Halfords spray cans WTF!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Was looking for a Voxall* spray can in Halfords, a very common pale metallic bluey grey. No luck, but I did spot Ford Purple velvet (1300E). Then Olympic blue, Daytona yellow, VW Marine blue, Mars Rot, BL Vermillion.......

 

What the actual fuck? Did I enter a space/time continuum or do Halfords really sell paint for cars discontinued 30+ years ago......?

[anonymous user]

They have them there to fill the display up (a bit like some antique shops that have a window full of stuff they don't really want to sell), so that you have to go to the counter and get the 12 year old "specialist" to mix some up for you, in a very approximate near miss to the colour you really wanted.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

But who buys them? No BMW Oxford green and Alpine white II is a big hole in my life that not even Triumph Java green can fill.

[Joey spud]

I wanted a alternator belt for a Mazda Bongo that had got a bit hot on the M25 yesterday so i nipped into Halfords in Otford and got told 'sorry sir we don't stock  them anymore'...

 

Had loads of push bikes though... 

[HillmanImp]

I wanted a alternator belt for a Mazda Bongo that had got a bit hot on the M25 yesterday so i nipped into Halfords in Otford and got told 'sorry sir we don't stock  them anymore'...

 

Had loads of push bikes though... 

 

You can't really blame Halfords for that though. The amount of people out there who would change on themselves is so slim now there is no business in it for them. People still buy and repair their own bikes and put stupid wheels on their Clios so that's what they sell.

 

If they did sell them they would be about 4 times as expensive as they would be at your local motor factors though. However for the same reason as above, the local factors will probably not be open at weekends as their only real business these days is trade.

 

The cans on display could possibly have been special orders that were never collected?

[cort16]

I've now given up trying to paint stuff myself. One of my mates is a painter and everytime I do something I usually then have to pay him to do it properly afterwards so I've just decided to cut myself out of it. I'd do the prep but not the paint especially when you're trying to blend stuff in.

My experience of halfords paint stuff is it's pretty shit and the spray part of the aerosol isn't nearly as good as the ones I've got online. Also their high build primer is the consitancy of custard and refuses to come out the can at anything less than 120 c

[Junkman]

Was looking for a Voxall* spray can in Halfords, a very common pale metallic bluey grey. No luck, but I did spot Ford Purple velvet (1300E). Then Olympic blue, Daytona yellow, VW Marine blue, Mars Rot, BL Vermillion.......

 

What the actual fuck? Did I enter a space/time continuum or do Halfords really sell paint for cars discontinued 30+ years ago......?

 

Yep.

It's paradise for model car builders. Did you notice Mercedes Taiga Beige? A perfect match for 1964 Ford USA Navaho Beige, and will thus go on my '64 Galaxie 4-door conversion.

[plasticvandan]

My local halfords has been the same for years,plentiful stocks of champagne,russett brown,vermilion and even applejack!

[Timewaster]

No one buys spray paints for cars. They do however by them for bikes, graffiti, craft projects and other stuff. So people buy bright colours and it is irrelevant what car they are for.

 

Back when I worked in the shop, we sold more cans of purple velvet than the number of cars Ford ever painted that colour.

[vulgalour]

Halfords spray paints have been my friend for ruining cars for a long time.  Champagne beige is a good match for the original, just a shame my Princess isn't the original hue due to a shonky respray before my ownership.  Ford Velvet Purple is a colour I used in conjunction with an offensive Turquoise to do a two-tone fade paint job on my very rotten Ford Sierra back in the 90s and it looked amazing*, sadly I have been able to find no photographs of this fine vehicle to prove how exquisite my taste as a teenager was.

[quicksilver]

Ford Purple Velvet you say?

Chinese Six by quicksilver coaches, on Flickr

(plus bonus Harvest Gold Marinashite)

 

I think Junkman hit the nail on the head, when I go to Halfords I don't buy paint for any car I own or am ever likely to, I choose colours that might look nice on a model and/or are the closest match to the livery I'm trying to replicate. How else could you explain why the Milton Keynes branch has sold 3 or 4 tins of Lada Cream over the last couple of years?

[mouseflakes]

The amount of people out there who would change on themselves is so slim now there is no business in it for them.

 

I had a related conversation with the wife yesterday. I don't think there are that many old giffer tinkerers these days. I was busy welding the Saxo for the MOT - wandering out of the garage every now and then to get some air - and it occurred to me that it was ages since I'd seen an old giffer with his car half out the garage, giving it a fettle.

 

I say it was a conversation - wife just responded that they probably want to spend their time doing something nicer these days

[anonymous user]

 - and it occurred to me that it was ages since I'd seen an old giffer with his car half out the garage, giving it a fettle.

 

 

No mirror in your garage? These days that old giffer is you.

[mouseflakes]

No mirror in your garage? These days that old giffer is you.

 

That's another thing. I haven't really had many opportunities to work on the cars for a while - so it was quite good getting a bit of welding done.

