Finding original body paint colour

Hi all

we are looking at respraying our South African T 2 microbus conversion. Where on the van will it show the original colour? What will the code look like?

thanks

Darron

 

Does a South African have an m-plate?

I think @Mark Darby has a South African?

 

Its probably going to be a bit random as it was South African.

May be easiest to hunt out original paint under fittings or buried under underseal in the wheel arches, and ask the paint shop to scan it, and hope they still have the guy who could colour match by eye before they had a scanner, so he can tweak it.

 

Hi F

I think I asked another member of the forum before and he did reply not sure if it was Mark. I will look back in the chats. M plate ? We could not see an obvious code but not sure what to look for.

thanks

Darron

 

Yes did this before and got it wrong , look at two tone paint work.

 

The M plate should lead you to the paint code if it were made in Germany.
Basically it gives order options from the factory including colour..
But given the way SA buses are assembled from piles of parts, I expect the same diligence was applied to the paint..


Of course it doesnt help when your two paint jobs may have started off precisely the same colour but they are years apart in fading..

My 11 year old Orient Blue is much more faded than fresh paint. Blue pigments are reknowned for fading faster than others .. so a green mixed with blue in it will also shift..
So the 2021 rebuilt nose of the bus is dark, and the 2011 installed new doors are a big contrast with that.

One day I will grab a couple more rattle cans, sand down and flash it over. Nothing wrong with the paint just its faded ...

 

My bus is pretty much the same colour as yours. It needs a little touching up and my painter is worried about getting a good match on the colour.
I have also had it scanned, and the match wasn't great.

 

Hi Rich

Yes very similar if not the same. I haven’t a trained eye though! What was the colour?

 

Yes Mike


I am not too worried, we all age with time! Just thought it might be easier to do the whole van as it’s starting to perish a lot.it will need body work repair all over! I think It’s Pampas green. It would just be easier to read off the M plate but I can’t see it.

 

That's what I did, it saves all the messing about.

 

My south African had no numbers at all.

 

No M plate on my SA bus.

 

I don't think my plate actually tells you the code either. Think it might have been beryl green.

 

It does show the original specs - date when the van was commissioned, colour, van or minibus etc etc. Mine has 'unknown special colour' as it was sold the Dutch postal service and very red .
Put your vin plate details into the samba link above but it doesn't help the OP as it seems SA vans don't have a VIN plate ...
Found a pic of the printout for mine , chassis number scrubbed for obvious reasons but you get the idea.