What colour?

[lewisman]

I am currently restoring a 1981 2.2 murena with the 142 dellorto kit.  As the UK legislation on paint is about to change and I would rather disperse a small quantity of organic solvent into the atmosphere than breathe in iso-cyanates I will have to choose my colour before the end of the year.  (I will be painting it myself)

It is currently dark green (Citroen) metallic but has been white and gold in the past.

I fancy red. Either an 80's Porsche bright red (I think it was called Hellenred or something like that) or the red used by Fiat for the Stilo Schumacher.

The other alternative is a dark grey metallic used by Alfa on the last of the 33s, but that is only because I have the paint left over from an unfinished project!

Any opinions?

David

[Lennart Sorth]

hehe - I could provoke a fair number of members by arguing that "red is terrible!" ... but I won't, and besides I wouldn't even mean it.
(I'd better look out for the "Red Army fraction" coming my way :-) )

The dark-gray metallic however sounds nice, but as the guy who invented "lazy" I would need to know how much dirt and dust is seen on that colour, before comitting. :-)

What colour is the dashboard plastic and interior in general ?

/Lennart

[lewisman]

The inside is currently brown but I have stripped out all of the velour as it was bogging !(Scottish expresion).  I can also lay my hands on a black dashboard and either fit a Momo steering wheel that I have (boss needed) or fit a black one I took off a late model Bagheera many moons ago. (I would need to swap the bit with the name on it)

So the interior colour would not influence the final decision.

[krede]

I fancy red

DONT WE ALL!!??
THERE YOU GO MATE!!! CHEERS!!! 

I have (and still am) considering treating my (red) Murena to a paintjob, only things like price, and trouble finding a painter with experience in painting fiberglass cars , continue to delay the project)

My choice would be to go for the early '80 feel
White!! like the lotus esprit or, Toyota supras of my childhood (the 2.8's) ...mmm.. suuuuuuupras would be cool..
Silver Metallic would up to resently have been my first choice.. but it seems like 8 out of 10 cars are that color now a days...
No offence Lennart... 
But since you are using the black interior plastics, most colors will look nice (because we all´KNOW that black goes with EVERYHING!!!...... though stripes will make you look thinner )

Bright yellow, works better then i expected (look in the gallery there is some pics of one)
Or... you could go for the all out 80'ies hillbilly look with a matt black body with gold metallic
Rimms.. ohh.... wait... .. sorry.. forgot this was a forum for murenas...not.... ford capris 




ps:I'd love to get me a capri though!!.. matt black... gold rimms... yahhh.. 

[macaroni]

The inside is currently brown but I have stripped out all of the velour as it was bogging !(Scottish expresion).  I can also lay my hands on a black dashboard and either fit a Momo steering wheel that I have (boss needed) or fit a black one I took off a late model Bagheera many moons ago. (I would need to swap the bit with the name on it)

So the interior colour would not influence the final decision.

I have a moto lita boss, with 9 holes that I am currently having trouble mating with a wheel. If I give in, this cuold be available, not sure if it will fit your wheel though.

[lewisman]

I might be interested.  Is it designed for the murena or just a Alpine/Solara/Horizon one?  If I could find it, I should have aa Astrali boss for an Alpine that I tried on my Bagheera.  It fitted on the splines but was far too short - the Matra wheels have a much deeper "dish".

I think the moto lita wheels were like the Astrali/Mountney ones with quite a large diameter ring where the boss meets the wheel.  What I was going to do - assuming I can find the Astrali boss - was buy a Sparco spacer which would allow me to bring the wheel closer to the driver and also give me something to machine if needs be to allow the boss kit and wheel to match.  You can even get an OMP version which is adjustable for reach but it is a bit expensive.

http://www.demontweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=ROAD&pcode=SSW01595B

[Anders Dinsen]

Colours...

