Gunmetal Color

Does anyone know the color of the XK120 OTS apparently belonging to a Joss Davenport that appears on the cover of Chris Harvey's "The Jaguar XK"? It also appears on page 18 of Chris Harvey's "Great Marques Jaguar". The car is in beautiful condition and sports a red interior. - Jon Garde

Jon asked about the color of a 120 on the cover of Chris Harvey's book. Assuming you have the same edition I do, we are talking about license number OAU 84, and it also appears on the cover of "Jaguar Sports", a collection of Autocar articles. On this cover it seems to have a slight hint of green to it. So going on the totally unsubstantiated assumtion that it even IS an original standard color, I'm going to put forward the suggestion that it could be "Gunmetal". My Mark V was originally Gunmetal, and I intend to get a color match one of these days using what's left of the paint inside the wheels and on a couple of hubcaps (nave plates). When I do, I will publish it on this list. Also I should mention that the gunmetal of 1950 is not the same as the gunmetal of the '60's, for which a paint code does exist (I've already tried it). - Rob Reilly

Is this the car with the cut-out spats? The whole colour - thing is rather frustrating to me. My car (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/zmitrovic/) was sold to me as warship grey. But the Jaguar certificate said the car should be birch grey. When I showed the car to the best Jag specialist in Switzerland, he said the colour of my car is a "not bad match" of birch grey. And he showed me the example of "original" birch grey which was a bit darker then my car's grey. Crazy, but when we took the dashboard off, there was a grey which didn't match the actual grey shade of the car, nor the "original" birch grey of the jaguar specialist. Now imagine all the mess, because Jaguar had so many different greys available and during the years the same grey changed! (Should I make it black???) - Best regards Zoran Mitrovic

Thanks Rob - yes I should have mentioned that it is OAU 84. And I agree that we are assuming here that it is an original color. I guess you could be right about "Gunmetal" - I never saw a gun that color but then again I don't think I have ever (knowingly) seen a Jag. painted Gunmetal either. There is a real problem with seeing proper colors in photographs. When you get that color match on your V, I will be very interested in the mix. By the way does anyone have a list (even partial) of color codes for the 40's and 50's? On the E-Type Lovers page there is a link to a page of color codes - but from memory they are later. - regards Jon Garde

I know of a fully restored Mk V in the UK that was/is Gunmetal so I'll dig a little and see if the owner used a paint of identifiable origin and how close to original it is. - Dick Clements, 1951 3.5L Mark V Saloon

My XK140 FHC is Lavendar Grey. It has a definite green cast to it. The 120 on the cover of the Chris Harvey book looks similar to mine although it appears to be lighter. May be that mine has darkened over time, because when I pulled the bumpers off, the paint that was shielded by them is lighter than the exposed areas. - Ron Paterline, XK140 FHC S814020DN

If you have any questions or comments send e-mail to: ted@jag-lovers.org
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