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Color of instrument panel??

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Color of instrument panel??
#1
TomTxState Avatar
TomTxState Silver Member Tom L
Austin, TX, USA   USA
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1953 MG TD
I ordered a new rose wood dash panel for the TD, and it looks nice. I saw that the bronze colored instrument panel had some chips in the paint. Wanting everything to be nice I thought a refresh of the paint would be nice. The panel I have is supposed to be OE, but it is clearly a different color from the spray paint that Moss sells. The Moss paint, Moss says, is formulated to be the original color, but is much lighter than what I have. The Moss color is very close to the color of the steering wheel.

There are some comments on this site that agree with what I am seeing. Does anyone have any insight into what is correct? At this time I am inclined to just keep the instrument panel as is.

The picture below is the panel as it is now, not painted.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-24 04:57 PM by TomTxState.


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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#2
Buckdendave David Hill
St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK   GBR
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1954 MG TF
The Moss paint is a reasonable approximation, but to my eyes it seemed more "golden" in colour that the original paint on my dash panel. How much the dash panel had changed from when first painted, its hard to say, but those small areas that had been covered did not seem to appear much different to the exposed parts.
Dave H

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#3
Paul J Avatar
Paul J Silver Member
Locust Grove, OK, USA   USA
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1955 MG TF 1500
In reply to # 3317737 by Buckdendave The Moss paint is a reasonable approximation, but to my eyes it seemed more "golden" in colour that the original paint on my dash panel. How much the dash panel had changed from when first painted, its hard to say, but those small areas that had been covered did not seem to appear much different to the exposed parts.
Dave H

Yeah I agree Dave, even though I used the Moss color to paint mine. Just doesn't look quite like the original, but then again, the original is 60+ years old, even kept in the dark, paint tint will change over time. Like the rocker cover paint with the greenish tint, could be wrong but I think age has given the original paint a tint, as it's been stated they were painted with regular silver paint when new. ???

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#4
Buckdendave David Hill
St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK   GBR
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1954 MG TF
I used it rather than hunt around for a better metch. In addition I used it on a subsidiary panel under the dash that has additional switching and a socket for GPS, etc.
Dave H

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#5
Paul J Avatar
Paul J Silver Member
Locust Grove, OK, USA   USA
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1955 MG TF 1500
Digital photo, but here's mine. PJ


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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#6
Buckdendave David Hill
St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK   GBR
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1954 MG TF
This is mine.
Dave H


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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#7
bobbygee Avatar
bobbygee Silver Member bobby galvez
Round Rock, TX, USA   USA
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1952 MG TD "Duckie Tee"
1979 MG MGB "Duckie Too"
Discussion of "correct" paint color is academic and a very fine point unless a car is being done to 100 point standard.

For most of us who want our cars to look fresh and clean any "close enough" color achieves the objective.

There are any number of references also attesting to the factory itself not adhering rigidly to paint codes. Things did change from batch to batch. Let's remember that throughout production Abingdon was making cars, not collectors' items. Minor differences in paint colors are to be expected.

BobbyG

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#8
TomTxState Avatar
TomTxState Silver Member Tom L
Austin, TX, USA   USA
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1953 MG TD
I had tried some of the Moss paint on a piece of scrap aluminum, and Paul, it is very close to yours, but far from what I have now. I would agree with Dave about the golden color, the panel is much darker than what comes out in my picture. My car was in storage for 50 years before restoration and who knows.

I found this discussion and it is interesting.: http://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?35033-MG-TD-Dash-Panel-Color

From what is said, the instrument panel color can vary in shade during the manufacturing life. Clearly I am not worried about originality since I am installing a wood panel dash. It seemed for a time that the Moss color was way different from what I had. I will likely decide based on what looks the best. This shows the current color with the new dash in progress.


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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#9
Robert H Gold Member Robert Harvey
Wichita, KS, USA   USA
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1951 MG TD "Millicent Grace (Millie)"
If it is really important to you...a good body shop or automotive paint supplier can match the color you have. I had some body work done on my red TD. To match the paint, the body guy had the paint supplier read the paint that was on the car with their computer matcher and mix the paint accordingly. Then when he got ready top paint, he did a few test pieces and added pigment as needed to achieve the final match. The color match looks perfect to me. Unfortunately, you will have something north of $100 in this before you are done, but if it is really important... Of course if one person did it, then he could keep the formula, and supply it to the rest of us a half-pint at a time for $20. winking smiley

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#10
mwilcox2118 Mark Wilcox
La Mesa, CA, USA   USA
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1952 MG TD "Emma"
1969 MG MGB GT
Moss web site has the paint N/A. Where are you getting it?

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#11
Buckdendave David Hill
St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK   GBR
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1954 MG TF
Moss may be out of stock, but some of the other sellers may still have it (like B&G over here). I think its the same paint.
Dave H

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#12
TomTxState Avatar
TomTxState Silver Member Tom L
Austin, TX, USA   USA
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1953 MG TD
In reply to # 3319466 by Buckdendave Moss may be out of stock, but some of the other sellers may still have it (like B&G over here). I think its the same paint.
Dave H

Yes, I brought a can from LBCO. Jeff said he had a few cans left when I ordered one.

http://www.lbcarco.com

BTW I have decided to go with the Moss color; I will be sanding and priming today. I posted here to find out if what Moss (and others) sell is at least close to a factory color, and it appears to be. What I learned is that things really varied a lot at Abingdon.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-07-27 08:03 AM by TomTxState.

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#13
LaVerne Avatar
LaVerne LaVerne Downey
Fruita, CO, USA   USA
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1954 MG TF "Green Hornet"
1969 MG MGB "The Beater"
1979 Triumph TR8 "Turd 8"
Bronze??? Clearly they were originally black grinning smiley


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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#14
Buckdendave David Hill
St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK   GBR
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1954 MG TF
You have a motley collection there!
Which shade of black?!!
Dave H

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Re: Color of instrument panel??
#15
LaVerne Avatar
LaVerne LaVerne Downey
Fruita, CO, USA   USA
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1954 MG TF "Green Hornet"
1969 MG MGB "The Beater"
1979 Triumph TR8 "Turd 8"
All joking aside. The examples I have seen that are believed to be original have all been darker than the Moss shade. Whether that can be attributed to exposure or not I can not say. This example from the TF I have been working again shows a darker shade of the paint left on the steering wheel center which had not been apart before.


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