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Why 100Ms Cost So Much

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HealeyRick

HealeyRick

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I always thought it had something to do with all the special parts from the factory, but now I know the truth ... it's the louvers! I can't tell you how many hours I've spent hand sanding around those 62 louvers on both sides of the bonnet. I'd charge $50k to do it again. When all is said and done, I love the look on my BJ7, except ... I had the hood shot in PPG DBC and CC with the same code the car was painted in 20 years ago, but it's not a good match. Maybe some of you experienced painters can tell me how to proceed. I really don't want to blend paint into the shroud if I don't have to.

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John Durant, who posts as CJD on the Triumph forum, may be the best painter on our board. You might want to look him up on this question.
Bob Hustead
 
Even if the colour codes match chances are it wont once painted , its the metalic flakes .
When you paint metalic colours you have to paint all the panels or the whole car in one flowing motion so all the metalic flakes fall in the same direction .
If the flakes dont all lie in the same direction they will catch the light at a different angle and make the colour look either lighter or darker .
 
HealeyRick said:
I always thought it had something to do with all the special parts from the factory, but now I know the truth ... it's the louvers! I can't tell you how many hours I've spent hand sanding around those 62 louvers on both sides of the bonnet.
Click to expand...

The 100M is a piece of cake next to your BJ7. The 100M has only 20 louvers in each row.

You may own the louverest Healey in the world!
 
steveg said:
I like the Sunbeam Talbot Alpine - every louver a different length:
View attachment 56760
Click to expand...

SOmebody here once posted a picture of a Healey bonnet__maybe off ebay__done with progressively longer louvres. It looked a treat!

There was a guy in Toledo, Ohio (delivered all my paint supplies__gave me SO MANY stirrers and funnels that there'll be some left after I'm gone) and as a side business, he struck louvres. I think he charged something like $3.00/strike, BUT he stipulated that he'd only do bare metal, no painted panels.

I don't remember now__I know we talked about it__if it was because he was saving the owner/builder of the hassle of sanding around them, or just his way of avoiding any complaints about the finished paint job cracking (as it absolutely would, from stretching the metal).
 
Rick, the best paint matching is done by eye. Some painters have it some don't. The chances of an optic scan or just using the paint code to expect a good match are about nill. A good shop or painter uses his own mixing studio. They never rely on the suppliers mix. I have two supplier that I use when I need paint. One is a friend who has his own shop. Even tho we are friends he will only help me out with mixing if he has time, is in the mood or see that I am desperate. But he has an eye for colour and has his own mixing studio. When he buys paint for a job, he has the same supplier I use mix him up the paint according to code then he brings it back to his shop and adjust it according to what he sees in the car. ( Buy the way, the counterman at the supply store never gets it right. Even tho he is a very capable person. He just doesn't have the eye for it. Plus trying to do it off a sample chip is almost impossible, just luck. You have to have the car right in front of you and you have to have the eye. ) My friend with his own shop has told me a 1000 times, "I don't care how good you think you have it you never get an exact match, that's why you blend across adjacent panels. You fool the eye." But having said all of that, try to find a shop or a counterman who is known to have a eye for matching and also is willing to take the time to do his best to make a match. I believe you can probably get it better than you have it but there are no gurantees. When it comes to metallic the biggest factor is the size and amount of metallic in the paint. You really need to get that exactly as your existing paint. If you have the paint code you used when you painted the car that will give you the size and weight of the metallic in your paint. There are other factors in the method of spraying but basically if you spray the metallic dry from a bit of a distance so it lays evenly then you will be as good as anyone can get it. So find yourself a guy who is known for matching colour by eye. Good Luck.
 
Healey Nut said:
Even if the colour codes match chances are it wont once painted , its the metalic flakes .
When you paint metalic colours you have to paint all the panels or the whole car in one flowing motion so all the metalic flakes fall in the same direction .
If the flakes dont all lie in the same direction they will catch the light at a different angle and make the colour look either lighter or darker .
Click to expand...

If you know what to look for, it is amazing how many restored/repainted cars have doors a different color because the painter shot them off the car, or on a different day.
It results in a different color that is not difficult to see.
 
I agree with having an 'eye' for color matching but even with a good eye, matching 20 year old metallic paint is tricky. Paint color tends to change over time, especially when exposed to sunlight. And even if you can get what appears to be a good match, it may look off in different light - daylight vs fluorescent, vs LED, etc. (there are lights available for this purpose that some paint shops use, not perfect but better than not). That said, I might start with a paint matched using a computerized scanner and go from there. Another issue is that the matching process usually involves some amount of trial and error, and you have to actually spray some large samples in order to judge the quality of the match (best to paint a sample contoured car body part). Also, make sure your sample batches are big enough to do the actual job or else you will need to repeat the matching process even though you may have nailed it. I've matched a lot of paint, fortunately almost alway lacquer, which is easy to mix and fast drying so you can see your results quickly and adjust as necessary.
 
I saw a video a while back of making louvers in an English car hood, might have been a Morgan, each louver just eye balled then pressed by hand. I don't know if that is how the M hoods were made, but it made me nervous just watching.

As others have stated, matching metallics, heck even painting a whole car with them can be a challenge.

I painted my 100 Healey Blue Metallic paint. It looked ok, but if I put my sunglasses on there were all sorts of stripes that showed up. Hard to get right even if painting a whole car.
 
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Yeah Glemon:
Even the factorycould not duplicate the Healey Blue color batch to batch so only single batches were shipped to dealers.
 
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