Harry's Garage - YouTube

[Truckosaurus]

When modern cars only seem to come in shades of grey or silver then those '70s colours do have a certain appeal.

[P5BNij]

M4SER said:

Doofus said:

It's a good job you're not obsessing about originality, Harry, because if you were, your choices would be very limited.

Thanks for this, they were awful colours, weren't they? A friend interviewed Jaguar's sales director for the USA in the seventies several years ago and he told him these colours were forced on Jaguar by BL management and Jaguar directors hated them.
The sales director's comment on Jaguar colours in the seventies was as follows;

The 70s car colours available at the time were 'any colour you want as long as it's horrible'

So true and that's why I'm not interested with keeping it original.

Pardon me m'lud and all that, but I actually like some of those period colours, particularly greensand and fern grey which often look better in the flesh than they do in photos. I think the only one of those which doesn't look right on an XJ saloon or coupe is pale primrose, it usually looks ok on E-Types though.

I should add that I have form when it comes to choosing non factory colours, when I had my '68 Cooper S restored six years ago I was bored with the standard island blue / snowberry white roof look and went for a dark metallic purple, some of the purists gave it a wide birth and turned their noses up at it when I took it to the Stanford Hall show that year! If I ever get round to sorting the damned clutch slave cylinder out you're welcome to give a try Harry - have you ever owned a classic Mini...?

[weeboot]

As I’ve just commented on Instagram, it feels like Blu Alfa, as per Flemke’s F1, would sit nicely..

[bolidemichael]

M4SER said:

Doofus said:

It's a good job you're not obsessing about originality, Harry, because if you were, your choices would be very limited.

Thanks for this, they were awful colours, weren't they? A friend interviewed Jaguar's sales director for the USA in the seventies several years ago and he told him these colours were forced on Jaguar by BL management and Jaguar directors hated them.
The sales director's comment on Jaguar colours in the seventies was as follows;

The 70s car colours available at the time were 'any colour you want as long as it's horrible'

So true and that's why I'm not interested with keeping it original.

[Zad]

For all that the early 1970s was an era of psychedelia and bright colours (mostly orange, yellow and purple, albeit with a large amount of less than psychedelic brown) British Leyland did have a remarkable range of mud-derived colours. Many of which did seem to arrive pre-UV-faded. Echoing the enthusiasm of the workforce of the day.

[wolfracesonic]

I thought all XJCs had vinyl roofs, as BL couldn’t make a good enough job of strengthening it to stop it flexing and the paint cracking; mythbusted I guess.

[Doofus]

wolfracesonic said:

I thought all XJCs had vinyl roofs, as BL couldn’t make a good enough job of strengthening it to stop it flexing and the paint cracking; mythbusted I guess.

They did, but the vinyl can be removed. They even mentioned that in the video.

[craigjm]

wolfracesonic said:

I thought all XJCs had vinyl roofs, as BL couldn’t make a good enough job of strengthening it to stop it flexing and the paint cracking; mythbusted I guess.

They did but that’s not the reason it was all about fashion. Andrew Whytes personal car back in the day had no vinyl from the factory

[craigjm]

M4SER said:

Doofus said:

It's a good job you're not obsessing about originality, Harry, because if you were, your choices would be very limited.

Thanks for this, they were awful colours, weren't they? A friend interviewed Jaguar's sales director for the USA in the seventies several years ago and he told him these colours were forced on Jaguar by BL management and Jaguar directors hated them.
The sales director's comment on Jaguar colours in the seventies was as follows;

The 70s car colours available at the time were 'any colour you want as long as it's horrible'

So true and that's why I'm not interested with keeping it original.

Well it got worse in the late 70s with the start of the XJ series 3. The new paint shop at Castle Bromwich wasn’t up to scratch and initially could only produced something like three colours.

[Shy Torque]

Doofus said:

M4SER said:

Thanks for this, they were awful colours, weren't they? A friend interviewed Jaguar's sales director for the USA in the seventies several years ago and he told him these colours were forced on Jaguar by BL management and Jaguar directors hated them.
The sales director's comment on Jaguar colours in the seventies was as follows;

The 70s car colours available at the time were 'any colour you want as long as it's horrible'

So true and that's why I'm not interested with keeping it original.

I wouldn't want one of those colours either, but I'd try to stay in period, I think.

Have a look at the colours offered for the concurrent Daimler Vanden Plas XJ saloon of the period.
Some funky bright metallics (coral pink anyone?) and darker shades like aubergine and morello.

[craigjm]

Muzzer79 said:

The Mad Monk said:

May I apologise in advance for being dreadfully suburban, but:-

£15,000 to £20,000! For a paint job? O.K. a paint job with knobs on, but even so!

It's not £15-£20k for a paint job

It's £15-£20k for a body restoration

No it isn’t. That’s an estimation of strip to bare metal and repaint and rebuild. The unknown bit is the bit in the middle not mentioned of body repairs. My car is at the same place and it needed 10k of bodywork after it was bare. There was no visible rust on my car and certainly not the obvious crud around the rear panels and doors that Harry’s has.

