Colours............

[Greybags]

During an idle moment, and thinking of the next stages of the Invader restoration for later in the year, I was contemplating what to do with the outside..

Got to be resprayed of course, and the car has always been red, found at least four different shades so far from almost a maroon shade to a dull routemaster red.

But were there original "Gilbern" colours and does any one know what these were, or if there are near equivilents.. Ford Venetion Red for example...

Also always loved the Vinyl roof that was fitted to my Rover 3500 in the late 70's, (Everflex I seem to recall) and see in a lot of the period photos that a lot of the estates had a vinyl roof, so quite tempted with this. but the question is, how were the edges of the vinyl finshed and trimmed on the bottom of the rear post and across the tailgate.

Any pictures of this would be greatly appreciated.

Grahame

[Andy Downes]

Hello Greybags,

I bought my first Gilbern (1972 Invader, White with Black 'vinyl' roof) last summer after many years of wanting.

The 'vinyl' roof is actually sprayed on, it's very effective (well it fooled me) and even has two strips running front to back representing the seams to complete the illusion. Others here will no doubt know what the paint is.

As for colours, my history folder contained an original Gilbern Invader 'Standard Colours' card showing just 5 colours :-

Frost White
Italian Red (maroon-like)
City Grey
British Racing Green
Midnight Blue

Other colours available at extra cost £10.10s.00p (that's ten pounds.ten shillings).

Andy

[Greybags]

Andy ..

Thanks for the info... And if you have any pictures you could post for refererence I would really appresctaite it.

Will be very interested to find out more about the Vinyl "paint", and if it's still available.... Does anyone out there know what this is????

I think I have made my mind up that I will have a vinyl roof of some description, as the finished car looks great in my imagination, espescially with the black Britax fold back sunroof, now just have to decide if I spray the car or dig very deep into the pockets and have it sprayed ..

Have sprayed in the past with reasonable results, but got to do some research as I understand you need different sealers/primers with GRP than with steel...

The car is a dull maroon red at the moment, but I think something a smidge lighter/brighter would look a bit better..

Ah good old LSD .. remember it well, that was when a pocket of loose change would buy me a night out....

Well the minor body repairs at the front are now just about done...In fact everything from the dashboard forward is completed..



Grahame

[Greybags]

Looks like the decision to paint the car myself has been made for me ...

Have just been quoted £6000 - £8000 to spray the car and thats with me delivering a rolling shell .. all glass, lights etc removed... I consider this to be an outrageous price, or is this "normal"..

Anyway ... time to research spraying glassfibre by the looks of it...

Grahame...

[Bitsa]

Grahame,

I had my TVR taken back to bare fibreglass entirely and had a "no expense spared" respray five years ago. This was about £3k from memory. There was very little crazing and no major damage to sort out .....

I have a friendly paint shop near Basingstoke who are going to spray mine after I've done all the initial preparation work. My Genie has a thick and relatively undamaged coat of paint so I think I can just sand back ready for painting apart from the roof which I'll strip. I'll deliver them a rolling shell with the windows etc out....

My guestimate is about £600 to finish off the preparation, prime and put the topcoats on.

Get a copy of the Osprey Spraying Fibreglass Cars (or something like that)

I've got a brand new compressor, air sander and spray gun sat in the garage if you want to borrow them for a couple of weeks later in the year when it's warmed up.

Cheers

Chris

[Greybags]

Chris ..

Thanks for the offer, but have a reasonally big compressor, gun and tools in the garage, and have sprayed in the past, but never over GRP...

Will certainly look out for the book ... e-bay here I come...

Grahame

[genie]

Grahame/Chris,
I too have been researching spraying fibreglass. I am a long way off that stage on my Genie but have found out that several professional bodyshops use a certain primer / filler for fibreglass cars.

The product is called "Reface Filler" ( it is 2 pack product) : It is about £17 plus p&p for a litre: here is a link to buy it.

http://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails. ... uctID=1634

They use this as the primer & then top coat, Reface allows a certain amount of flex on the body & stops the paint from lifting that occurs with cellouse primers.

Hope that helps or confuses the issue?

Julian

[Andy Downes]

Grahame,

The book you are looking for is

"How to Restore Fibreglass Bodywork" by Miles Wilkins - pub. Osprey 1988.

part of the Osprey Restoration Guides series.

I have a number from this series but didn't buy the Fibreglass one as I didn't have a Fibreglass car at the time

They're pretty good with plenty of useful information - careful we don't bid against each other on Ebay !

I'll try and sort out some pictures of the paint colours/vinyl roof.

Andy

[Greybags]

Genie/Andy

Thanks everyone for the help...

Your research into the primers is further than I have got so far.. but been looking at paint 4 u and fancy the idea of the matt base coat with a couple of clear coats over the top .. now all I have to do is sort the colour.. Honda Milano Red seems to be a nice rich red, and not too bright...

Andy ... I use the same handle on e-bay ... so hopefully we will be able to get one each...

Pictures always welcome, especially of the vinyl roof..

Grahame

[Andy Downes]

Andy ... I use the same handle on e-bay ...

Grahame,

"hlbinternational" for me

Andy

[trippdl]

I've been digging, trying to find my Genie parts list (no luck so far) but found a 1972 Price List, showing the following colours:
Electric Blue; Vista Orange; Silver Mink; Regal Red; Aquatic Jade; White; Lime Green; Autumn Gold; Black Tulip; and Sunshine Yellow. The trims were Whisky, Creme, Black and Port. The 'Simulated Vinyl Roof' was £14.50. There is also listed a sunroof, with the notation Black, White, Red, Grey; I wonder if this was a typesetting error, and if those should be the colours for the simulated vinyl roof. Sadly, no colour chips to go along with it; my only colour samples are for the GT.

[gilberninvader]

Hello Greybags,

I bought my first Gilbern (1972 Invader, White with Black 'vinyl' roof) last summer after many years of wanting.

The 'vinyl' roof is actually sprayed on, it's very effective (well it fooled me) and even has two strips running front to back representing the seams to complete the illusion. Others here will no doubt know what the paint is.

As for colours, my history folder contained an original Gilbern Invader 'Standard Colours' card showing just 5 colours :-

Frost White
Italian Red (maroon-like)
City Grey
British Racing Green
Midnight Blue

Other colours available at extra cost £10.10s.00p (that's ten pounds.ten shillings).

Andy

Your quite right i've found a copy of Price list of Oct 1969 and they are the 5 colours above, but by Oct 1970 they were :-
Frost white
Italian Red
City Grey
Bahama Yellow
Midnight Blue

Gilbern changed the available colours again by 1972 to go with the 'Hip' and happening times, to include orange, lime green ,black tulip and autumn gold among others (see Trippdl's post above)

Gareth

[Paul Yates]

Gareth baby, my car is lime green, does that mean I'm hip and happenin' too?
always thought I was a bit different, perhaps that's it, man.

[gilberninvader]

Gareth baby, my car is lime green, does that mean I'm hip and happenin' too?
always thought I was a bit different, perhaps that's it, man.

Lime green and groovy man,
Come to think of it ,you do remind me of Austin Powers but without the shaguar

'ye baby ye'.....peace brother!

[Andy Downes]