Moss Motors, Ltd

Greetings,

I am new to this, so bear with me and my naivety.

I inherited my Aunt's 1950 TD. She drove it till the day she died at 86 and had owned it since 1951. It lived most of it's life in California and so is devoid of any rust. (not the case with dry rot however). It has never been restored, althought there are a few chrome pieces that are not original.

It has come time to restore.

It is black with a green interior. Not my first choise of colours.

So this is where I need some guidance.

I know that the colour is not actually connected with the serial number or VIN as it were, and the car could actually be one of half a dozen pigments, but would it be a sin to change the colour when I know what it was originally?

Thanks,

Stub 

 

 

 

Stub,

If I had bought this car from someone unknown personally to me, I'd paint ti any color I pleased. But come on, now. Your 86 year old Aunt? Sorry, that's too personal. I wouldn't change a thing. Besides, Black with a green interior looks really nice all shiny and new. I vote for keeping it as it is, and I bet your aunt would too. I'm sure she'd be proud.

On the other hand maybe she hated the color and always wanted to change it but couldn't. Hmmmm. Only you'd know, man. 

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Motorbill
From Lola to Land Rover, If it's British and has wheels, it's likely I've bloodied me knuckles thereupon

Hey Stub,

Looks like we're cousins!  My '51 started life in the exact same clothing.  While I'm sure Motorbill is correct about the car looking good when it's nice and new, the colors certainly didn't seem to age well.  Probably why my dad (with "guidance" of my mom) changed it over to a  "Mercedes" brown with the tan interior. 

I was thinking about returning it to an original combination when I 1st got it, but I found the more I read about originality, the more comfortable I felt about it being what you like.    

Good luck.

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"Torque it till it breaks, then back off a quarter turn"

Stub-

I'm leaning toward Motorbill's thinking even though it is your car. I've seen a billion BRG/Red/Cream TC/TD/TFs but I don't recall seeing a black one with a green interior. I'm sure it would be quite handsome and vintage looking and would be much more likely to stand out and be remembered. I just recently saw a Gullwing Mercedes at a concours that was a kind of a luminous almost pea-soup green with a cloud gray interior with piping that matched the exterior paint- one of three made. I know the description sounds terrible but the car was spectacular! It absolutely stood out from the silver/red/black Gullwings in the best of ways. I think it may have won it's class.

Sorry about your Aunt, but congrats on the car.

LCJUTILA 

I would most definitely keep the original color.  The only way to change the color without taking away from the car would be to TOTALLY break down the car, paint EVERYTHING including engine compartment, trunk, sills, etc. then put it back together.  Anything less would not do the car justice as rather than looking restored it would look cheap.  I have just restored an MGB that was originally brown, not my first or even second pick.  However in order to maintain both appearance and value the car has been painted factory spec brown again.  And yes, the car had been taken apart just short of removing the engine and windshield so as not to tape anything and to have it look like new rather than like it was just painted.

Mars

Hey Stub

            Let me start out by saying that I'm sorry for your loss.  What a grand lady she must of been driving her T.D.!!

            Anyway... the reason for this post. A fellow in my club has a 53 TD and it is black with green interior. If you go on our clubs web site scroll down to " restorations"  and you will get a complete pictorial of his on going restoration.There are about four other TD's with other colour combinations that you can see,feel free to snoop around the site and click on "photos" we are not short on pictures.The site is www.niagarabritishcarclub.org         Congratulations on your acquisition  good luck and welcome.

                                                                      Cheers...Rita

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Alive to drive British

Thanks all for the advice.

The more I think about it the more I tend towards keeping the car the original colour. Indeed, shiny black with green could be quite handsome and classic looking and that does seem to be the consensus.

Now, how do I start?