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I have always thought the sills were painted satin black although I have been reading a few early press reports saying the sills are painted in a bituminous type of black ie. (shultz)
just thinking about what to paint the sills with on the white one.
the satin black obviously looks nicer

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1981 DHC 2.0 Litre
1980 DHC pedal car
1976 FHC 2.0 Litre

My vote goes to satin black (in case of the DHC gloss black with 30% matt).
Both my cars had smooth underbody protection applied on the sills before painting.

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<font color="blue"><i>1980 TR7 DHC (my first car, now restored and back on the road)
1981 TR7 FHC Sprint (better known as 't Kreng)</font id="blue">
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I don't know for sure but I think the finished appearance of the sill coating may have changed during the production run.

My TR8 which is a Speke build has a Shutz type coating on the sills, still a satin black finish but not very smooth.

My TR7 which is a Solihull car has a smoother satin black finish, I know this is original.

So if mine are anything to go by Gaz, your early car should have the Shutz type finish.

Tony

<font size="1">1981 TR7 FHC Cavalry Blue
1980 TR7V8 DHC Jaguar Regency Red - sadly sold!
1977 TR8 FHC EFI Factory development car Inca Yellow</font id="size1">

I've also seen the thick shinier gravel guard protection on "original" cars both from both Speke and Cantley , and its possibly the one thing I never liked on the early cars , much preferring the smoother finish on my Solihull car.

Judging only from the pics you've posted the protection on the lower rear quarters look to have already cracked, so you would probably need to strip off the old finish first, other wise the new application will most likely not adhere properly, or have a reaction (friss)when you paint over it......

I'm with Beans on the gloss black with flattener added if you were spraying on a much more resistant 2 stage paint base/clear, however if you are just going with the rattle can to clean things up a thin coating of chip protection and some satin black imho would look very fine....

Ron.

I would have described the paint that was originally on the sills and lower rear wing area of my Solihull car as gloss black. I suppose though in comparison to todays high peformance paints it would be better described as semi gloss. It was described in the brochure as an anti chip paint. It was quite thickly applied with a typical orange peel finish. I don't suppose a high quality finish would be a priority in the sill area. It flaked off fairly quickly and the dealer reapplied but in satin finish. Earlier cars are described in literature of the time as having a bitumastic type finish to the sills. Of course many bitumastic finishes would actually appear quite glossy when new. If painting sills today I would tend to avoid satin or matt black as they seem to hold dirt and are quite difficult to keep clean. I know this may make some people shudder but in this area I think you could use a brushable auto paint if your sill finishing strips are to be used. Regards,supercass

My 1980 had the thick orange-peel type finish on the sill paint and needed to be freshened up. After a lot of testing I recoated it all with a black hammer finish from a rattle can. I'm very happy with the color and finish and it seems to clean easily. But be careful what you use; most brands have a metallic sheen that would definitely look wrong.
I found a Rustoleum black that was non-metallic.


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1980 Pageant Blue DHC with removable hardtop.

Tony has it spot on as it did change through the production run.

Speke cars were given a rather crude thick shutz coating on the sills that had a very uneven texture.

Canley cars had a similar finish but not as thick as Speke.

Solihul cars had the smoother satin finish we've all come to expect
to see because after a restoration this is the finish everyone puts on.

Roy

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Err.. Not so, I tried to recreate the earlier rough finish on Vicki. The early finish is much harder to keep clean though. The later smooth satin finish is a joy to wipe clean but stones tend to chip it. The early rubbery finish is more bouncy bouncy. I went to see a car with less than 12,000 miles on the clock (1980 Canly Smooth sills) it was pretty mint but it did have a rusty stone chip on the r/h sill. Maybe why the later cars don't last as well as the early ones.

Steve

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My Solihull Spider has anti-chip type sills. I resprayed them to freshen them up, I think I used an anti chip spray paint (undercoat type paint I bought from Canadian Tire). Fortunately it came in black.[:p] Looks just like it did before only better.



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