To Modify, Or Not To Modify?

[vulgalour]

Mine

 

Club 100 special

 

The Club 100 is giving me ideas. The more I look at the car, the more I think leaving the roof beige and only doing the C pillars in Ford Roman Bronze (I don't like BL Russet Brown) is the way forward. I also think that because the bottom of all my doors need repainting, as does the bottom (quite probably) of the front wings on the trailing edge, that going a two-tone is a good way to get around paint matching. Likewise on the interior, I'm thinking of replacing the worn out nylon seat facings with ivory/cream/beige velour and the carpets in a matching colour to compliment the brown vinyl.

 

Mechanically, the car will be untouched, I'm happy with how that is so there's no displacer squashing or plastic bolt on bits being applied.

 

Essentially this is cosmetic modification and done as an homage to a bit of BL rarity.

 

Sympathetically Modify or By The Book Restoration? Your opinions please.

[SambaS]

IMHO keep it beige but its your car. Do what makes you happy

[red5]

 

' I don't like BL Russet Brown'.....oh, bugger...

[Guest]

Looks better than this one whatever you do

 

[Father Ted]

Im sure it will look nice whatever you decide.

Your car, do what pleases you the most.

[Split_Pin]

I have never owned a car that I haven't modified.

 

I've always tried, as far as possible, to use 'OEM' parts to upgrade, rather than barrying it.

 

Your plan sounds sympathetic right enough - I'd go for it.

[vulgalour]

@Red5: I might not like it as a colour for this application, but I do like it on that TR7 with the gold and those wheels.

[eddyramrod]

My opinion, which is nothing more than that... A Princess looks good with the pillars in a dark colour; whether it's the original or not doesn't matter much (to me anyway). I don't like them two-toned up to the belt line, somehow it never looks right. But, that's just what I think, it's your car and as long as it pleases you, that's good enough.

[wuvvum]

I have to say I do prefer it in beige - that Club 100 Special looks a bit odd to me, the colour scheme doesn't quite seem to fit with the body shape. As others have said, though - your car, your rules. Don't be dictated to by other people's opinions - if we all did that we'd all be driving 12-plate Astras and this site wouldn't exist.

[theorganist]

Personally speaking I think it looks fine as it is and don't think Princess's look the best with two tone paint jobs, so I would leave it. My Maxi (which was Sandglow) was painted Matt Black by the previous owner as he thought Sandglow was rubbish. Personally I think he ruined it and it looks pretty crap, and now I am in the process of sanding the black paint off!

 

As others have said it is your car and you can do what you like with it, it is all subjective really.

[vulgalour]

I do get that it's just opinions, that's what I asked for, so that qualifier isn't needed as nice as it is of you all to add it.

 

I've been on the fence about this idea, so this is really to help me fall off on one side or the other and I'm leaning towards carrying on as I was and shelving the Club 100 idea for now.

[Morgan84]

Its only paint,not like you are messing with it structually or mechanically - I like the 2 tone look,so if you fancy it,go for it;can soon be painted again !

[Pete-M]

I'd leave it beige, and I love brown cars.

 

The two tone brown just looks wrong. Makes the thing look worse than it needs to.

[Albert Ross]

Why not Reynard?

[Spiny Norman]

My 2p worth would be to leave it the way it's supposed to be as well, but it is your car and you're not talking about putting a roof rack on it and painting it matt green I'm sure whatever you do will be well done.

[wackywacerwill]

I like 2 tone. Though in a roof to the foot of the A,B and C pillars kind of way, rather than up to the swage line like the 100.

[barefoot]

If you bear in mind that when I was a lad, dealers used to paint the bottom of cars a different colour to hide the fact that they'd bodged up the tatty sills & door bottoms. So by doing that & adding an autoshite dealer sticker you could re-create a manky dealer special!

[AnthonyG]

As said elsewhere, I'm not that keen on the Club 100 two tone. But doing something with the C pillars to contrast with the beige is a good idea.

 

have a look at this page of Princess special editions for some ideas - I quite like the look of the 'SP'

 

http://www.leylandprincess.co.uk/specialshome.htm

[vulgalour]

I'd managed to miss that page on that site... the SP is very, very tempting and would work better than the Club 100 with what I'm doing. Just need to get some vinyl printed up or do some careful masking to get the look very easily.

 

I've only just twigged that 'Reynard' is a colour name. Can't find a picture of it online, but I can find lots of pictures of foxes.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I'd leave it alone bodywise, but do a period BL Special Tuning job on the mill. A pair of SU's from a later Ambastardor or Rover 2000 makes a right difference to the way it goes. You'd need a period repro ST decal for the bootlid though.

 

The centres for the hubcaps on these were, iirc, the steering wheel centres from the old Austin Morris 1100/1300. If you can get four Austin ones with the superb Austin shield of arms and stick those in - win, win. win. The old metallic red 'crown' badge on the original B Series Princess looked good too.

[RoadworkUK]

I'd actually be fascinated to see what a "modernised" Princess would look like. I'm talking about the kind of operation that Tim Bishop & Co performed on the Tatra 613/5 to make it Englandable, or that Eagle do to E-Types. Only different. I quite like the two-tone treatment, but the overall beige seems just, well, more honest.

 

If you had, say, two Princesses, you could modify one and preserve the other and see which one you like the most. I'll shut up now.

[vulgalour]

If I had two Princesses I'd need another castle to keep one of them in.

[Albert Ross]

It's the colour of the one next to the Club 100 in your 2nd pic.

[boobydoo]

I sit on the keep as it is side of the fence. If you're going to two-tone a car surely it's got to be the darker colour on top? Doesn't seem quite right the other way? Unless it's a vinyl roof.

[vulgalour]

It's the colour of the one next to the Club 100 in your 2nd pic.

 

In that case I should probably try and find a tin of it because that's a very similar colour to my interior.

 

 

Reynard Metallic is paint code AAC. Here's a foxy little Vanden Plas. Now, where on earth can I buy a couple of tins of this colour (I've already tried Halfords website)? I'm going to pretend it's a posh combination of colours; fox fur and champagne.

[catsinthewelder]

Nissan are painting a few of there cars in a colour thats a knats whisker away from that

 

 

I've just been on their website and it's called 'Tangerine' on the Micra.

[Mr H Sceptre]

2-Tone is kinda nice though. But I agree, with a Wedge in particular, a darker top half is favourable.......

[vulgalour]

This thread has been really useful, thanks for all the opinions and ideas

 

I'm doing something horribly British to my door mirrors. The door mirrors are a bit crappy anyway, but I can't afford to replace them. I could just repaint them satin black, I've got a tin of satin black paint... but I've also got a tin of satin white, some blue and some red, a few rolls of masking tape and plenty of time.

 

Yeah... this is not going to be a stylish mod, but it'll be a fun thing to do until I can afford some nice mirrors and you never know, someone with as little taste as me might want these door mirrors (or the casings at least) when I'm done.

[mattblack]

I'll just leave this here...

 

[vulgalour]

^ do you have to?