Repaint telltales: Here are two clips from pictures taken some years ago now of a one owner original paint, unrestored, and supposedly unmodified Cobra. When the pictures were shared with me I took quite a few exceptions to the unrestored and unmolested claims but the most interesting detail was the claim of original paint. One has to go back to my list above to define what that means. There was evidence all over the car that it had been completely repainted early in its existence. It doesn’t take an expert to find places not masked well or different shades of paint showing. We use to look for such signs on used cars in the 1960s and 1970s when hunting for interesting cars for sale in used car lots.
Here’s an example of a tape line and overspray on a fender emblem. When AC Cars painted the coachwork emblems had not been installed yet.
This is an example of a different previous color being exposed at a paint chip. I don’t know what color name the car was repainted with but is was for sure different that the red AC Cars applied first. Notice the difference in the exposed previous paint job.
To the original owner of this car, the final top coat red you see was the ‘original paint’ he is said to have claimed.