Another interesting one is the Mercedes 600 Pullman which only came in dark red, I found a version with large section of flaked off paint on the bonnet showing gold underneath.
On models such as the orange Lancia Fulvia in the pictures, one shows white underneath but the other does not, you might say it was a primer coat but I don’t know that any models where ever given a primer coat as it’s not necessary and would substantially increase the cost of manufacture.
The Fulvia was available in blue, green, orange and yellow but never white.
Was a white version planned but cancelled?
Another interesting one is the Mercedes 600 Pullman which only came in dark red, I found a version with large section of flaked off paint on the bonnet showing gold underneath. Where there were smaller chips along the edges, I carefully removed more topcoat with a blade and found that the rest of the car was pink underneath as you can see.
This is a very unusual one and what I think has happened here is that this car was originally gold as you can see on the bonnet, and then painted over in the usual red finish but over the intervening decades the red has turned the gold to pink. The big chip on the bonnet must have happened when it was new.
With the chrome plated versions of the Jaguar E Type I can understand that they probably did need paint underneath for the plating to stick to but on both examples shown the yellow and maroon were not colours used on that model normally so why use different colours, were they just using up left over paint ?
It’s a shame they didn’t make it in the dark red as it looks good. Incidentally I used car paint restorer to remove the chrome finish from the red E type and it was well worn anyway, I wouldn’t have done it to a good one!
I have heard of this on some Dinky military vehicles which were painted desert colours but then over painted in the usual green, but I have not seen one myself.
Over to you, I’m sure someone knows the answers. If you do know anything leave a comment below. We’d love to hear from you!
