What colour car have I bought?

[samastonlongley]

So after purchasing a damage T350C the other day, I'm now waiting on delivery. The car is a Cat D and will need some Fibreglass repairs as well as some paint. However I can't find out what colour it is. In person it's a kind of purple/silver colour, it's a metallic and not a monochrome colour but I'm really struggling to find anyone with the same colour car. I'm sure I'll be able to find some info out from the VIN but as the car doesn't come till next week I wonder if anyone knows what this colour is called. Please see an attached image of the car before it's little knock...

Any help is greatly recieved!

Thanks
Sam

[samastonlongley]

Thanks guys! Is purple illusion a rare colour then because I can't believe how hard it seemed to find. I love the chromed wheels they will definitely be getting refurbished in the same colour! Just need to find a paint shop who can do them!

[samastonlongley]

So on the bin plate it's apparently BMW296 paint code? Any guesses as to what colour that is?

[samastonlongley]

• BMW295 not 296 my bad, big fingers small phone...

[samastonlongley]

Brilliant Thankyou very much! Do we know if that's a rare colour for a T350 or is it fairly common?

[samastonlongley]

Flying machine said:

Spot on! That's my old car!

I have to say that on one hand it's a shame to see it's been involved in a bit of a smash (do you know what happened?), but it's good to see that you're going to be putting it back on the road - good luck!

Ah fantastic! It's a stunning colour! I don't know how the crash happened, I bourght it from the salvage dealer. I'm waiting for the V5 to come through to try find the previous owner who crashed it to find out what happened. I've spoke to the owner before the last one and he said he only sold it a few months back so the previous owner can't of had it long before the crash! Don't suppose you have any information on the car do you? I'm trying to build up some of the cars history! Got the door off today so I'll be starting the repairs this week! 😬

[samastonlongley]

Flying machine said:

It must have been through at least two more owners since I sold it then. I bought it in 2012 from Str8Six. I believe that it has had an engine rebuild at some point, a lightened flywheel and racing red dampers as well as an aluminium radiator. I had a couple of minor things added in this time - alu boot catch, trickle charger points and the union jack badges! Other than keeping it serviced I didn't do anything else to it.

I understand that prior to that it had been in Germany - and I know that the owner there is a PH'er, so perhaps he can add to the history if he sees this.

I sold it to Tony somebody or other (dealer) a couple of years later. That's where my part of thew story ends, if I find anything else I'll add it in. Please keep us updated with your restoration. It's a lovely colour combo IMO.

Ah that's some great information! It's a well travelled car then if it's been to Germany! I did know about the engine rebuild and lightweight flywheel as I got that info from another previous owner! Did you have the engine rebuild done or was this done before/after your ownership? Just started with the first few layers of fibre glass on the door so it's in a sorry state at the moment but it's all progress!

[samastonlongley]

They have! I'm pleased to say the STi style wheels won't be staying and they'll be back in the original shadow chrome colour shortly. When I bourght the car I had a choice of a some badly painted anthracite wheels with bald tyres or some freshly refurbished gold ones with new tyres! So I figured that both sets would need refurbing to get them into the right colour so I may as well take advantage of some new tyres!

[samastonlongley]

Speed 3 said:

Logical but don't assume the refurb was done to a high standard. The 18" Spider is a very soft wheel and prone to buckling. When I had mine refurbed by Lepsons they found two buckled and some serious filler in another they had to weld back metal into. You wouldn't have realised looking at them before they went.

Yes I agree there's no guarantee they'll be as good as they look but hey that's the nature of the beast when you buy second hand parts is it not? These do look mint however and have some decent tread on the rubber so I'll give them a go!