 

BUT - since last time I crept under a car, I've had to start wearing reading glasses, and been through two increments in 'spectacle power' (or whatever it's called).

 

Bloody nora - it's impossible to see what I'm doing now! With the underside of the car being at about 'reading' distance and the light levels being low, I'm having to wear my reading specs, inside my goggles and under my welding visor.

 

Yes - I am that old giffer. Cheers for that.

[RichardMoss]

I have to say in their defence that by and large the Halfords rattle cans are a damned good colour match.  The Tahiti blue on the rear of my daughter's Rover 100 ("I know a bloody Metro when I see one") is excellent

[Junkman]

Halfrauds BL Inca Yellow.

 

 

[Ghosty]

I often see Ford Roman Bronze in there.

 

I can only think of one person that'd need that...

[Jikovron]

I suspect there is still a perverse supply chain for the 70's colours as when i bought all of the rover mid pageant blue the staff restocked it fairly soon after in 2 very seperate outlets

 

the match incidently was oddly perfect 

[Bren]

I think the halfords items are pretty good - ford pepper red is quite a good match, however they advise you on what colour primer to use - they advised red oxide, really i should have used black(!) because under the bonnet the black primer is clearly visible.

[fordperv]

I had a related conversation with the wife yesterday. I don't think there are that many old giffer tinkerers these days. I was busy welding the Saxo for the MOT - wandering out of the garage every now and then to get some air - and it occurred to me that it was ages since I'd seen an old giffer with his car half out the garage, giving it a fettle.

 

I say it was a conversation - wife just responded that they probably want to spend their time doing something nicer these days

Reading that made me think instantly of the old boy who lives opposite me in the set back houses, he is always tinkering his mk5 first is usually half out of the garage, I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see him tinkering

[danthecapriman]

I often see Ford Roman Bronze in there.

 

I can only think of one person that'd need that...

Well, you'd be wrong there. I bought a few cans of roman bronze for my Capri when I replaced the lower rear corner of the rear quarter panel last year! So there's proof that it sells! I for one am glad that they continue to stock it.

[Ratdat]

I always found Haldord paint to be the best for use on models by far. Warmed up in a bucket of hot water, it'd go on smooth and thin but cover really well. It's also one of the only paints that isn't so harsh it melts the plastic, although it does need priming first. Apart from matt/satin black and maybe silver on wheels, I don't think I have ever bought any to use on a car but then their range for Nissan colours is hardly comprehensive.

[Bobthebeard]

I have to say in their defence that by and large the Halfords rattle cans are a damned good colour match.  The Tahiti blue on the rear of my daughter's Rover 100 ("I know a bloody Metro when I see one") is excellent

+1 on the Tahiti blue... Dunno about the other colours though.

The Tahiti blue is a near perfect match.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I actually like Halfords. I have a trade card and the prices for lots of stuff is the same as the grumpy fuckers in my local sweaty factors. Plus the 50 year old Bird in there is probably a right dirty cow and flirts like a trooper - I be balls deep there if I were single.

Also, Halfords don't sell shit. Very good tools, service parts and the arsehol cans are bob on. There are many times I'd have not finished a job if Halfords wasn't open at 3.43 on a Sunday afternoon.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I often see Ford Roman Bronze in there.

 

I can only think of one person that'd need that...

DONT U KNOW ANYFINK??

 

That's Copper bronze, a 1973-76 colour. A K reg Cortina should be Tawny bronze, a darker bronze whilst Roman bronze is the hue of a Guinness fuelled turd and ran from 1976 to 1979.

[vulgalour]

Philip Glenister is... Philip Glenister in another lack-lustre not-quite-period drama about an out-of-luck out-of-date middle aged man with issues and some slightly younger totty he barely tolerates.

[RedSparrow]

Reminds me of the last time I went to Halfords (ages ago).

Looking at the wiper blades, on the boxes where it says what cars they are for it was all Austin Ambassadors and Fiesta MK1s!

These were newly packaged too, not some dusty old stock they'd found out the back.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I always found Haldord paint to be the best for use on models by far. Warmed up in a bucket of hot water, it'd go on smooth and thin but cover really well. It's also one of the only paints that isn't so harsh it melts the plastic, although it does need priming first. Apart from matt/satin black and maybe silver on wheels, I don't think I have ever bought any to use on a car but then their range for Nissan colours is hardly comprehensive.

 

This reminds me of visiting a mate one winters day,walked into his ( mum's) kitchen and everything was blue. Funnily enough the same blue as his mk2 Escort, ther was also an aerosol paint can size hole in the ceiling,just above the cooker.

[New POD]

This is why I went to the MINI dealer, and the Vauxhall dealer when I wanted the correct colour paint chip bottles (RRP at MINI £18, RRP at Vauxhall £3.75)

[DSdriver]

Halfords Ford Dove Grey is an excellent match for DS headlamp pods which were cast in plastic of a similar colour but look a bit shonky after forty odd years.