Saintly Wheels: "Just paint it, before I change my mind..."

It's been a few months since I've posted, and during this time pretty much all I've done is ponder what colour to paint this car. It's driving my wife nuts... everywhere we go, I have a stack of colour check cards in my pocket, and I keep comparing them against other cars, in different lights, and asking everyone we meet to pick a colour.

Basically, it came down to silver (looks gorgeous but not original) or white (more original, but WHICH white?) You see, the car was supposed to come out of the factory in 069 Volvo White, but in reality it was shipped wearing a strange shade of creamy ivory, courtesy of the guys at Jensen who sprayed the occasional car in an experimental shade to see if they liked it. Seems my car was one of those.

Having had a colour check card matched to an original panel off my car (under the badge, where it had never seen a repaint or any sunshine), and verified as one of the Jensen "test" colours by a prominent member of the UK VEC, I wasn't sure if I liked it; but as a trusted friend said - there's no "wrong" colour for that car, if it's done to a high standard. It's always going to look good, and maybe it'll be cool that you have one of "that colour" - the rare experimental one.

The final clincher came from a strange place - Morgan Motor Cars in Malvern, Worcestershire! I'd gone for a day out with my Dad, to drive the new Morgan 3 wheeler (maybe a separate post on that later - what an absolute gem of a car!) and to tour the factory. Whilst wandering between workshops, I spotted a Morgan Plus 4 which looked like it might be extremely close to the original Jensen shade I was pondering. AND it had red leather, like my Jensen. It looked SUPERB sitting there in the sunshine. After the factory tour, I grabbed my colour check card (told you I always carry them around...) and asked if I could see the car again. The Morgan folks couldn't have been more helpful - they unlocked their paint shop (by now it was after hours) and the paint shop manager helped me to match my sample to their cars - indeed, I'd guessed correctly - the car I'd seen was an exact match to what they call "Morgan Sport Ivory".

So, I took the decision to return it to original. Not sure of the actual name - but I'm thinking "Jensen Sport Custard" might just describe it!

The following Monday I called the paint shop and put them out of their extended misery - they've managed to repaint a Porsche Speedster and an E-Type while they've been waiting for me to stop pontificating. A couple of days later, I wavered, and emailed to see if they'd started to paint it yet. "It's in the booth this morning - everything ok?" came back the message in return. "Yes, but I keep looking at silver cars. So paint it quick, before I change my mind!"

Hope I made the right choice, but the next time I post pictures, I'll know...

At the bottom: A patch of undisturbed original Jensen paint, from underneath the badge. Above it, a patch cut from one of the "other" experimental cars. A perfect match.

Left: Jensen "Sport Custard" / Middle: Volvo 079 Ivory / Right: Jaguar Old English White (reference colour). All against a backdrop of Aston Martin Silver Birch incidentally, as we were using the roof of a DB5 as a table!