours. Furthermore, many of the cars going through the factory were non-metallic and quite often the more muted, vintage, tones (ivory, beige (Sand), grey, dark blue and black). Lastly, I notice in the latest Classic brochure the standard colours are all non-metallic.

Now this got me thinking... stay with me!

Whilst I love the Aero in metallic colours, my preference for the classic range is non-metallic. I appreciate that the body of the Aero is larger but they are similar in shape. Furthermore, generally metallic paint is better at showing off changes in angle and dimensions, which the Classic range has plenty of. With that said, I still prefer the Classic in non-metallic paint.

I've tried to rationalise it and the only justification I can come to is that the non-metallic paint (especially the vintage colours), in my opinion, suits the feel of the classic shape better. In other words, despite the Classic being a new car, it plays into the hands of the nostalgia of classic cars.

I'd love to hear other opinions and preferences!

Well Simon I tend to agree: there are some lovely combinations available and I remember Maroon and biscuit leather looking good. My three have been Yellow with olive interior (later painted black), dark green/black and currently cream/black. I have to confess to favouring body colours that I can match with a ouch can of that famous all purpose Hammerite!

dear Simon!

Having gone through a stunningly beautiful (erm, at least imho..) Sports Grey Plus 4, followed by a not-so-much-loved (used) metallic mineralblue(ish grey) Roadster SIII i now took my current dream car (new Roadster) in Sports Sand.

Color choice had ONLY been in between Sports Sand, Sports Grey or the beautuiful Rich Maroon this time.

All of that because of the most vintage looks - which i do prefer.... combined with a senitively chosen interior and wheels it provides exactly "THAT" look.. at least for me only, of course..

If only it was that easy...I chose metallic paint, dark blue as I remember flat dark blue paints used to get a petrolling effect over time. I wanted to avoid this therefore, in my mind, metallic was the answer.

Strangle the colour I really do like is old english white. However experience of cleaning a 240 Jaguar, my mates dad's car, was the problems with cleaning the insect marks off of the front end.
Guess what I get the same issue on the metallic blue morgan. You cannot win.

And what a perfect example it is...




To my mind (and eyes) that is a superb example of what I mean by how excellent the Classic looks in a non-metallic colour...

I agree with you Simon. Whilst metallic paints can look stunning, I far prefer the muted look of a traditional flat colour. Morgan have got it spot on with their range of Sport colours, particularly the grey,black, sand and ivory. Traditional Morgans have more curves than Jennifer Lopez - metallic paints distract from those curves rather than enhance them.

In speccing my Plus 4 I have been through every colour in the spectrum, metallic and non-metallic, and I always come back to a vintage flat black or dark blue (such as the lovely Jaguar Westminster Blue). Most pastel colours also suit Morgans down to a tee.

The flat paints are consistant to the look of the classic car, especially over time. Walthough some of the extra details do matter so much to me. The beautiful sand and chocolate combination with black wheels, such a simple, clean, uncluttered look, fantastic.

I agree with you Simon, and especailly on a 4/4.
I like the narrower taller look and I also like painted wire wheels.
ButI have also seen some stunning metallic combinations; eg Dark Silver with dark Red interior

Bud

4/4 - Regal Red, Black Trim (piped red). Silver Painted Wires

I really like the new sand colour. Brown is not my favourite interior colour however. I wonder what sand with mulberry (dark red) would be like? Looks nice with Royal Ivory paintwork.

Traditional flat colours seem to be the way to go with a trad Morganin my view. Every decade has it´s own tastes. Sometimes those tastes are dominating the original set of colours which were on vogue when a car was born. E.g. Mick Jaggers yellow Plus8 was introducing the upcomimng 70ties.
Metallic paints may have a very nice look with a trad (especially simple metallic paint like silver), but in my view metallic fits better with an Aston or a Merc (or an Aero).

At the end of the day, colours which reflect the time when a car was launched are always very good choices.
If a trad Morgan would have been built only, lets say from 1955 up to 1965, we would see Trads as "oldtimers" now with a defined (and more narrow) range of original colours.

I liked the RAF blue of my P4SS at first view. And I like it for two additional reasons; first, it is non metallic, and second it´s a play with the time machine because the range of P4SS colours reflects cars and tastes when the trad Morgan was TBH not any longer so very fresh and new - in comparison with an at that time brand new E-Type or MGB or Mini from which the P4SS colours are borrowed to reflect a sporty 60ties lifestyle.

To sum up the non metallic P4SS colour range lets look a trad Morgan young and fresh as seen with eyes from 1965.

The now available sport colours are very nice because they are on the edge between very trad. and very fresh.

(This topic is too heavy for me writing an understandable English)

Could look good - try it on the car creator on the Morgan web site. Last years brochure had a sand Morgan with a black interior which looked good.

