I've found many sources of info on this but none that match mine!
I have a 2005 X Type estate finished in Quartz Grey met (code LHK) but there are a few spots under the bonnet where I need to touch up - mainly the suspension turret tops.
I have seen all sorts of suggestions as to the colour - and I recently got some JUC10 pale grey touch up paint following advice on one of the forums.
That is much too light. Grey primer and zinc primer don't match either.
Quartz grey paint is also completely wrong with or without lacquer.
Does anyone know what the grey colour used is? It seems to be on all the engine bay (inner wings etc) except for the bonnet underside.
It might just be the normal primer Jaguar use but I don't seem to be able to match it with off-the-shelf primers.
Any help gratefully received.
Regards
David

 

David,

I contacted Jaguar for information about the engine bay finish when a member with an XK8 was looking for an answer to the same question.

The answer was they don't use a different colour for the engine bay or luggage compartment. It's the same as the body colour but they don't apply a clearcoat to those areas hence the dull or satin appearance.

Graham

 

Thanks for the reply - but.......
This might be true for an XK8 (my XK8 had Carnival Red engine bay as well as body colour) but either it's not so on X Types or it's not so just on mine. My engine bay is a mid grey colour which looks like a primer finish (although I'm not sure of this). Definitely not the body colour or any of the primer colours I have.

 

DavidC, from what you describe, you are going to have an issue with matching this as you are dealing with the primer gray color.

With this being said, you have 2 options as I see it. The first is based on you having access to an airbrush. From there, you can get your hands on some white and black testors enamel paint. From there, you can add a little bit of black to the white to match up the shade of gray (may have to even add a little bit of green or blue in there to get the gray exact). Then you can use the air brush to spray on the paint to make it look like it was sprayed on by the factory.

The second option is to go to an automotive paint store (some of your larger auto parts places will or else you will have to locate an auto paint specific store) and then they should have a small "light gun" tool that they can shoot the primer paint area and the gun will tell them the exact pigments that will be needed to match the color that the gun saw. From there, you can apply the paint. Some stores will even load say 8 ounces of paint into a spray can for you. But, plan on spending a pretty penny for this service ($40 USD is not unreasonable).

 

Thanks for that. I'd more or less resigned myself to trying to match the colour myself but thought it was worth asking in case someone had already done that.
I may be able to get my local auto paint stockist to match it for me or, failing that, I might be able to get a reasonable match by mixing the colour myself. As I only want it for a few small spots I might try and mix it using odd bottles of left over touch up paint from various cars I've had over the past few years (nothing too old!)
Thanks for replying.
DavidC

 

Graham's answer was correct; the engine bay is finished in the same base colour as the rest of the body but without the clear coat; the reason it looks like a different colour is that the clear coat is often tinted. This has been the case with 3 X-Types I have owned: Emerald, a polychromatic green/blue with the blue entirely in the clear coat, Anthracite (metallic black) and Jaguar Racing Green.

 

Thanks for all the replies - but this is certainly not the case with my car. I guess I'll have to look elsewhere - or just put up with my original touch-ups (which were in the original body colour without any clear coat) and which are a completely different colour to the rest of the under bonnet area. (It's always possible that the area was entirely repainted at some time in it's early life of course but I have no other evidence of this)
DavidC



If you look on the left of the pic you can see body colour with no clear coat on the wing.

 

DavidC, thinking back to when I had my X-Type, all the area that is the light gray was body color on my 2003. Based on the picture, the area under the hood has not be repainted professionally because the stickers for the belt is still there. So, now the question is whether the outside of the car was repainted. This is where I would tell you to go back to say one of the door frames and peel back the carpeting/door trim. Look to see where the paint changes color there. Does the color change dramatically (like someone taped it off to prevent the darker gray from going somewhere else) or does it fade (ie, lots of overspray). The factory paint will have lots of overspray as they don't mask off the car when they paint it as there is nothing inside the car to worry about getting paint on when they paint the car.

 

Interesting point Thermo. I can't see any evidence of repainting after looking under door trim and in other inaccessible places but the original spec sheet which I got from Jaguar doesn't give the colour info so I can't be sure.
When I get a chance I'll look in some other nooks and crannies to see if there's any evidence of a colour change.
DavidC

 

DavidC, if you open up the driver's door, you should have a sticker there that will state something to the effect of "EXT CLR" with a code on it. That code will be the exact color of the body. Granted, if that sticker is still there, then the car most likely has not been repainted. If it is, then you will see a masking line just inside of the seem where the door and the body meet. Granted, you should see a seem in the paint under the hood where the exterior of the body rolls under the hood. Again, if it is factory paint, there will be a fade in that area, not a crisp line.

Worst case, take another picture of the under hood area, but stand at say the passenger side wheel and catch the wheel well area, zooming in as much as you can so we can see how the paint changes color. A quick view for me will clue me in to what most likely happened to the car.

 

Thanks Thermo.
All the evidence is that it's original colour (data plate which shows LHK, door jambs etc) but it may have been repainted at some time. A pal of mine had a Ford which had a colour change before it left the factory so I guess anything is possible.
I'm away for a week now but when I get back I'll do as you suggest and probe further.
DavidC

 

For what it is worth, my car is Adriatic Blue Metallic. The underhood color is the same, but shot with about a 2:3 reducer (rather than 1:1) with a few drops of flattening agent in it; it flows out smooth, slightly lighter than the body color, but the metalflake is REALLY reduced by the thin coat...also, it is neither cleared or rubbed out.

It looks VERY different, but it is the same $80 a pint stuff that is used on the body.

 

I have a 2010 jaguar xtype and its shadow grey in colour but it is also a different grey under the bonnet ,not just the shadow grey without the lacquer but a completely different grey like in ur picture and I 2 yesterday wanted to touch up a few Mark's on the front panel, but dont have that grey for it ,now I just put ordinary grey primer on it for the time being ,I have got an aerosol can with the proper paint mixed in it LMR shadow grey so I might just do the hole panel in that and not lacquer it seeing I have it,I had a bmw Z4 a few years ago and it was the same a different colour under the hood from the factory, some car manufacturer's do this just to save money, so dont worrie its original.