Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Paint Code

Fairly astounded that MMC can't just provide the paint code ... what if they got the car back in for a bodywork repair or someone ordered a matching panel? ... or a customer says "I want my car the same colour as this one" .... can understand it for a car produced back in thw '50s but not for newer stuff.

K

They do provide a paint code stamped on the car plate but it doesn’t seem to mean anything to anyone, they have re painted one of our doors under warranty so they know what colour it is but when I asked them last year they just said it is stamped on the plate but the dealers give them a completely different paint code when the car is ordered.

Same issue ref Morgan paint code here on our Plus Six.. The cars colour is listed as Porche Liquid Metal Chrome Blue Metallic, I ordered a touch up from the factory via the dealer using the Morgan paint code on the manufacturing plate, the supplied touchup colour is nothing like the colour on the car, way too Blue. Talked to a friend who owns a small automotive spray shop and they had no luck on the Morgan Paint code, they referenced the code back to their paint supplier and so far we have heard nothing back. I will have to chase this.
The paint has been matched at the factory as they fitted a replacement bonnet in warranty and the paint colour match is bang on... If I dont get any luck with the colour in the coming months I will track down a bigger automotive repair shop that has a paint Spectrophotometer, that should come up with something.. I am also trying to find a paint colour code match for the speedster wheels, no paint code available for these..

They perhaps check the original build record if a car comes in for warranty work, or their paint shop mixing room most likely has a scanner anyway as part of the paint supplier franchise (used to be PPG)

Perhaps I can help a bit. (hopefully) My first Morgan's (a 1984) original colors years before it was destroyed. As importing Morgans to my country was and still is, impossible at that time, the sweet Morgan
company at that time, was prevailed open to recreate the car as a "repair" for which there is no limit under any national law. As I had the two color code numbers we had chosen for the earlier re-spray, that
was not a problem. Those colors have been copied by the Factory and other moggers many times since. Many gracious souls even ask out permission..which is the definition of genteel. Over time and other
morgans I have picked up some information of the intricate art of choosing car paint and the kaleidoscope of effects of different techniques and paint types. Fascinating!

The "names" of car paint are whimsical and woefully inaccurate as in "Maserati Marshmellow Primrose Yellow" Car paint name are costless and they are chosen to please buyers. They
mean nothing They vary from car/paint manufacturer to others. True color codes are only accurate when the indicate paint manufacturer and their number. They may or not match the qualities and hue of
another paint manufacturer and their number. If they do, it is a wonderful coincidence. There are scores of wildly different "BRG", as green is the national racing color of then England.

As well, colors may look identical in one lighting and not in another. For example, I gave the Works my colors from a vast book of Glasurit samples and they sent me back an ICI paint car. (car samples are
best done on sections of metal). I use both metallic and pearl effects and they do not travel well from paint supplier to paint supplier.

Scanning is more accurate but not perfect either. These brilliant scanners are scanning a car after it has been exposed to the elements for (sun especially) for a varying period. Each paint type and
each paint manufacture's paint has a differing vulnerability to such things. As colors subtly begin to change in hue and effect the moment it is first exposed to the world, scanning is best for touch-ups. Scanners
do not replicate the past. The scan what they are given to scan and try to match that to the data bank installed in their memories, often one paint manufacturers.
Only the original paint manufacturer and their code can do that. They are the best for touch-up paint codes on specific spots.

Additionally the MMC has changed paint suppliers over the years in hope of correcting defects, especially during the first 10 years of Superform wings. I dodged that by respraying my newer cars in the sturdier
paints of yesteryear. Modern regulations do not favor car paint durability, though I am very intrigued by this newer wave of ceramic coatings

If I have any of this wrong or there is something to add, there are professional car painters on this forum that can correct me.

gmg

Ferrari Azzuro body with Ferrari Ribot wings

The bright red colour of the 70`s and 80`s 911 known in the UK as Guards Red, was perhaps derived by UK marketing men at Porsche Cars GB, whereas the paint colour identifier was Indishrot, printed on a label fixed to the underside of the bonnet at the factory Porsche.

Update,

Been talking to Mark at MMC and the paint code stamped on the car plate is an internal paint code that only means something to the factory and the colour is not a Bentley colour but a Lotus colour and the code that Williams give the factory is an ICI colour code which still does not come up on any searches and the only Lotus code there is for Velvet Red is C163 so just ordered some of that.

Nothing is easy with a Morgan.

The paint suppliers I use will mix the paint to the formula produced by the scanner and their system does not search the database for the nearest colour unless of course it is an exact match.

There is a connection. In Germany it is called Indian red because the uniforms of the British Guards in India were this color. That's how I learned it.

Heinz thanks for the heads up on "Indian Red" as it is known in Germany.... I expect you know that term Red Coats was applied to foot soldiers of the British army in the 18th & 19th century and not just to the Guards Regiment, of which there were a few in the British army.