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MG TD TF 1500 - Metallic almond green paint code

Does anyone have the paint code for the 1500 tf in green metallic think its either mid green or metallic

Thanks in advance Ste
Ste Brown

Ste,

From my library of information, Almond Green was the only green colour available for the TF, and it was quite rare. I recall seeing only one ever imported to the Montreal dealer, and frankly, I thought it was quite nice.

Almond Green however,was also available for early TDs and TCs, but not for the later TDs (TD2).

As I recall, it was a metallic green. From my records - a well-researched article by Hal Kramer in the June 1996 issue of the TSO, it listed the paint codes for Almond Green as follows:- BMC = GN37, PPG (Ditzler) = 44159. RM = BM076, DUPONT = 8195LH, and MARTN-SENOUR = 20214.

But as Hal has pointed out, the factory was inconsistent in their paint colors, as they would mix yesterday's leftover batch, the next day, with whatever had been delivered.

I believe this article is still available as a re-print. Let me know if you'd like a copy.

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A. Clark

I dont have a paint code, but email me if you want to see photos of factory original paint I took from an unrestored car. Almond is one of the trickier colours to get right.
Almond was a metallic and is hard to find today because: A-It perished in the sun, and B-Whenever a car needed repair, it usually recieved a full BRG paintjob because the spray shop could not reproduce the colour.
Quite a few Y types had the Almond metallic.

Cheers,
Matthew.
Matthew Magilton

Address:
mbmagilton
@
msn
.com
Matthew Magilton

Thanks for your responses,

Funny thing is that in the UK almond breen is not a metallic green but is the same as the mini coopers and frogeyes which are all gn37 coded over here.

Ste

Ste Brown

Ste,
I've been told my '50 TD is Almond Green. It definitly is not metallic (see photo below). I would be curious what the vote is out there about my color. Is it Almond or not? I've had a good portion of the car exposed rebuilding the interior, etc. and I believe this to be the original paint. I plan on repainting it and would value opinions on what color I have now.
Ed



efh Ed

ed, there are a million red ones out there (mine included). this green is a very nice color and it is original to the car. i like it. i say redo it in the original color. regards, tp
tom peterson

Hi Ed,

The colour on your TD is certainly not Almond Green.
The original Almond Green colour is metallic and a much richer,darker colour tone.

Cheers
Rob.Grantham
TF3719("Aramis"),TF9177("Athos).
Rob Grantham

Rob,
Humm...I wonder if mine was Almond and this is what it looks like after 59 years? Does anybody have a picture of an Almond Green TD maybe? I always liked BRG and that, in some form or another, will probably be it's next color anyway.
efh Ed

Ed, Long, long ago in the late 60's I had an MGA that I believe was original due to it's fairly poor state!- From memory it was your colour of green, so my best guess is that you may have an MGA colour. ... Chris
Chris Malcolm

Ed,

The 60 amd 61 midgets could be had in that color... I think the evidence that your piping appears black would indicate a respray and reassembly... but who knows, the factory would offer anything if it meant selling a car, however by the time the TD was being produced it was more of a batch operation.

Ste,

The TF was only offered in five colors: the MG name and the generic BMC color and the color code follows in ().
Black (black) (A)
Birch Gray (Light Gray) (B) (I've seen one- it looks like primer)
M.G. Red (Dark Red) (C)
Almond Green (Mid Green) (E)
Ivory (Ivory) (P)

I don't know why Moss listed the Almond Green as a metallic; Chip Olds didn't in his T-Series Handbook, and as far as I know only the 'Silver Streak' and Sun Bronze colors were metalic on a T-Series and those were TD colors.

warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

The reason the Almond paint code is HDE_3 and not HDE_6 is because they could not get the metallic in both lacquer cellulose and enamel, unlike all the non-metallics. Any non metallic green would appear on a TF as a HDE_6 (which does not exist as far as I am aware).

Cheers,
Matthew.
Matthew Magilton

Ed,

Almond Green does not look like your colour after 59 years !

Here in Perth we have a very original,TF1954, which I
perused for the first time in 1976. The car underwent
a respray in BRG about that time(a debatable colour in itself!)BUT the Bulkhead under the bonnet was not
not resprayed.Too hard department.

