I’d been thinking for some time about what colour I wanted Squiffy to be. Stick to something close to what she had been before, or try something different? Blues are still some of my favourite hues, and shaving one morning I was staring at the razor stand of my King of Shaves razor. The colour really struck me: a rich and energetic electric blue. “That would make an amazing colour for Squiffy!” I thought.
Inspired, I set about finding the closest possible paint code that would match it.
There are a variety of paint code systems in use, but RAL is one of the most popular for automotive use in Europe. Of course, completely custom colours can be mixed, but matching them later if Squiffy needed a repair or a respray would be almost impossible.
I went to visit paint specialists Colorite in Hanwell, west London, where Alan there immediately, just by eye, matched it as RAL 5002 “Ultramarine blue”. After another two hours of going through hundreds of paint swatches, I couldn’t find anything better! Such is the value of experience.
I wanted to pair the blue with a classic VW cream white top half and passed the details over to Paul at Type 2 Detectives where his paint guy started to work his magic.
First went on the white base layer…
And finally, the Aquamarine blue…
The paint looked amazing and the workmanship top quality. Squiffy was starting to look the best she’d ever looked!
With her bodywork finished, next step was to start rebuilding the mechanicals. More on that in the next post…