I didn’t like the period colours either so I painted mine Mercedes Obsidian Black

[Mezzanine]

craigjm said:

No it isn’t. That’s an estimation of strip to bare metal and repaint and rebuild. The unknown bit is the bit in the middle not mentioned of body repairs. My car is at the same place and it needed 10k of bodywork after it was bare. There was no visible rust on my car and certainly not the obvious crud around the rear panels and doors that Harry’s has.

I didn’t like the period colours either so I painted mine Mercedes Obsidian Black

You cannot come here unarmed without pictures of your beast Craig!

[craigjm]

Mezzanine said:

craigjm said:

No it isn’t. That’s an estimation of strip to bare metal and repaint and rebuild. The unknown bit is the bit in the middle not mentioned of body repairs. My car is at the same place and it needed 10k of bodywork after it was bare. There was no visible rust on my car and certainly not the obvious crud around the rear panels and doors that Harry’s has.

I didn’t like the period colours either so I painted mine Mercedes Obsidian Black

You cannot come here unarmed without pictures of your beast Craig!

There is a whole thread on its torturous journey here

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

It’s not very original because it was a mongrel to start with.





Here it is next to Harry’s car



And starting its interior fit out with a totally different dashboard and console

[Mezzanine]

craigjm said:

There is a whole thread on its torturous journey here

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

It’s not very original because it was a mongrel to start with.

I follow that thread with great interest already, but more pictures are always better

Going to be great to see it finished - hopefully you can get Harry to join the mini XJC meet (if his is done in time )

[anonymous-user]

Every time I see the Jag I think BRG, all the way.

But then, a burnt orange, almost copper colour, with a vinyl roof and dark wheels - even wide steelies... ooooh. (My inner chav is peeking out there)

[DonkeyApple]

Mezzanine said:

craigjm said:

There is a whole thread on its torturous journey here

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

It’s not very original because it was a mongrel to start with.

I follow that thread with great interest already, but more pictures are always better

Going to be great to see it finished - hopefully you can get Harry to join the mini XJC meet (if his is done in time )

It's a lovely looking restomod. The XJ in general is crying out for more of these but I think the amount of labour required due to being quite complex bodies makes them quite expensive projects?

Mind you, I was having a grumble to a friend the other day about how hard I had found it to get a trimmer that both gave a damn and was good and that I'd resorted to re doing various parts myself when he made me feel much happier after sending some picks of a restomod Chevy XJ in London that has been trimmed by Stevie Wonder during a week longer bender with Keith Richards. I get annoyed at the best of times with all the corner creases commonly posted on PH retrims as to me it is akin to paying a tailor for a suit which he then makes using someone else's measurements and tries to insist that it'll do but this particular retrim is beyond spectacular.

[craigjm]

DonkeyApple said:

Mezzanine said:

craigjm said:

There is a whole thread on its torturous journey here

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

It’s not very original because it was a mongrel to start with.

I follow that thread with great interest already, but more pictures are always better

Going to be great to see it finished - hopefully you can get Harry to join the mini XJC meet (if his is done in time )

It's a lovely looking restomod. The XJ in general is crying out for more of these but I think the amount of labour required due to being quite complex bodies makes them quite expensive projects?

Mind you, I was having a grumble to a friend the other day about how hard I had found it to get a trimmer that both gave a damn and was good and that I'd resorted to re doing various parts myself when he made me feel much happier after sending some picks of a restomod Chevy XJ in London that has been trimmed by Stevie Wonder during a week longer bender with Keith Richards. I get annoyed at the best of times with all the corner creases commonly posted on PH retrims as to me it is akin to paying a tailor for a suit which he then makes using someone else's measurements and tries to insist that it'll do but this particular retrim is beyond spectacular.

Dave Upton at CA Upton and sons I’m St Leonard’s is the place to go. He has done a number of XJ for Keith at XJ restorations and it’s where mine is going. Great chap and very knowledgable about the XJ. If you speak to him tell him that I recommended you.

[Mezzanine]

OpulentBob said:

Every time I see the Jag I think BRG, all the way.

But then, a burnt orange, almost copper colour, with a vinyl roof and dark wheels - even wide steelies... ooooh. (My inner chav is peeking out there)

I’d go for Porsche Arena Red with gun metal coloured wheels.

[the_fatadder]

Really enjoyed the Jag restoration kickoff video (and the Lancia too for that matter), very much looking forward to more (and to see what colour it comes out in).

Speaking of non standard colours for classic Jags, I really liked the dark purple metallic that SVO used on Nicko McBrains XJ6 restomod
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-c... Would look even better on a coupe!

[Uncle Meat]

OpulentBob said:

Every time I see the Jag I think BRG, all the way.

But then, a burnt orange, almost copper colour, with a vinyl roof and dark wheels - even wide steelies... ooooh. (My inner chav is peeking out there)

I'm with you