I had a visit from the new owner late last year(2008) at our home.The car was untouched from 1976.Lifted the bonnet and there was the bulkhead in its correct,Factory Almond Green.Metallic and all.

Another TF owner and friend here in Western Australia
plus another owner and enthusiast in New Zealand,also
have the TF Almond Green colour.

I believe there is a GMH Holden metallic colour which is close,however slightly lighter,when compared to the original.

Quite a lot of TFs sent to Australia and New Zealand were in the metallic Almond Green.

Cheers for now.
Rob.Grantham
TF3719("Aramis"),TF9177("Athos").
Rob Grantham

Ed,

I seriously doubt the originality of your TD. It looks like your car is not original paint. In 60 years of owing MGs, I have never seen this green on a T-Series. What's more, the beading on your car is black, which suggests that it's likely been resprayed.

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A. Clark

Gordon,
Thanks, that makes me feel better about a future repaint. I won't be covering up anything "classic". My beading does look pretty new now that you mention it. What color should the beading be, beige? Is that beading available from Moss or elsewhere?
Ed
efh Ed

I really wanted to paint my TF Almond Green metallic. Yes, it was a real factory color. See page 70 & 76 of the Original MG T Series by Clausager.

I gave up because the paint codes don't match anymore. It is a very difficult color to track down.
Carl Floyd

Ed - the welting should be painted to match the body color - or be of a color that is a very close match. Though some use Black or contrasting color welting, the eye really should not be drawn to that line on the car - it takes away from the looks of the car in my opinion.

Welting was body color when the cars were produced.

Jeff
J. W. Delk

Don't know if this will help...I'll be curious to see what it will look like after scanning and then run through photo shop to convert to a jpg.
(From orig. sales flyer)
Cheers,
David 55 TF1500 #7427


David Sheward

PS : That was from USA sales brochure for the TF 1250. No mention of 1500 at that tyme and states "LHD Colors for USA".
David
David Sheward

Odd that there is no mention of the birch grey in the brochure as grey TFs were sent to the states from almost the start of production.

Cheers,
Matthew.
Matthew Magilton

Yes indeed the 54 TF 1250 had an original color of almond green metalic. I will check my car no. tonight.
I do know that the first numbers are HDE.
The car is also right hand drive.
Unfortuneately the car is in the process of being redone in RED/Buscuit. The metalic green paint was what I would call a "dusty green" quite honesly to me not very attractive for a TF. (The eyes of the beholder) but now knowing the rareness of this color Im sorry I did not keep it original. With today's tecnology I probably could have come very close to original. The car was almond green metalic with green beading and green interior. The dash was a lighter, brighter shade of green, not metalic. I'm pretty sure the car was purchased in the UK and transported to Canada before coming here. I will get the full car number and perhaps some one here can sort out the history.

Dan H.
Dan Hanson

Ste, in the US we have pretty much determined the available paint codes are useless, because the pigments have been taken off the market and are no longer used. Even if you find an original car or picture, the color has most likely faded or yellowed over the 50 years or so. You can search through an online color database, or a paint chip book and see if you can find something close to what you want. Any paint can be custom tinted of course. Check this link out- I'm not sure which green it is however.

http://www.tcpglobal.com/autocolorlibrary/cgi-bin/search/search.pl

George
George Butz

PS- I tried to link directly which didn't work, just fill in info as needed (ie "european", then make and year, etc.)
George Butz

Here's the number of the original almond green metalic TF. HDE13/5740. XPAG/TF/35697

Dan H.
D.E. Hanson

Gday Dan,
The "1" after the "E" indicates a Home Market car, in other words your TF was sold new in the UK. Any idea when it came to the states? The T Regiser website in the UK gives a build date for your car of 21st May 1954. You can add your details and car photo to the Register here if you wish (Mine is TF 9097).

Yes, your dash panel would never have been metallic almond. To the best of my knowledge they always painted the dash panel to match the interiour (green in your case). If you happen to have any colour pictures of the unrestored dash, or other parts, I would love to see them (use my email address in the 4th post if you do).

Cheers,
Matthew.
Matthew Magilton

Thanks for all the comments but we seem to be in the dark with this onewhich is making it a vry rare colour to respray the car in,ive tried alaister naylor of naylor brothers and peter edney and still no look.

Ste
Ste Brown

This thread was discussed between 17/06/2009 and 23/06/2009

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