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New member and looking for some paint help

  • Thread starter Deleted member 19892
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New (to me) '65 AH 3000 MKIII - always wanted one for years and finally found one! Current color is Red but just got my Heritage Certificate in the mail yesterday. It says car was born Ivory White and Black - haven't seen but a few in this color combination. As it is my intent to take it back to as original as possible since all numbers currently match - is there a source that gives the number of cars built by year and by what color they were when built? I can find all the info on number built per year but can't seem to locate year and by what color built. Any assistance would be appreciated. Looking forward to being in the forum!
 
Hey Ray,
Welcome to the Healey world and the BCF. Great place and best resource on the web in my opinion. You need to get your car registered in the BJ8 Registry which is run by Steve Byers and on this forum.
Steve can probably tell you a whole lot about the BJ8's. Thought I had seen something somewhere about how many were built in what color but might be imagining that. Good luck and ask away as a wealth of knowledge out there.
Regards
Mike
 
Thanks Mike! I have registered with Steve and been in contact with him. Hopefully he may be able to shed some light on this. I know that when servicemen ordered a Healey overseas to drive around while in Europe and then send back to US they could get different things ordered special. Just don't know if there are resources to get numbers built by colors. Thanks again!
 
If it is "white" then it is probably Old English white or ivory (same thing). When you get the color number, bring it to a good paint shop (I went to a hot rod shop cause they don't put insurance work before your car). They showed me 30 plus shades of white that were very close to the original. However when I saw them next to the OEW in the sunlight many made the OEW look grayish and dull. I used a white form a 1996 Mazda (one year only color). It has just a hint of warmth and when parked next to an OEW at shows, it really pops and makes the OEW look dull. Its your car and anything you pick will be perfect. I changed my interior from red to black with cloth black top, tonneau and hood cover. It is really a show stopper at British car shows shows. Not so much when the "informed" Healey owners are looking for originality at Healey only shows but I still score pretty well.
 
Thanks for all the info. Looks like there are no actual records of exact colors per year or model that were kept. But Steve in the Registry is doing a good job getting a lot of info. Looks like the Ivory White and Black was somewhat a rare choice with maybe only 80-90 out of the 17,000+ 1965's built. I am going to keep the Red for now since the paint is only about a year old. Did get the Heritage Certificate back and all the numbers match - car, body, axle, transmission, etc. and even the key. In a few years I am planning a complete restoration and then will bring it back to the "as born" color. Thanks again!
 
That's the spirit ! Drive it and enjoy it now. While I admire your spirit in wishing to return it to the original color combo , do it because you want it that way. My 62 was Ivory when it was built , I preferred Healey Blue. Ivory ( OEW) looks great on a Healey however.
 
Just to jump in here with some info about colors. The usual authority for number of cars built per year, and available colors, is Anders Clausager's book "Original Austin-Healey". Clausager gives a table of the number of cars built by year, and another table of available body and trim colors but does not relate the two to give number of cars of a particular color by year.

Just as a matter of personal interest and because the data is available to me, I have been keeping a running total of number of BJ8s of each original color that are recorded in the registry. I saved the Excel table as a .pdf file and tried to upload it with this message, but the file size exceeds the permissible size by about 300%. I have the original color data currently for 3,825 cars. This is based not on owner claims, but on actual BMIHT records.

I haven't assembled the data into "colors by year of manufacture". I could create such a table, but it would require a lot of work to sort and create a table for 3,825 cars because it would be mostly manual.
 
BJ8Healeys said:
....

I haven't assembled the data into "colors by year of manufacture". I could create such a table, but it would require a lot of work to sort and create a table for 3,825 cars because it would be mostly manual.
Click to expand...

I don't know how your table is arranged, but using filters and countif function could make it easier.
 
John, the registry data is a "Word file in Excel format" as I've been told by people who are far more computer experts than I am. I started it in 1998 that way for many good reasons and it is too big now to convert to something more conducive to automatic sorting like a true relational database. Two or three computer specialists have made the attempt over the years, and all have failed to convert it to a more convenient format.
 
Ray, welcome. My car was also originally Ivory White with a black interior. When we bought it '78 is was Healey Blue, still with its original black interior. I am restoring it now and will be returning it to its original color. Ivory white is very handsome in the flesh--it is subtle but rich looking, especially paired with the chrome on the car. Mine was also built in 1965 (it is car 34305).
 
My car was painted all the colors in the rainbow, but was originally white. I just don't see white being the best color (colour) for the lines of the car. I went with a period Jaguar BRG.
 
CLEAH said:
My car was also originally Ivory White with a black interior.

Just to be clear, Ray's car was originally two-tone Ivory White over Black, with Black trim and top. This color combination was relatively rare, judging by the color table I've been keeping, which currently has original colors for 3,825 BJ8s. Using 3,825 (which is 22% of total production of 17,712 cars and therefore a significant sample and a good approximation to the actual color distribution for the total production) as 100%, the color distribution is:

BRG 905 (23.6%)
Healey Blue 777 (20.3%)
Colorado Red 581 (15.2%)
Metallic Golden Beige 553 (14.5%) - this is a special case, since the total cars painted this color are known. It is 3% of total production.
Ivory White 511 (13.4%)
Black 316 (8.3%)
Healey Blue/Ivory White 60 (1.6%)
Florida Green 51 (1.3%) - another special case, since total Florida Green production is known. It is 0.3% of total BJ8 production.
Colorado Red/Black 36 (0.94%)
Ivory White/Black 18 (0.47%)
Black/Colorado Red 10 (0.26%)
Ivory White/Colorado Red 2 (0.05%)

There were some one-off paint jobs from the factory. Except for the last one listed, all were UK Home market cars.

BRG/Ivory White (HBJ8/34571) - written off in South Africa in 1971 by the second owner.
Jaguar Mist Grey (HBJ8/42743G) - with second owner in Cheshire, England from 1992. Blue leather trim.
Riviera Blue (HBJ8/31277) - Blue leather trim. No record of any owner, BMIHT data only.
Silver Grey (HBJ8/42230G) - Red trim with white piping on seats and equipped with seat belts. Leather not listed in BMIHT data, but I would suspect this car had it. Also listed with a hardtop, not supposed to be available for BJ8s. No owner recorded, but supposedly this car was a special-order for one of the daughters of Leonard Lord.
Black/Ivory White (HBJ8L/30749) - Black trim. German-spec car. No record of any owner.

The figures above are subject to change as more data is acquired on original colors from BMIHT data.
Click to expand...
 
Healey_Z said:
My car was painted all the colors in the rainbow, but was originally white. I just don't see white being the best color (colour) for the lines of the car. I went with a period Jaguar BRG.
Click to expand...

IMHO, all Healeys are beautiful in whatever colo(u)r they are painted, just that some are more beautiful than others.:smile-new:
I also think that while Ivory White BJ8s are very elegant, especially with a red interior, the lines of the cars are enhanced by a two-tone paint job.
 
thanks for all the info guys - and Steve for your knowledge. As stated before I am going to enjoy her in her current Red for about a year then return her to the original white/black. Of course I will do as much research as possible in order to get the correct color codes. Thanks again - very informative.
 
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