Morris Minor Owners Club

The plan was: buy a pot of touch-up paint of each colour and airbrush them onto a couple of test panels so I can compare the two "in the flesh" before I decide which colour to respray my Traveller in.

The plan worked fairly well for the Trafalgar Blue sample - I added a three quid pot onto an order I was placing anyway with one of the Moggy suppliers, and it thinned down and sprayed without difficulty, apart from some blooming caused by cold damp conditions and my attempts to speed the drying process by blowing compressed air at it.

Royale Blue was a different story. I could only find one place that sells touch-up pots of it off the shelf, and with the postage and everything it worked out a bit expensive. Not only that, but the paint turned out to be nearly as thick as margarine, and it wouldn't mix with cellulose thinners so I couldn't spray it. I don't know what type of paint it is because it didn't say on the advert and it doesn't say on the pot itself, but I'm pretty sure it isn't cellulose. I tried to brush it on, but it was too thick for a brush even, and I wound up using a scraper to spread it onto the test-piece like buttering a slice of bread. Needless to say the result is very bumpy.

Getting accurate photographs of the two samples proved almost impossible, plus the Royale hasn't fully dried yet and I need to polish the bloom off the Trafalgar, but here's the most accurate photo I managed to get tonight:

Royale on the left, Trafalgar on the right.

My first impression is that Trafalgar Blue is darker than I expected (it's darker than it seems in the photo) and Royale Blue is lighter than I expected (the photo looks about right on my monitor), but it seems to me that the Royale is a slightly "deeper" blue than Trafalgar if you see what I mean. Not darker in shade, but stronger in hue.

I'm going to flat and polish the samples tomorrow, and I'll try to take a better photo of the two afterwards and post it.

Alex, Not wishing to seem rude but as ideas go this all seems a bit dotty

I'm not clear how two little test panels - one painted and one plastered is going to help you decide anything?

Personally I'd go for Pink - it's a lovely colour


[yes I did originally say Traffy blue - but wanted to upset andrew]

Seconded!

thirded!!!!! - traffy blue is king (as everyone knows!).

And here is another vote for Trafalgar Blue from Holland !

rayofleamington wrote:Personally I'd go for Pink - it's a lovely colour


[yes I did originally say Traffy blue - but wanted to upset andrew]

Failed - pink would be MY 2nd choice

Don't talk to me about pink!!! I'm about to paint a saxo 'baby pink' for my step-daughters 17th birthday present! But shhhhhh don't tell her ;)

And now, two minutes silence in memory of Dizzi's Pink Minor that never was...

nebogipfel wrote:I'm not clear how two little test panels - one painted and one plastered is going to help you decide anything?

Umm well the idea was to spray them both - which proved impossible because one of them is thicker than treacle and won't mix with ordinary thinners. The problem I had in trying to decide between them was that I've only seen photos of both colours, and some of the photos of cars described as Trafalgar Blue appeared to be a much darker shade than others. So it hasn't gone entirely to plan but at least I can see the two colours in real life side by side now.

My Landy was a sort of pinky-orangy-red. I wanted fire-engine red, but the books of colour charts in the paint factors don't look exactly like the actual paint!

Tricky, innit. There were 2 shades of Trafalgar blue, if that's any help - I can't remember which was darker though...

Trouble is, colour is such a personal thing. Clearly there are lots of Trafalgar fans out there.

The best solution is to see both of the colours (in good shiny condition) side by side and on the model of car you intend to spray.

If you're any good with the likes of Photoshop you could do reasonable representations of the two colours and apply them to photos of your car but you can't beat seeing them in the flesh to really make a judgement.

Not all colours suit all cars as I've discovered in the past with adventureous paint schemes

Colour cards might help you decide which colour you prefer by side by side comparison but not how they will look on the car you intend to paint - which is the important thing

And now, two minutes silence in memory of Dizzi's Pink Minor that never was...

yeah, fancy scrapping it and getting a eurobox... tsssk

nebogipfel wrote:The best solution is to see both of the colours (in good shiny condition) side by side and on the model of car you intend to spray.

The trouble is I might be able to track down a Trafalgar Traveller locally, but finding a Royale to compare it to is very unlikely (I haven't even found any photos of Royale Blue moggies on the net). I'm not convinced they were ever made in that colour even though I've seen it listed as a Traveller colour in a couple of different colour tables. Other references I've found say it was only used on MGBs, Midgets, and a particular model of Mini Cooper.

nebogipfel wrote:If you're any good with the likes of Photoshop you could do reasonable representations of the two colours and apply them to photos of your car but you can't beat seeing them in the flesh to really make a judgement.

I will probably try that once I've polished up the samples to copy the colour from.

nebogipfel wrote:Not all colours suit all cars as I've discovered in the past with adventureous paint schemes

Tell me about it

I visit the Aston Martin factory now and then I once saw a pink AM and I mean pink - pink leather interior and all. probably pink tinted windows. It was on order for Jordan (whoever she is). The workers wern't very happy they said the only colour to have was dark green. All a matter of taste - or lack of it.

Saw Jordan on Top Gear and they spoke about the pink AM...look her up on the internet and you will understand everything...

After polishing the Trafalgar sample, the two look very similar indeed apart from the bumpy surface of the Royale sample. They're both pretty much the same shade but the hue is a bit different (I've probably got the terminology all wrong here). I was unable to take a picture of them either with a camera or a scanner that looked anywhere near accurate, so I created this simulated comparison by tweaking the colour sliders until the colours on screen matched the real samples as closely as possible. This is what they look like under the flourescent lights at my desk - out in the sunshine they both look lighter in shade but the difference in hue remains the same. Needless to say this will probably look slightly different on your screen to how it does on mine:



I have to say I still prefer the Royale...

nebogipfel wrote:If you're any good with the likes of Photoshop you could do reasonable representations of the two colours and apply them to photos of your car

You don't really want to see how rubbish my photomanipulation skills are do you?

OK, here's Fenchurch as she is now:


Here's roughly what I think she'd look like if she were Trafalgar Blue:


And here she is in Royale Blue:


Edit: I've just brightened the manipulated ones a little to compensate for the fact that the photo was taken outdoors in bright sun.

yes - definately trafalgar blue then ;-)

OK, Trafalgar it is then. Everyone I've shown the pictures to said they thought Royale doesn't look right for the car, and I'm inclined to agree. One even said it made the car look like a hearse!

I do still love Royale Blue but I think maybe it's a bit too "rich" for a Moggy - I reckon it would look good on an old sports car or a Rolls or something.