[DPeterson3]

The powder coater I use has a 60% that I use on nearly every mechanical item that isn't specifically gloss. For instance, it is what I used on my 2000 engine blocks, but the oil filter canister was done in gloss. Suspension pieces, rear end, 60%. Engine bay, trunk, 2 pack semi-gloss. I prefer powder anywhere oil or brake fluid might get.

Pax compartment and trunk, POR 15.

Avoid flat black. Too easy to show a visible scratch.

Eggshell on dash and door jambs.

 

[DPeterson3]

When I had my car painted, they left the forward door jamb the Grigio Biacca body color. This was my fault as I had not provided sample pictures of this area as I had elsewhere. So, I took it back and paid to have this area painted the same black as the dash.

They did the work by removing the door hinge pin. Now I have a sort of "barber pole" hinge, alternating white and blacks. Oops. Failure to communicate again. I believe either the entire hinge should be black, or that it should have been masked so that the entire barrel was black, with just the tang that attaches to the door left body color. This issue remains a mystery to me, and perhaps someday I'll return to it and sort it out.

Note that the black on the front jamb continues upward unbroken into the dash black. It's one continuous surface.

My body shop did the underside of the hood and trunk lid with a coarsened black, possibly POR-15 with a kind of granulation stirred in. It closely matches what was there originally. The rest of the trunk was done with the rough black, as it is highly resistant to wear. The engine bay is not rough, rather done in a satin black.

The dash was done in eggshell, but this isn't much different than satin. The closer black is to "flat" the more susceptible it is to showing scratches. Satin black, being slightly more glossy than eggshell, might be a better choice for the dash. Simply installing the tonneau cover tends to leave visible marks. Nobody is going to know or care, so long as the dash isn't body color or glossy.

I've seen oil pans both blue green and baby-poop yellow. I chose the latter, but wonder if the blue-green might have been more "correct". Either color is quickly going to become a mixture of oil, road grime, and squirrel parts. At least the lighter colors will be quick to indicate an oil leak, but if you attempt to repair any of these you're likely to wish you simply didn't know about them. Ignorance is bliss.

I tried to establish the one, true color for the oil pan, and finally gave up. It may well be that there are no un-redone pans out there to see.

 

[DPeterson3]

Okay, I see why the front jamb is black. None of the pictures are clear enough to see the door hinges, so I think I will have the hinges painted all black, but I wonder what the factory did.

The oil pan bugs me. Not that we aren't sure what color it is, but I just don't see the point of it not being black since the block is! However, as Don says the color is "quickly going to become a mixture of oil, road grime, and squirrel parts." But Don, exactly how many squirrels are you hitting? ;-) I'm picturing you driving wildly down a country road swerving toward squirrel after squirrel! That actually sounds like a pretty good video game!

Yeah. One can hope. We have a plague of rabbits in my yard, but only one squirrel. They work as a team. The rabbits buzz saw the top of whatever was about to bloom, and "Cyril" the squirrel hauls off the bulbs. All of them.

I suspect the odd light-blue-greenish color for the pan. I found a picture of the yellow, so used it, after which I found more than one pic of the blue-green. When I saw them, it jogged my memory of my first Alfa, a 1959 Touring, and I felt a resonance for the blue-green.

It is possible that the entire door edge should be black, as well as the dash and jamb. This would support an entirely black hinge. The rear jamb looks right in body color.