The Sprite Forum

There are some nice retro Fiat 500 colours too. (the new Fiat 500)

Adrian

I'm with Trevor for non-metallic colors on these cars. Also, I'd suggest avoiding multi-stage paints, even solid / candy colors, that would give too much depth. Single-stage paints in solid colors just look right on the early sprites.

Lower red lights are turn indicators.

Many years ago, I had a baby blue 1959 Bugeye Sprite and thought the colour was a perfect fit for it. I wish I still had pictures.

I saw what I think was a Lincoln with black cherry paint job… looked
awesome. Would require an interior colour change though.

I'm partial to Old English White, everyone seems to want to paint their BE in Resale Red, including my DPO. That said, I had a buddy who had a beautiful BRG one as well.

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'58 Bugeye
'66 'Stang

I'm partial to brighter colors simply for the safety and visibility factor. That said, there's more than red and yellow that's eye-catching.

I got two rattle cans of Iris Blue today, tried them out in the engine bay, and it looks awesome!

Armand

Was the paint from Bugeyeguy? I'm struggling with either Iris blue or Leaf green. Maybe I should get a can of each and see the stuff in person?

Adrian

I have a Bugeye that was Leaf Green. Go with Iris Blue.

The paint I got today was not from Bug eye Guy; it was from a local Crow-Burlinggame Color Center. The BU-12 Iris Blue was difficult to find, so he went to his old chest of color cards & found one that matched perfectly. Looks great on the car. He was also able to match the original 948 engine color(looks like teal green to me) so I can clean the block & valve cover & restore the original color. He advised me to use a primer on the block which was designed for high heat to make it stick.

Armand

We were pretty close to being ready for paint until you guys pointed out the quarter panels - thank you! As a non bugeye guy i had not noticed them.

So the car will definitely not be painted resales red.

It also seems like the consensus is that some of the original colors are best, be they yellow or blue.

Any other color would result in new cushions without an appreciable benefit, so it sounds like after I weld in the lower quarter sections, the car should probably go back to the original bugeye yellow…unless you all believe a better shade of yellow might be more attractive. We had thought of a slight spray of pearl, but I guess we will skip that.

We have a full complement of both solvent and waterborne paints, so we can literally paint this any color that Axalta makes on any line, as well as Alzo. I’ll start looking at the original yellow formula.

Additional suggestions welcome!

I'm in the same place. I did a search through the heritage website and found my car was built with Iris Blue as it's original color. So that's what I'm going to do.

OK - so the quarter bottoms are making their way back from Moss Motors in Goleta. Welding them should be quick work.

The car was finally primered with Axalta Corlar - we actually used some Axalta Marine primer but the body is getting its final touches. Coming back from SEMA this week, seriously, I can't compete

How many shades of primrose yellow have there been? The one that I pictured seemed a little bright - I think it may be interesting if the color was a little softer, but I don't know what people generally do as compared to the other 3000's and other close-to models.

The car may be painted with Chromapremier solvent or Standox - I'll be using either Akzo Sikkens Superior 250 clear, Spies 8800, or top of the line Spies. Paint and clear will be...well...the best there is.

Thanks for everyone's help

Interesting comments. I agree that the solid colors are just awesome on Bugeyes. My favorite car color was my baby blue 67 Morris. Now though I am leaning towards something as bright as possible, after almost getting run over by a Ford Expedition while I was stopped at a red light facing west into the sunset (no kidding, he had to lock them up and was about 30* sideways into the other lane) and I know he just could not see me down below in the glare. So, unless you are going to put your car in a glass box for concours shows - paint the little things whatever color you want, no matter how much effort went into the rebuild.