Heinz, you've done an excellent job of expressing your opinion.

I also agree that a great part of the appeal of the Plus 4 SS was the retro, period 1960s, colours. Had the car been offered in a modern spectrum, I would have found the draw to it far less strong.

Agree with you Heinz about the retro colours, and pastel blues in general. The RAF blue and Iris blue on the +4 SS are very nice colours.

I found this blue on the internet as well and I think it's nice, a sort of cross between Iris and RAF blue, and very retro with the black wires. Its at the bottom of this page if you follow this link to the Bangkok Motor Show (ignoring the girls as you scroll down )-
http://www.autoshowevents.com/2011/04/26/2011-bangkok-motor-show-photo-gallery-1/

David, I wonder if that is Sport Grey but over exposed by the flash of the camera?

I still really like my Plus4 in Aston Martin Mendip Blue -- it has a slight metallic fleck which makes the car sparkle when it is clean!!

Could be sport grey, could probably be teal as well. It´s a good example how much to trust colours in the internet. Anyway it seems to be a paint from the sports standard range as the car looks like a sport series one.
But it is a very nice shot on it´s own and it would be a nice colour when it would be a real "in the metal" one.

Sorry, couldn´t ignore the girls

Simon - looking at it again, I think you are probably right, it could be Sport Grey. But, as Heinz says, if it were a real colour then it would be a good one.

In fact I have done a little more research on that “mystery colour Morgan”. It was indeed a Sport Grey one which was demonstrated by Morgan at the 2011 Bangkok Motor Show. More girls here as well . The car (and the girls) look beautiful - Grey is a great colour :

The harem trousers...

you can choose the shade of a metallic colour without the metallic effect, simply leave out the silver in the mix, add a small amount of pearl if necessary to give a fresher new look/Glean

Interesting subject. very few of us were around to see prewar cars in colour, and most (if not all)photos were B/W. So our perception of prewar cars is based on seeing them now. MG's of the time often came with seats, wheels and radiator slats in the same colour. So black car with red seats, wheels and slats was a nice combo. Also black with apple green, and so on. I really don't know how common silver painted wires were prewar, but my perception is that colour was more popular. The MGA and early MGB's came in typical sixties colours - black, tartan red, BRG, iris blue, old english white, grampian grey. Early on, the hoods were coloured PVC, not black and steel wheels with hubcaps were standard. So you could have red body, red seats, red hood for example, or the same with black seats. The MGB roadster shown in the first USA brochure was all blue - iris blue body with blue seats and blue hood. The early US cars also had clear indicator lenses at the front with orange bulb covers. Nothing changes eh? Grampian grey seemed to come with red seats, and so on and so on. Later on in the sixties the hood became black default, and the seats became PVC at the end of the sixties.
The MGC came in a couple of metallics - riviera blue and a bronze whose name escapes me. Neither was popular and are often mistaken for a non standard clour when seen today.
So the Morgan Sports colours are well established in history.
Alamo beige was the equivalent of sports sand. Grey, white, black, green, blue are all covered. Later on, in the PVC and cloth eras, the choice of MG upholstery was black, navy, autumn leaf (brown) and ochre (yellow). So it's quite easy to replicate a credible historic combination. Grey with red seats would look good, but maybe with silver wheels.

Well, you did ask. I too love the trad models in non-metallics. Looking beyond the standard 'Sport' colours, at least two of the stunning recent +4SS colours are borrowed from the BMC palette of the early 1960s. The selection of these was apparently a result of consultation between Matt Humphries and one of the shop floor guys who happens to be an Austin/Morris mini fan - hence (Old) English White and Almond Green made an appearance.

In keeping with this aesthetic, I have chosen BMC Tweed Grey (a touch lighter than Sport Grey with a hint of blue) for a 4/4 I have going through build at the moment. Can't wait to see it in the metal...

TwoTribes that sounds a lovely colour, look forward to seeing the finished car.

Simon, I think you've definitely touched on something here. I think my favourites are Numogs stunning new Roadster, teal, iris blue and sport grey. I have always liked pastel colours and was tempted with an Aero at one stage but just didn't go there. I can see how it suits a classic better.

Dean, that's an interesting point, forgot its your field. Would love to see the difference between a metallic in the normal sense and then with the silver layer left out and then with pearl added as a 3 way comparison.

