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Friday, July 22, 2011

Paint: Pastel Green

It's been very hot and humid, with temperatures above 35 C in the garage and a humidex equivalent of arount 44 C, and so haven't done much since the bulkhead arrived. Did a little work on the tub, but the sweat running into my eyes cut that short. However, have had the paint mixed for painting all the parts that will be Pastel Green.

Using the pristine original areas of the paintwork available, I went to NAPA to see if they could scan the samples and get a match. However, nothing came close enough, and so we first went through a series of existing paint chip samples to find the closest one to Pastel Green, and then John the paint specialist very methodically began modifying the existing formula until, after a lot of work, he came up with the colour that is, for all intents and purposes, an exact match for the Pastel Green that was originally on the Land Rover.

I don't know if the actual colour of Pastel Green changed over the years (or over the batches), but here is the formula that matches exactly the colour that was in use in July 1960. It does not need a clear coat for UV protection, which is in keeping with the Land Rover style. Note the final changes to the numbers:


The result is a paint that not only matches the colour, but also matches the same degree of shine found on the original paint.  A nice side benefit.