Badges on 428s

[lyonheart84]

Well Emmanuel I've never heard of any official paint codes for Frua's or if the factory had records of what colours cars were originally painted, somehow I doubt it ! I just felt CFX 13 could not possibly have been painted that colour originally with the current interior colour lol, but that might just be my own poor colour tastes! Or else some colour blindness on my part ! As  I said overspray is clearly visible ( check the photo of the fuel filler cap above and look at the overspray on the chrome in front of it ) so the car has been repainted, so it might have been a different colour. I like the current colour and I'm not a stickler for originality like some people, but I do like to try and have exterior and interior colours complement each other..........

[Classicus]

Talking of factory colours reminded me of CF 63 and a little bit of its history as it was the factory demonstrator. Check the notes supplied by the Dutch owner himself in 2009 immediately above the pic taken outside Earls Court in 1973 where the colour is green as per the Wikimedia reference. Also the cover pic in "Country Life" taken at Bodiam Castle where the colour is gold.
   
   http://acfrua428.activeboard.com/t16002574/cf-63/
   
   Not much but it's all I can think of for the moment....

[siegfried]

We removed some paint and the initial colour is a kind off green
   Till now we did end any work on the car
   Siegfried
   
   
   
   
   

[Classicus]

Hi Siegfried, great pic ! Bit confused about the colours as the car is obviously still blue, but in the pic of the frua badge it's green ? When you get time the more pics you can take of the car in its present state the better so as to be able to compare with the finished result. The same as the before and after pics of CF 64.
   
   Thanks
   Paul

[siegfried]

Hi Paul
   Don’t be confused about the colour it is rely green .
   But alls you now with fruit green can turn to ………..
   Siegfried
   
   
   
   
   
   

[Emmanueld]

You know, looking at the shifter, I don't see the T handle reverse lock typical of the Toploader gearbox. Maybe the gearbox is not original, the only Toploader shifter that does away with the T handle lock is the Hurst, but the handle does not look like a Hurst. Maybe the car was upgraded to a 5 speed, like a T5 which has been around since the 80s, that box is marginal with the big block torque and power.
   
   Emmanuel[]

[J Jones]

Today, Emmanuel and I saw a steering wheel on an XKE (that appeared to be) identical to CFX13's.

[ACOCArch]

The AC factory photo below of, I believe, the first Fastback, shows an AC badge in a different position!
   
   A similar but very grainy shot of the car under construction in Italy shows no badge at all.
   

[Classicus]

Very interesting ! The car's CF 4, you can just make out the badge on the flap.
   
   http://acfrua428.activeboard.com/t15999562/cf-04/
   
   "Amongst the cars presented on the Swiss dealer Lukas Hüni's stand was this AC 428 which was the show car at the Salon de Geneve in 1966."
   
   
   
   Tempting to think too that Derek might have replaced a possible Frua badge in the same spot just as soon as the car arrived after having seen one of his chassis at Frua's studio !
   
   http://acfrua428.activeboard.com/t19791635/the-history-of-the-ac-428-frua-website/
   
   

[ACOCArch]

Is the 'pfrua' badge in the picture posted by Siegfried, copied below, a disguised ventilation air extractor?
   
   
   [/quote]

[lyonheart84]

The  AC and/or Frua rear quarter badges were indeed I seem to remember used for ventilation rear extraction on the Fastbacks, obviously I presume that this wasn't developed at the time of the first production Fastback. I'm not sure which Ford manual gearbox was normally used on the manual Frua's but my old car CF42 certainly was an original manual car and had the original shifter fitted. Have another look at these photos in Paul's archive   http://acfrua428.activeboard.com/t16000925/cf-42/  ( I don't know if the link works from the forum but if not you can cut and paste it into your browser ). The shifter was cranked back and as you can see was located much further back than on CFX13 and also had no T-handle reverse lock-out. It was a 4-speed gearbox so was this also a Top-Loader gearbox Emmanuel or did Ford offer an alternative in 1969? It certainly suggests if the original archives are correct that CFX13 has been converted to a manual car. Looking at Siegfried's paint stripping photo I guess CFX13 has been painted at least 3 or 4 times allowing for the layers of primer. If the central section is the original colour it looks as if it may well have been a shade of Gold or Bronze which would link up nicely with the Brown colour of the seats and doors.........

[Emmanueld]

Hi Brett, I see no T-handle on you car either so it probably was a modified Hurst shifter or AC's own system.  All these cars had Toploaders, it was at the time with the Muncie by GM the only in-line mechanical gearbox capable of taking this type of power and torque. All the "Nascar" boxes would not have been appropriate since they were straight gears only.
   
   This is a good site from the Guru about these gearboxes:
   
   http://www.4speedtoploaders.com/
   
   Emmanuel[]
   
   
   Emmanuel

[ACOCArch]

Originally posted by lyonheart84
If the leather is the original colour, then is it more likely the car was originally white or gold?

   
   The Factory Ledger shows CFX 13 original colour to be Live Oak paint code P151-R837 and brown leather code D6324. The lack of automatic designation suggests a manual gearbox.
   
   Live Oak was I believe a metallic gold colour

[lyonheart84]

Ah thanks Emmanuel for the info re gearboxes and also ACOC Archivist, the Live Oak looks like the original colour visible in Siegfried's paintwork photo under the other colours. It's useful to know that there are factory ledger paint records since nobody seemed to be aware of the original paint codes. If the car was originally manual it seems likely the factory changed gearlever location on later manual cars to improve the driveability.

[siegfried]

Tanks John & Brett for this very useful information
   Interesting to look to the pietro frua site to http://www.pietro-frua.de/1965_ac.htm_ CF6 and 17
   I got this info from Damien
   Siegfried