Red is for the frustrated middle aged man
Blue is for those who fancy the french style
Silver is classic
White is for those who washes their car every day anyway
Green is a bit of an understatement of the Murena, but ok if you are British and like to display that

- Anders 

[Lennart Sorth]

Green is a bit of an understatement of the Murena

I actually find the dark (Hudson-) green nice, - one of the colours where the side skirts look really cool.

eg - this dutch 1.6 made me buy the Azev-A alloys:
http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Murena/Gallery1/Med/bs_008.html
and apart from the nice colour, it also had a homemade exhaust with multiple silencers which made a wonderfull deep gurgle - that may have influenced me somewhat too :-)

and while MatraMagic converted my car, I borrowed a Hudson Green 2.2 from them - which despite having tired paint looked quite nice from a distance.

You could even experiment with two-tone as this one:
http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Murena/Gallery1/Med/nicolas_saco_mur01.html

So I wouldn't rule out green, - and the greens even work with the brown dashboard, which would save you the swap.

On the other hand, replacing the dash would enable you to FIX all the conectors and wires without renting a midget with 8 super-flexible joints in his arms ... :-)

Then there are the outrageous (non original) colours like this polish one:
http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Murena/Gallery1/Med/wcinek_A.html
Sort of a "Miuraena" :-)

so many choices. We're not helping much, I'm sorry :-)

[lewisman]

The Azev-A alloys look good no matter what the colour.  Unfortunately I cannot justify spending any money on wheels as I already have a set of 15" five spoke TSWs (Anyone need 5 reasonable Matra 14" alloys?) which fit and look okay.

I don't like the two-tone effect green on black.  Ideally I will go for red but I may yet have a go with the paint I have - dark mettalic grey - even if it is only to reassure myself that I can still use a spraygun!  It has been a good few years since I painted a car but they say it is like riding a bike!

My problem is having to buy non water based paint before the new legislation kicks in on 1st January 2007.  There is no way that you can spray with that type of paint without a professional spray booth!!

By the way, I lost my satellite dish in the gales on Saturday night  - bad enough but it hit my Alfa and did £200 - £300 worth of damage and I have an insurance excess of £300!

Unfortunately the paint looks really difficult to match so I don't fancy repairing it myself. ... £200 better spent on the murena!!

[Lennart Sorth]

I lost my satellite dish in the gales on Saturday night  - bad enough but it hit my Alfa

Oh MAN, thats not fair! - fwiw you have my sympathy.

I used to have two dishes on my house, but got tired of the constant need for reprogramming, so I recently swithched to cable - never thought about this reason, but its certainly a good one.

Can you actually get the Alfa professionally repaired/resprayed at 200-300£ ? - how about making some more scratches, and get the whole car resprayed ?

or am I being too conspiratory now ?

PS: The two-tone isn't my immediate preference either, but it seems to become fashion again - so maybe we'll learn to like it in the coming years ? :-) - and besides, The Avantime came in two-tone as standard.

/Lennart

[lewisman]

Hi Lennart. £200 to panel beat the wing without removing it, small skim of filler (not too much) and respray to match.  Hopefully as good as new.  Repair shop round the corner offered to replace the wing and spray it for £497   He offered to "do anything else I needed" if it was an insurance job ....

My Alfa is only just over 2 years old and the rest of the paintwork is pretty good so there would be no need to touch it...insurance job or not!

Avantime was big enough to suit the two tone paint but I think the murena's shape is a bit too pretty for that.  If I was better with Photoshop I would have a play around with colours but too many cars to work on instead!

[hru]

Colours...

Red is for the frustrated middle aged man
Blue is for those who fancy the french style
Silver is classic
White is for those who washes their car every day anyway
Green is a bit of an understatement of the Murena, but ok if you are British and like to display that

I like the idea with the white murena.
By the way, it seems I have bought another murena - I thought that if 1 murena could make me happy, then 2 would make me twice as happy 

Does anybody have a clue on the price for a full color change (in DKR)
- maybe "jyske dollars" ?

It should be quite easy to paint except for the door openings maybe.

BR
Henrik

[krede]

Does anybody have a clue on the price for a full color change (in DKR)
- maybe "jyske dollars"

Yahh i was/am looking to that solution aswell...
But the golden rule is that you get what you pay for... and the respray require a lot of time and special equipment... especially on a fibreglass car it seems..
So getting it painted that way is risky..