• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Just purchased a 1965 Austin Heley Sprite...

Share this page

robdmau

robdmau

Senior Member
Offline
Just picked up my new toy, a 1965 Austin Healey Sprite and I am new to British cars so EVERYTHING is new to me :smile:. This one was a bit rough, was already primered so after a week we sent it to the auto body shop. They are skinning it down, replacing some rusted out panels and repainting her. The color under the hood is a blue color. The original owner said it was British racing blue but I do not see that as an option from a post on this forum.

So my options are Iris Blue or Riviera Blue, is there a way to tell by the VIN what color it should be?

Also is there a way to know how many Austin Healey Sprites were produced in 1965 with these colors?
 
Welcome! You probably want to jump over to the Spridget Forum on this Site. That group is better equipped to address Sprite concerns.
 
Welcome to the Forum, I might be able to help here. I own a book called "Austin Healey- Guide to Historic Colors", by Donald Piknovik.
from the book, Riviera Blue is mfg. code BU.44 ICI (international color Institute) code 4022. Any paint shop should be able to mix up a batch of these original colors from either of these codes. Iris blue is a much lighter color Mfg. Code BU.12, or ICI code 3243.

Riviera blue was used from March 1964 to October 1966, Iris Blue was not shown as used during this time period.

BTW Sprite Mark III HAN-8 is your model number.

Hope this helps.
 
Great, thanks for the info, and thank you all for the warm welcome. I hope to be posting before and after pictures once she is all done :smile:

on a side note, is there a way to have this forum send me an email notification when someone replies? I have yet to find that option...
 
robdmau said:
on a side note, is there a way to have this forum send me an email notification when someone replies? I have yet to find that option...
Click to expand...
Hi Rob,
Welcome to the forum. Yes you can get an email. Click HERE to watch a video on how to do it.
 
great, thanks!
 
A 1965 Sprite is one of the best,all the improvements over the Mk1 and 2 and a unique engine, 1098cc's but with 2" main bearings.
 
Back
Top