Green with grey trim, or not?

Oct 30, 2010 16 Replies

Hmm, what to do?



I have a "barn find" SD1 Vitesse (in targa red) with only 45k miles on the clock which is awaiting restoration and a respray. Alena would quite fancy a metallic green, fairly dark, which wasn't a standard colour for the Vitesse, I think. The internal trim is, as expected, grey (with a splash of walnut). The restorer suggested that dark green bodywork won't go so well with a grey interior, and a friend of mine (with a metallic green BMW with beige trim) said he thought likewise.



Your thoughts, please?



I've got one black Vitesse and one targa red one already, and I don't really want to have another red one.



Michael


My SD1 was banana coloured.

You don't want that.

General rule is to keep it in a colour which is Triumph There is a dark green. Looks a bit odd if not. Mate has a Stag in metallic light green (GMH colour) looks terrible (kept the tan trim).

Metallics are not so good to match if you have a bingle.

You could always go black interior. Triumphs were finished with black trim. Later cars.

My car was restored in the original colour but the trim when from Red to Black

My BMW is also dark green with light tan interior. But I'd say grey would be fine. It's a neutral, so goes with anything.

How about a deep metallic blue? That's uncommon on SD1s too and definitely goes well with grey.

BTW, what do you do with all those SDIs? Takes me all my time to keep one going. Now with EDIS and MegaSquirt.

That's a good possibility. I don't suppose you can suggest a car make/model with such that I could observe in the flesh, as it were?

Seldom have one on the road at a time, for whatever reason...

Michael

BMW E39? Their grey interior is pretty close to the SD1. Sorry I don't know what the colour is called. There's a 2001 540 lives round the corner from here and looks very nice.

Trying to recall the precise SD1 shade of grey for the interior, but the SD1 itself should look good in a dark green (the shape always worked best in dark colours, to my eye..). There's a metallic variant on BRG that Jaguar used around the same time which might work well (to be honest, I remember thinking at the time they made the Vitesse that they might look nice in that colour).

Grey, as others have commented, is a pretty neutral shade, so should go OK with anything (within reason!). Might be worth spraying a bit of stuff up in the Jag colour (or whatever green takes your fancy) and offering it up against the interior trim to see whether it's something you can live with.

Sorry just read the Vitesse - Triumph has one as well. Still a good example where colours/trim don't match.

Same still applies keep the colour within the range of manufacturer.

Trim - black goes well with most paint colours.

And is horrid. Fine if you like being depressed each time you drive. When cars *were* black, the interior was more likely red or green. ;-)

Most have actually two shades of grey - at least on the door trims etc. Mine, I've discovered, is rather rare. It has two tone grey leather seats which are also bolstered on the sides same as the Vitesse cloth ones, and no-one seems to know where they came from. The headrests are also different from the usual VDP leather ones.

Yes. Although that could be because most are bright colours.

There are a few in the SD1 club in green. I think the later 800 series metallic green is one of them - think it was meant to be BRG. But sometimes with body coloured bumpers etc which I don't much care for. The standard matt black being so easy to repair. Monthly. ;-)

Most dark green cars have beige or tan trim (my first car was "Elfin Green" with tan trim).

However, I did find this:

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That is a very dark green with grey trim, and it doesn't jar. However, I also found this:
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where Sage Green and Arden Green both came with Sandalwood or Buckskin trim. So I guess you have a choice of "looks OK" in grey or "looks right" in beige/light tan.

A lot will depend on the quality of the current interior. If it needs work, you might as well change the colour at the same time.

Jim

Most Series II SD1s have grey interiors. And getting one in good condition isn't easy.

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(Yours truly on a track day at Brands Hatch.)

I believe it's a Porsche colour called "Iris Blue".

Not bad. Thanks, noted!

Michael

A Vitesse may also look good in Jaguar Solent Blue. This could also suit SWMBO's requirement because Solent Blue is a metallic paint with a green basecoat and blue topcoat (I think I have that the right way around). In some lighting conditions it's a very deep blue in others it looks blue/green.

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There's a nice metallic green that Rover 75s came in. Saw one in the car park in Sawston just the other day - perhaps I should have hung around to look at the interior rather than drive off.

I think the colour is a fraction brighter than that of the Rover 620 you directed us to.

Michael

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