Colour

[mickydoo]

Chaps,

Just want confirmation of the colour of my car. From what I can tell from comparison photos it is most likely Imperial Blue. However there is a slight hint of purple when looking at the paint from a high angle. Looks almost pearlescent. Is this correct?

Also how do I go about sorting touch-up paint?




Mike

[tejr]

Surely that hint of purple is just reflection of the red brick and garage door against blue paint? Does it have the purple flip when parked anywhere else?!

[Allandwf]

Yes, I would say Imperial Blue, mine was and also had a hint of purple, however I believe there are about three different Imperial blues. Looks good .

[robsco]

Have you looked at the TVR colour Wiki? Have a look at the body code on your chassis plate and compare it with the Wiki, should give you your answer.

[spongy]

Thats for sure orange......its just faded over time,some say the orange ones are the fastest

[Rufus Roughcut]

Looks to be the same colour as mine

Depending on how clean she is the colour changes from blue to purplish blue, in my hand book it says Imperial Blue Pearl.

The previous owner had some paint mixed up specially using the paint code found on the plaque , IMHO it was way too dark. In the end the closest colour match I found was the 03 RS Focus, only really useful for touching up stone chips as the kit I bought didn't come with pearl lacquer.


Excuse the experimental tilt shift pic, it's the only one I have on this PC, hopefully it'll give you some idea.




HTH

Edited by Rufus Roughcut on Wednesday 22 February 11:36

[DAVEY DEE]

The photo makes it look like a model.I want one! Somebody ring Airfix! I'm gonna have to go check my paint code now coz mines very similar & heard some people refer to it as GTS Blue?

[cerbera8]

Looks like GTS Blue aka Chrysler Viper GTS pearl which i spekkd my 4.2 in 1998. The paint from memory is not however very pearly, more metal flakey.

Imperial blue also actually looks purple in some lights as i recall, especially out of the sun, was used for Focus RS and the Mondeo with twin exhausts as well as many other fiestas etc.

[Rufus Roughcut]

Here's a side by side.

Imperial Blue Pearl closest, GTS Blue next....there's only one thing for it, the OP has to come along to Chatsworth to compare





Not long now

[R 6UY S]

Right it's ok i'm here now to clear this up. Lol! After owning Imperial blue cars for many years i bought my Cerb in Imperial Blue. :-) However upon parking it next to my Racing Puma with it's original Imperial Blue paint the Puma looked blue and the Cerb purple in comparason?? Not a problem, in fact i actually really preferd the more purple Cerb colour! However when i came to get it painted this became a big problem! I tried everywhere to get a match. Most places had 3 colour chips for Imperial Blue and they were all way too blue. The odd place had 4 but the 4th was still blue and way too dark! I was having a full paint with not one bit of original paint left on the car so it didn't really matter about the match but i felt that with the amount i was spending on the full paint if it wasn't the purple shade i loved then i'd feel a bit let down. I ended up at a local bodyshop that had done some paintwork on my Mk3 Golf GTI some weeks earlyer as they did there own paint mixing on site. I went in and in desperation asked if they had ANY colour that matched the wing mirror i had off the TVR or was the closest match. Now upon asking what car it was off he told me that TVR has it's own paint codes for the colours it (borrowed) from other paint manufactures. These are essentially the same mix just with there added twist. He checked the mix for TVR Imperial Blue and sure enough it had a dash more red in it than the other 3 Ford shades he had listed! He even mixed me some up to test against the mirror and it dried a spot on match! He said there was an Alfa colour Crystal Topas maybe? That was an identical mix but with a dash of gold thrown in that used to really confuse bodyshops that couldn't match the colour. This is why peope tell you that you can't match TVR paint and that they used to mix up and add to the mix randomly to make it there own. True to an extent but the proper mixes are available. I do have the code he gave me but it is at home and i am working till 2am so i will have to post it later. And me, what did i do with my new found information and paint code? I went ahead and completely blew my budget and had it painted in an amazing flip colour/s i had been given a jelly mould in as a sample and had been looking at for a week. C'est La Vie!

[amazon]

Imperial Blue

[spongy]

orange

[mickydoo]

Yes, spongy, when I looked at her more closely sat on my drive at the weekend, she does look to be a subtle shade of faded orange.....just like the colour that the exhaust flashes as she pops and bangs her way through town at dusk.....



In fact having actually opened it now (oops), the manual does say Imperial Blue, and there is definitely a hint of purple in reduced lighting.

Thanks for the details on the mix (R 6UY S)....very useful. If you get a chance to let me have the proper mix details when you get home that would be fabulous....

[spongy]

Told you

[R 6UY S]

Hi, i am very sorry, i have been so busy i completely forgot i'd not followed up with the paint code.

So here goes, TVR IMPERIAL BLUE.......YAV 7B.....

I hope this saves you and many others the aggro i had trying to find the correct shade. Although i do wonder haw many cars that were TVR IMPERIAL BLUE got resprayed at some point in the wrong shade of FORD IMPERIAL BLUE as i almost did?

Best Regars, Guy.