Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

The 4A, 4AB, 4AC, 4AD cars, including the SM 1500 Roadster and SMX
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DGreen
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Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by DGreen »

Hi, I'm new here, but I have a question about paint colours on the 4AD. As far as I know, my 1953 4AD was originally a colour that was a cross between gun metal grey and metallic blue. There is a 1955 Singer on line with the reg number CWT 246 that I believe is the correct colour. However, I've seen reference to Coronation Blue on this forum (which seems to me would be an appropriate designation for a 1953 coronation year car) and a reference to Salvador Blue on the Singer 4AD brochure. Is either of these the name of the metallic blue colour or is that something different altogether. Also, does anyone have a paint code for that colour? I would like to someday return the car to it's original paint scheme.

Also, did any of the original colours carry over into the Rootes years?

Thanks,

D'Arcy
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Peter McKercher
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by Peter McKercher »

Darcy,

You might want to contact John Lewis on this board for the formula he used. I don't think there are any other of this colour in the club. I'm also attaching a picture of a new '53 model from Vaughan Singer Motors (of course, different monitors will each show this differently).
Untitled-1.jpg
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DGreen
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by DGreen »

Thank you, Peter.

That is the colour that I was referring to, for certain. I'll try contacting Mr. Lewis, as you suggest. From what I recall, my car was a Vaughn Motors car (California) that was owned by an ex-employee up until about 2003 or 2004 (or maybe 2005). I'll try to verify that. So, is that colour called "Coronation blue" as mentioned on here occasionally or is that "Salvador blue" as noted in the brochure? I think a car in this colour with the correct white leatherette covered dash would look pretty sharp. On another note, I was curious about the brochure listing for exterior and interior colours as it suggests that all 4ADs may have come with a beige interior, regardless of exterior colour. Were there alternatives at some point in production?

Thanks,

D'Arcy
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mikeyr
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by mikeyr »

the interiors were always the same regardless of the body color. Beige interior with piping the color of the body, so yours would be beige with blue piping, i think that would look pretty good.
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Peter McKercher
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by Peter McKercher »

DGreen wrote:Thank you, Peter.

So, is that colour called "Coronation blue" as mentioned on here occasionally or is that "Salvador blue" as noted in the brochure? I think a car in this colour with the correct white leatherette covered dash would look pretty sharp. On another note, I was curious about the brochure listing for exterior and interior colours as it suggests that all 4ADs may have come with a beige interior, regardless of exterior colour.


D'Arcy
That would be Coronation Blue in honour of Queen Elizabeth's crowning. Salvador Blue preceded it. I don't have any examples of the latter and don't know how it differed. Perhaps our 4 AD or Nine Roadster registrars have an opinion.

With respect to the piping, I don't know what the convention was. However, I have the original promotional photos from Vaughan Singer Motors introducing the product line for '53 and the interiors, irrespective of the body colours, are all beige with red piping. Body welting was the same colour as the body, not Black as most restored 4ADs seem to sport.
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kabu
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by kabu »

Hi,

I do not know about older 4AD's but the late ones did have also other upholstery colors available than beige. Here is a picture from a late 4AD brochure, late because it shows also the twin carburetter engine, and it shows the available color combinations. It may of course be that Singer has still provided different combinations on special order.
Colour Finishes
Colour Finishes
Brochure.JPG (96.44 KiB) Viewed 4107 times
This information does match my 1954 car ( L4AD 3160 X) which has been delivered as black with red upholstery and the factory records confirm this. The car had been repainted red on some point of time but there certainly was black under the red. The upholstery was in poor condition but it certainly had the original red upholstery with red piping.

With a bit more digging I did find an older Singer Roadster brochure that states the following color combinations:
Body-----------------Wheels--------------Upholstery
Salvador Blue-----Salvador Blue------Beige
Black----------------Black------------------Beige
Signal Red---------Signal Red----------Beige
Grey-----------------Grey------------------Beige
Warwick Green---Warwick Green----Beige

So it indeed looks like the earlier 4AD's had beige upholstery regardless of the body color but the later ones had other upholstety colors also depending on the body color. The shift may have been on 1953 when also the twin carburetor option was introduced.

Best Regards,
Pekka
4ADT Roadster, 1954 --- http://www.guru-group.fi/kabu/singer
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by DGreen »

This is excellent information. Thank you, one and all. I have video of the elderly gentleman who once owned my car (for about 50 years) mentioning the original leatherette covered dash, which he replaced with wood. My other old 4AD which now belongs to another forum member still has the white or, perhaps off-white leatherette dash. Oddly, I don't recall ever seeing a restored car with the leatherette dash. Anybody know if that was an option rather than standard equipment or if other colours of leatherette were also used? Just curious, as I think they actually look quite nice.

D'Arcy
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kabu
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by kabu »

Hi,

Kevin Atkinson's The Singer Story -book from 1996 mentions that "The only real change for the 1953 Roadster was that the dashboard was covered in Vynide instead of having the earlier timber finish", so this change appears to have been introduced to the 1953 model year.

I have restored my 1954 Roadster to this vinyl (Vynide / leatherette) covered dashboard configuration, which I believe to be correct for that late model car. For the dashboard covering I used this off white material from Woolies Trim in the UK ( http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/p-1076-sp ... nolia.aspx ). I ordered sample swatches from several off white / cream vinyls and found this to be the closest match with the remaining pieces of original vinyl that remained on my poor condition dashboard. For the color match I compared it with the original material part that had protected from light. This material is also similar thin and non-stretching vinyl as the original appears to have been and the grain pattern is very similar too.

Here is a picture of my restored dashboard where the vinyl matches well to the cream color on the gauges and light switch bezel.
My vinyl covered dashboard
My vinyl covered dashboard
dashboard.jpg (50.24 KiB) Viewed 4089 times
Best Regards,
Pekka
4ADT Roadster, 1954 --- http://www.guru-group.fi/kabu/singer
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Peter McKercher
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by Peter McKercher »

I had a '54 SM1500 and it was originally covered in the manner described by Pekka. While I veneered mine and finished it in a natural wood finish, like many have, it was not correct. The vinyl covering is certainly more elegant in keeping with the touring nature of the car.
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DGreen
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by DGreen »

I love the look of Pekka's dashboard. It's definitely something that I will try to do, when the time comes to get the car back to stock colour scheme. Nicely done, Pekka, and thanks for the information on where to source the product.

D'Arcy
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wmcvey
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Re: Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue

Post by wmcvey »

From my other tread "52 Barn find" we talked about this topic "Coronation Blue vs Salvador Blue vs Oriental Blue" as probably being the same color. So here's my question. My 52 4AD is currently white, but was originally this shade of blue. I'm wanting to either bring it back to the originally blue color, or at least back to a Singer color for a 52 4AD. So what's anyone's opinion ? Which way should I go, the originally Salvador Blue, or a nice Singer red or green of the 52 model year as an example.
52 Singer 4AD
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