hi iwondered if you could help me i am looking for the name of a colour that was used 0n the 1936 austin 7 ruby its a very dark blue the colour iam looking for
i work for a refinishing company but i cannot find a colour chip to match thats avaiable in celly paint which my customer rquires any info would be very much apprecated


many thank andy

Hi. My Ruby is dark blue, having been restored by the last owner in the '90s. Wyatt's "The Austin Seven" quotes the blue colour for mark 1 Rubies as "royal blue" which to my mind is more of a mid blue colour, so I had assumed that mine had been resprayed darker than original.

However, then a twin to my car came up on eBay, dragged out of a barn completely original (it was even a BDD reg number like mine), and the colour was definitly dark blue, almost navy. The colour mine was resprayed with was a Mercedes colour. I have a piece of paper with "P525904 Merc d/blue 2K". I hope that helps!

In 1936 there was the only blue for Fixed Head saloons "royal blue" with light blue fine lines. The other colours were maroon (red fine lines), black (fine lines not spec.)

More colours for the other Saloons and Pearl Cabrio were dove grey with gold fine lines and westminster green with light green fine lines. Pearl cabrio instead maroon cherry red with light red fine lines.

Tourer: royal blue, maroon and auto brown with tan fine lines. Nippy Sports: primrose, turquoise blue, cherry red, black (fine lines not spec.)

Colour scheme for royal blue (see Austin Seven Companion p. 75): prussian blue 95%, black 3%, white 2%

regards Helmut

Is the car you are restoring a Mk I or a Mk II (flap open or wind down rear windows)? And is it fixed head, or does it have a sunroof? If it has a sunroof ("de luxe") then the Companion also quotes "blue" in addition to "royal blue", although what that means is anyone's guess! The paint colour chart in the companion is for pre 1928 cars, so a bit early for a Ruby.

In 1936 catalogue only "royal blue" was "standard blue" for all models, nippy "turquoise blue", "other colours and upholstery on extra charge".

In Wikipedia you can see "Prussian blue" (syn. "Turnbulls Blue" or "Paris Blue"), the first synthetic colour.

I have just had a paint colour matched for my Ruby (grey) to a sample of the original paint that I supplied to the paint manufacturer.

When I got the paint it was spot on to the original.

I understand from the paint manufacturer that they passed it over to a specialist for analysis and them gave them a composition that would create the colour.

I understand from the paint manufacturer that the specialist is a separate entity, so presumably they will take on outside work.

The paint manufacturer can be contacted via their website www.craftmasterpaints.co.uk and they may be prepared to supply details.

Good luck!

Gary