15-04-2018, 09:55 AM
(13-04-2018, 04:12 PM)Adam Brown Wrote:(13-04-2018, 03:39 PM)JonE Wrote: Adam - contact them direct - or I've previously suggested yesterday on FB that if you emailed me, then I'd forward an email to their person.
You cannot comment on a report that isn't out yet through a very short summary of a third party? I will also amend that highlighted sentence as it doesn't really adequately say what they have done, in light of your post above.
Where there is no direct car evidence (from under hinges and so on; protected from light and other environmental factors) there may not be a perfect solution; Belco cards are possibly not all perfect after 80 years (they darken or lighten) and print samples are useful only as supporting information unless there is no information at all! (i.e. even more fraught with error).
With Atlantic Green, it would be folly to go down too technical a route when the primary evidence is not good enough to allow it, surely? (You may disagree, but I find it almost a marketing exercise to bring up the possibility for identifying other cars to allow more rigorous forensic processes to be adopted?)
I can say for certain that it isn't the best way to go about the job. True the research isn't out yet, but tentative enquiries over a year ago came to nothing, they are going to do it their way. I can comment from personal experience and industry knowledge on the correct way to match colours, it is after all my job. I have no axe to grind I've borrowed a set of cards and done my work, it's just nice to compare results and if certain expertise is available why not use it? It isn't forensic by any means and of course all results are open to interpretation, different pigment systems from different manufacturers also throw up variations on 'standards' like RAL and British Standard. Colour is truly a messy business.
The Belco cards depend on the set in question, degradation will vary on a number of factors, the set I had in my hands was exceptionally well preserved and had been kept boxed in a draw for nearly the entirety of their existence. Bar one very special chart I have here (Thomas Parsons 1926 Automotive Colours) those Belco cards represent the best I've seen over the years. I believe the A10DC set are not so well preserved.
On your Atlantic Green, I applaud what you've done and you are right there isn't a technical way to get the colour. For me at that stage I stop until I can find something definite. What you have done is as I'm sure you'll agree a good guess at the right shade. It doesn't look wrong, and to be fair when matching old colours that is half the battle, some of the 50s/60s car colours just don't sit right on earlier cars it can be very hard to explain. I like what you've done and think the car looks very nice.
It certainly isn't a marketing exercise from me. Specific pre war car shades probably account for less than 0.1% of what I do, but I am a Vintage car owner and the idea of building a library of authentic colours appeals to me as an enthusiast. For the effort involved in putting anything like this together it doesn't make huge amounts of business sense. It would be nice to have consensus in the Austin world on specific shades (like we sort of do in the Railway world, and nearly do in the Traction Engine market).
I am only an interested onlooker in this colour debate but from reading I believe the RAL scheme wasn't introduced in Europe until 1927 and then I think only for matte colours until post war, so gloss auto paints wouldn't be included.
British colour standards pre war don't seem to reference automobile colours at all either.
This would suggest that trying to match a 1930's Austin Motor Company car colour is fraught with difficulty - the paint colour on an original vehicle body would have surely changed over 80 years and the printed colour swatches seem to be equally transient.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers, Tony.