I'm fairly open minded about colours on traditional Morgans, I like the hood, wheels and body colour to compliment each other, ie sand with black wheels and hood or ivory with stainless wheels and mulberry top. Metallics would not be my first choice- the exception being medium to dark blues which look superb in metallic nicely contrasting stainless wheels and the bright work body fittings (robbie's mendip blue ) non metallic dark blues are known in the trade - with some justification as 'doom blue'
Whatever the colour though it is great to see the variety and broad spectrum at any Morgan gathering, compared with a visit to my local Official Porsche Dealer - they hosted an open evening recently and I went along with my dentist who is looking at the new Boxster - the packed car park look like an English June sky- 100 shades of grey

Mention of "doom blue" reminds be that back in the 80s, Rover brought out a 3500 SE in a bright green metallic (with gold alloys!). It soon became known in the trade as "maximum discount green"

Back to the thread, I totally agree with the comments about the wide range of colours on Morgans. Some colour combinations which sound odd on paper, look great when you see them.

Bud

__________
2003 - 4/4

I must admit that I keep looking at some of the great two-tone cars that use a combination of two non metallic colours. The ivory with bronze mudguards keeps catching my attention.

On second thoughts ivory with burgundy to match the Mulberry trim would look snappy too.

Metallics suit cars with subtle shapes, nowadays a necessity with restrictive regs and costs - lines aren't brought out well in certain shades and can make an entire car seem flat.

The trad's styling is very strong so doesn't need a metallic to show it off. If anything the paint lets the metalwork do the talking.

Two tone was very popular pre war. Oxford & Cambridge blue was popular with MG's, and there was a two tone green option, but I can't remember the names!

My mothers 'fancyman' had a Farina Cambridge in the 70's which was grey with turquoise fins and roof.

I keep coming back to Sport Black wings and Sport Red body (or a darker tone, akin to darker red but not quite. I was always tempted to try it on an Aero but never had the chance due to swapping my order from S4 to Aeromax.

Sports black wings,royal claret body?
H.M. Queen Elisabeth,the Queen mother's favorite combination!

Black/red or vice versa = very Veyron

Royal Claret is a little too dark. I am yet to see the perfect red but ideally, it would be further from burgundy and claret and more toward red.



On an Aero perhaps but on the Classic, in my minds eye, I see it non-metallic.

Or no paint at all

Freddy, they've tried that but, from my understanding, if you leave it unprepared it shows every finger print and the bare aluminium marks badly; however, if you treat it (with some kind of top coat) to protect it, the look is changed and it defeats the purpose (making it shiney). I do have a photo of a car with bare body and top coat somewhere, it isn't a great but it will give you the idea. I'll try and dig it out.

I know the problem quite well..for a car that's actually used on the road,it's not very practical.
We use lots of polished alloy parts on our custombikes,these parts do need tlc,and elbow grease.
I've been going through old motorcycle colour charts from the early 70's to find me a two-tone ,Triumph had some rather interesting combinations.

My first two cars were Morris 8 sedans (known in Australia also as the 8-40 where they were manfactured untill about 1948)
Mine were pretty much like the Wikipedia photo below. I paid £40 each for them and bought the second one when the first became a bit tired.



Hmm! On second thoughts they were never that shiney but they were the same colour.

I spend a lot of times sleeping in the backseat when my parents had visited friends and we were on our way home in the evening. They shared the car with my aunt and uncle.
Those were the days!
Ken.

When I had mine I was 17
I don't remember that I did much sleeping in the back seat

Those were the days!

It's a good thing Morgans don't have a back seat,way too old for those kind of activities now

Silver is a good "classic" colour IMO. Long before metallics became available generally, there were silver cars (Rolls, Jag, Merc, etc). I'm biased though - and I do get a lot of questions along the lines of "how old is it" which I don't think I'd get with a metallic colour other than silver.

Nigel

Looking at Morgan classics for me is evocative of memories of movies from yesteryear where things are either monochrome or certainly very solid. When remembering cars of old I don't think I ever remember seeing them metallic. This comes into play sub-consciously when a car choice or preference flags an alert. I do remember as a young teenager in the early seventies seeing my first (already established) candy apple red and Ivory american car. This then introduced my mind and expectations to the possibilities of all things metallic. (Some of you will remember the beautiful burnt oranges and golds of metallic Japanese motorcycles of the early seventies .. K6 Hondas and Burgundy Yamaha YDS7s etc) My preferences are for the base flat colours in a classic shape but I think that's a choice my tertiary values rather than tertiary colours have made for me.

I'm loving the colour combinations used with the M3W and I think, as others have said, that the shape of any car is crucial as to whether it's complimented or flattened by the paint. I'm very fond of the new 'denim' colours used by other companies and a 'stealth black' Aero would look amazing. For the classics though I think my blue (similar to Robbie) works well for the car and was my first choice. Yes there's a metallic sheen in it but quite understated.

This is a great topic and I find that the more it's explored, the more folks seem to revert back to historic colour trends. Great post Simon! Thanks for the topic.