Flat black bonnet - Flat black hood ?

[Caen Fred]

What kind of paint would you use to paint it? plain black with a mat varnish, flat black paint ?

All of you replica boys this one's for ya !

Fred

[Z-point]

What I used was a satin black!

Do not use mat black, because you will see every thing on it, it’s like a school board.

If you visit the Ypres site you will see the differences between the bonnets.

http://www.z-point.nl/ypresrally/240z.htm

Tony Fall's car has a ‘shiny’ bonnet, very ugly compared with mine.

[HS30-H]

Fred,

Guus is right - flat matt black will be a devil to keep clean and will degrade quite quickly.

The Works Rally cars and some of the Works circuit race cars had more of a satin black finish. This was done originally to help with dissipating engine bay heat, but people had been painting bonnets black since the Fifties both the get rid of heat and also give their cars a "racy" image, like the race cars that they saw with them.

Actually, flat matt black is probably better at heat dissipation but satin will last longer and not be so porous.

Gloss black bonnets ( sorry, "Hoods" ) can look good on a street car, and it tends to look quite Japanesque. The original Factory FRP bonnets ( the Japanese call them "bonnets" too, by the way) came from the moulders in a gunmetal colour, and the correct finish for a Factory Works Rally car is the satin black outside with the original gunmetal colour applied by the moulders on the inside.

Guus, I think your car looks better than Tony Fall's car too!

Alan T.

[Caen Fred]

Thank's you two, fast and efficient as usual.

Alan, I wonder about those jap bonnets, I saw a nice (matter of taste!) Toyota 2000, it was yellow with a dark olive green bonnet.

Was it usual to use tinted matt colours ? In Europe I only know the black type, like from Opel, Simca, Ford, Peugeot…

I think that satin is ok? I was afraid that greasy fingers would mark and stamp the surface, but in fact, it must be easyer to maintain clean.