Day of Color, 1
So what color should the car be? It was originally thought that it could be restored to a traditional Lancia blue with grey wool and blue vinyl.
Francesco Gandolfi (Aurelia Registry) told me that the car was originally beige, with a hazelnut (noccioli?) cloth interior. Having seen a couple of blue 6C Alfas at Pebble Beach, the idea of returning to the original, more subtle color was appealing. Walt confirmed that there was a light beige paint color on the car, one small little chip he saw over his 30 years of ownership.
Some bits remained of the original cloth fabric, a nocciolo color, dark brown. Elizabeth at Omicron was quite helpful with some fabric ideas, and confirmed that they have worked with Trinchero in Italy for fabrics. Omicron also has experience with the Italian vinyl, which in some cases is resprayed to the color needed.
More was known about the interior. But what color was the original beige paint? What was beige back then? And what would it be today.
We started by looking at a borrowed Max Meyer color wheel. But getting from vintage colors to today’s paints is a bit awkward. There are about 12 different beiges on the color wheel, and Lancia did not clearly spell out which one they used.
Some folks have original paints from their cars. Paul Mayos’s unrestored B20 was beige originally and he’s going to send a chip or two. So too, “Gina”, the old s. 1 car from California (ex-Jesse Alexander, now in Switzerland), has a nice vintage beige color on it as well – done by Omicron many years ago. Elizabeth offered to send a few paint chips from England so I can see what their beige looked like as well. There is no paint chip book from the early 1950s era to be found.
Hi, My B20-3609, made June 1955 and a late 4th Series was made with “Beige” paint colour and “Nocciola” cloth interior plus the brown “leatherette” on the backs and sides of the seats. However this “Beige” is actually “Grigio Marones”. I’ve just bought a spray can of Grigio Marones Code 8021 from Germany (www.profiautolacke.de) and it is exactly the same colour as the interior metal work of my car, which I am sure has never been repainted – and my father bought the car in 1960!
I cannot remember if I sent Geoff the paint chips from my flaking car, but I still have a box of them.
Paul Mayo
PAUL MAYO
December 1, 2014 at 11:22 pm
In addition a detail: I carefully rubbed down a patch on part of the interior metal trim to show the layers of paint:
On the alloy trim:
A grey primer
then a cream colour
then a red oxide like paint, quite thick
then a flash of silver
then the top coat Grigio Marones.
I can send a photo if you tell me how.
Paul Mayo
PAUL MAYO
December 1, 2014 at 11:26 pm