CSX2000 color

[RunWithScizzors]

Has anyone succeeded in matching the blue color of CSX2000?
(I mean specifically Carroll Shelby's first Cobra prototype that was auctioned in 2016.)
Is a paint color code known?

[twobjshelbys]

Which color?

[Danr55]

Wasn't the color at the last sale Kona Blue?

[RunWithScizzors]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Which color?

This one: https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/m...sx-2000/380120

[RunWithScizzors]

Originally Posted by Danr55

Wasn't the color at the last sale Kona Blue?

The Kona Blue I've seen on late-model Mustangs looks quite a bit darker. (But we see a lot of different shades with the same name...)

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by twobjshelbys

Which color?

Well.... I assume (with adequate confidence) that RunWithScizzors meant the blue top coat that covers probably 99.99% of CSX2000's body, not the yellow that's exposed in the paint chip and in the flaked area on the front skirt



Cheers!
Glen

[Danr55]

I believe that I've read somewhere that CSX 2000 has been yellow, black, White, red as well as the blue it is now. Painted different colors for different photographic opportunities and different articles in magazines when it was a very young vehicle.

[RunWithScizzors]

Originally Posted by RunWithScizzors

Has anyone succeeded in matching the blue color of CSX2000?

Doh! I can answer my own first question: Yes! Matt Damon drove a replica of it in Ford v Ferrari.
Yes, I mean its current blue. I think that's part of the legend, that CS repainted the first prototype for each publicity appearance to give the impression that he had them rolling off the production line. But he kept it his whole life and kept it this shade of blue, and refused to let anyone restore it, so perhaps he liked it this color the most.
Anyway, I'm still curious if there's a paint code. Maybe whoever built the replica for the movie knows.

Thanks,
David

[Dan Case]

CSX2000

[RunWithScizzors]

Thanks Dan! Great information.

[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by RunWithScizzors

Thanks Dan! Great information.

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!

[xb-60]

RunWithScissors, if you’re interested, I can tell you how I settled on the colour and paint code for my car.

From all of the pictures I had seen of FIA Cobras, I wanted mine to be Viking Blue. Finding (and relying on) a paint code for the original Viking Blue was risky business, so I contacted Trevor Legate for advice. I have most of his books, so he directed me to a particular page in one of his book that was the closest match to his ‘expert’ (in my opinion) perception of what Viking Blue would be. I then started looking for late (-ish) cars on the road that closely matched that colour so that I could go to a car dealer and obtain the colour.

What actually transpired was that a friend had a Ferrari 308 GTS that matched the colour I was chasing. I was able to view his car inside his garage with the fluoro lights on, then outside in full sunlight, and also outside in the shade .... and it was as close to the colour I was chasing as I could have hoped for (thanks M**** ).

The end result is .... no surprises in how it turned out, and I’m completely happy with the colour.

Cheers,
Glen

[RunWithScizzors]

Again thank you, Dan. I am learning that attempting authenticity in a Cobra tribute may be most fuzzy when it comes to paint color. Very useful information; I appreciate your generosity.
(Although the legend of the 'Cobra-of-many-colors' is more fun than the boring truth, we'll forgive you for spoiling it

Glen, yes, you've deduced the motives behind my questions. Choosing a blue, and actually ending up with what you pictured...the difficulty has been commented on before on this site. I am enamored of CSX3104 (described as Guardsman Blue) and also CSX3111 (described as Ford 1966 Thunderbird Sapphire Blue). The Guardsman seems to be the most elusive to pin down. Thanks for the advice.

Best,
David

[PDUB]

I went though this exercise with my build, David... took me years to figure it out, but I finally did. Some say it was a fools errand! I am doing a 2459 tribute car. Interestingly, it was yellow, and apparently one of only a few yellow ones that left the factory! It was very satisfying to actually get it right...

Only you can decide if it is worth it. If the originality is important to you, go for it!

[Harpoon PV2]

I noticed, no one mentioned the first and probably, the most important color schema for CSX2000! In the first photo of CSX2000 in Dean Moon's shop, taken by Dean himself, as are all the photos from that night! In the upper left we see a bluer, that is Roy Gammell, the young man in the Moon Eyes shirt is his son, Doyle, the man pointing is, Chief Petty Officer Fred Larson Ret. (a Bonneville Salt Flats racer, with many records,) and the young man with the unenviable task of applying the color scheme on the boot with steel wool, is a High School friend of Doyle who sadly has been lost to time. All were Moon employees, though Carrol tried to poach Larson, who said no thanks! The Man in the upper center of the photo needs no introduction. If he looks real pensive, it's because he is. He still had not driven CSX2000, since it was not even a rolling chassis when he blew into AC unannounced, and left before it was running! He only had time for a short drive that night in Santa Fe Springs, then off to make phone calls, and catch airlines to sell the yet unnamed car. To Carrols left is the man Shelby would latter call, the Godfather of the Cobra, John Christy! John would go on to write a way over the top article about CSX2000, in the May 1962 addition of Sports Car Graphic! CSX2000 did have a name by then, "AC Cobra!" And, while it is true that the Dean Jeffries yellow was the first paint job that the world saw a Cobra in, it was the brushed aluminum, with Shelby scrawled on the nose and tail that most gear heads would see it thanks to Christy and it was Dean and John who went Corvette hunting that night! In the second photo you can see Shelby and his secretary in the publicity shot, and you can see where the AC medallion was unscrewed not pried off! For decades, I wondered, who hand painted Shelby on CSX2000? Well, in the last photo, there is no question who did it, Christy is the culprit. That's one of the things I love about the Cobra story, truth really was stranger then fiction!