I have a '56 XK140 FHC and I'm having it repainted. According to my heritage certifcate it should be painted Suede Green. Where can I find a current paint chip or a current paint manufacturer's paint number?
Thanks for any help. David Ward

Submitted by NE18-46927 on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 06:27

From John Elmgreen:

These are my notes on Suede Green, including some codes and notes:
Suede Green:
British Domolac ÔÇ£ZofelacÔÇØ: (1949-50 chips): [code illegible] (saloons and coupes i.e. Mk V only)
Pinchin Johnson - J.873 (synthetic enamel, SB 114 Dec 52)
British Domolac - Q.1080 (synthetic enamel, SB 114 Dec 52), then Q 1080/1 (introduced 14 May 56 per SB 238).
ICI, UK: 2397
ICI (per BALM listing) ÔÇô (1948-50): 253-16725; (1950-51): 253-2397
ICI, USA, 2K system: 2397
BALM (Australia): (1948-50): 286-15763; (1950-51): 286-15760
Dulux (Australia), 1980s listing: (1948-57): 07604
Other reported matches: PPG: Austin Rover Group 'Empire Green ARG.GN 22
This is a medium to darkish green colour, with a very faint bluish touch. SB 238 recorded a code variation for May 1956 for the British Domolac colour but not for the Pinchin Johnson colour. It is not known what the variation was.
A comparison of ICI 2397 with the paint sample matched to the 1954 colour chips showed a mid green with a touch of grey and not much blue. The 1954 match was a shade or twolighterthan the ICI sample, and a littlemore blue (the ICI was more grey).

[Message from someone else:] Steve, The current PPG cross reference to Jaguar Suede Green code J.873, as advised to me by PPG - UK is PPG code ARG.GN22 (This is called now Empire Green and was used by Austin-Rover-Group, thus ARG prefix to paint code). But please note, Suede Green was not used on XK150s. In Jan 1957, Suede Green was superseded by a similar, but new colour SHERWOOD GREEN (Code Q.1231 supplied by British Domolac), and I don't have current code for this colour, sorry. regards, Roger

Submitted by krloring@comcast.net on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 21:22

I took a painted panel from my red XK120 to Montague and Brown, the automotive paint company. They use a computer to scan the paint then check it against the factory book. After that exercise they printed out the paint code for jaguar red for the body shop. I was surprised to see they had a sample of the Jaguar red to cross reference.
Try your local automotive paint store they may have a sample of suede green.
good luck,
Ken Loring

Submitted by SE98-32482CJ on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 10:06

David Jaguar Technical bulletin #114 dated Dec. 1952 list Suede Green as a Pinchin Johnson supplied color refrenced as J873. I know you asked for current but if you contact the PPG library they can usually convert the color to a modern mixture. They have kept paint samples on glass slides and are able to scan the sample--it used to be at no cost but not sure this day and time. PJ is still in business I think. The listed color is synthetic enamel and is at the cutoff point for Jaguar changing the way 120s were finished. Hope this helps.

Submitted by petersparts@sy… on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 09:26

We have an original Jaguar color guide put out by Jaguar Cars Inc. New York
It says it is a color guide for all models but shows the XK-E , Mark X sedan and the 3.8 sedan. There is a clear plastic sheet with outlines of these models as well as 14 pages of paint color samples. This clear sheet can be flipped over onto the paint color sample to show what the three cars would look like. Sherwood green is one of these as well as Opalescent Dark Green.
There are several upholstery samples attached, one of which is suede green . This suede green is shown as an upholstery option on both the Sherwood green and Opalescent Dark Green paint samples.