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Originally Posted by RunWithScizzors
Thanks Dan! Great information.
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You are welcome.
A general comment on Cobras fully painted at Shelby American, which would be more than you might think.
Shelby American's paint guru often started with factory, any factory involved, color mix and then customized from there depending on who requested the work and what they desired. He is quoted as saying that if Mr. Shelby was the one asking, custom usually meant make it darker, especially anything blue tinted. In that frame of reference there was not so much a Ford Guardsman Blue or Viking Blue but Shelby’s custom tweaks to those starting points. I must point out that either blue can turn out very different depending on equipment, supplier, and air pressure used. Guardsman Blue is maybe the worst as I have seen one painter on one afternoon use one gallon of paint to make test panels between silver with a blue tint to dark blue by changing which gun, tip, and or air pressure he used.
That does not include any work Continental Cars or Alan Mann Racing (who tended the Shelby “team” cars in Europe for the 1965 season) did. That does not include anything dealers did. More than a few dealers were unhappy with the condition of the paintwork on new Cobras delivered to them. Generally that meant the dealer took care of repairs and billed Shelby American for the work. A common substitution was repainting a car AC Cars painted one of their red colors with somebody’s version of Ford’s Rangoon Red.
Is it original exterior coachwork paint?
In part because of influential owners "original paint" on Cobras and 427 Cobras has morphed to often means what paint was on the car when the first buyer took possession and or what the first owner had done. In the past few years several high profile "original paint" red cars were actually somebody's repaints; even CSX2034 was repainted by Tasca Ford after the abuse it received as a magazine test subject.
So far no “original” paint car I have been asked to express an opinion on from a potential buyer was exterior paint AC Cars applied new or otherwise.
There are multiple "original Cobra paint" schools of thought including but perhaps not limited to:
Original = what AC Cars applied if they painted the car, not every car sent to the USA was painted
Original = what Hugus, Tasca, FAV, Moon, Alan Mann, or Shelby shops either repaired partially or completely covered over (includes cars repainted to change color on purpose). Great example: CSX2345 was painted and repaired and repainted several times. The last time by Alan Mann racing in a dark sold blue. The car is hailed as an ‘original paint’ car in the modern era.
Original = what selling dealers repaired or completely covered over (which was not rare) as warrantee claims or on their own
Original = what the first buyer wanted done before they accepted delivery
Original = what the first buyer wanted done immediately after delivery
or who knows what else. “Original paint” claims are almost as bad as "original engine" claims.
Last but not least. There are a scattered few trying for forge (as in forgery) original paint. My favorite example: An “original paint” 427 Cobra on display. The owner was at one end of the car telling anybody that would listen how untouched the car was and what miracle it was to get an original paint 427 Cobra. At the other end of the car was his painter telling anybody that would listen (including me) how much trouble it was to repair and completely repaint the car to make it look like AC Cars did it. This was not a recent event but one four decades ago!