71S color change quandary

[Fredie]

I must have a word on this as the original color of my 70 S was sepia. Now it’s signal yellow which I personally love and it puts a smile on my face. This whole as delivered original thing is cool for collecting, but not for driving or enjoymeny of your car. Something no amount of money or lighting will Sepia bring.... ever. I’m not about to stare at what’s in the toilet nor am I going to stare at Sepia. Period. Just my 2c

[Frank Beck]

I must have a word on this as the original color of my 70 S was sepia. Now it’s signal yellow which I personally love and it puts a smile on my face. This whole as delivered original thing is cool for collecting, but not for driving or enjoymeny of your car. Something no amount of money or lighting will Sepia bring.... ever. I’m not about to stare at what’s in the toilet nor am I going to stare at Sepia. Period. Just my 2c

I really appreciate this comment from a recovering Turdy. My fear is that I'm being influenced too much by the color change militia.

[Noah]

The only reason anyone ordered a 911 in Sepia is because it was 1970 and they were on acid. Say no to drugs Frank!

[Fredie]

Yup!
It goes right up there with wide brown polyester ties, bell bottoms, porn facial hair, bushy sideburns and a big bush of another kind we won’t talk about. It’s about as endearing as a pet silverback gorilla.. And about as fashionable as the clothes on welcome back Kotter. Oh and another thing. If it was so great, how come they didn’t bring it back?
Stay strong.

[steve shea]

What makes sepia worse is if the car has a brown interior. It's as though you are sitting in a pile of, well, poo. I had a 68 Targa brown/brown. My young twins named it the turd. It's gone. I did see a nice fresh sepia with a black interior, sport seats, dog tooth etc. It looked much more tolerable than brown/brown. Twas me I'd do the Pastel Blau.

[Peanut]

What makes sepia worse is if the car has a brown interior. It's as though you are sitting in a pile of, well, poo. I had a 68 Targa brown/brown. My young twins named it the turd. It's gone. I did see a nice fresh sepia with a black interior, sport seats, dog tooth etc. It looked much more tolerable than brown/brown. Twas me I'd do the Pastel Blau.

Classic. For a short period of time, I had a brown Corolla with brownish vinyl interior. My friends called it The Roach.

Scott

[gruen911]

Frank,
If you want to reduce the hit from doing a color change from sepia, then to minimize the loss in value you need to do a color change to a highly desirable color. Here are a few colors to choose from: viper green, signal yellow, gulf orange, blutorange. These are colors that most early 911 buyers would pay a premium for. Pick one of these and you can enjoy the car more, and re-coup most of the loss on doing a color change.
By the way, I was never a big fan of sepia, but when the paint is done well, it can be pretty nice...Here is a pic of my ex-73T in "floater brown". The paint was close to flawless and received plenty of complements. It also had a brown interior which was close to perfect. None of these early cars in excellent condition are undesirable. Some are just more desirable than others...

[NickP]

You are overthinking this Frank. Maybe, just maybe the only reason to keep it Sepia would be if it was the original paint. Since that ship sailed long along why go back? Paint it a color you love and enjoy it. Don’t look back, life’s not a dress rehearsal.

Nick

[Arne]

Frank, I'm not very big on color changes in general. My newly acquired '72 T was born silver, and unfortunately was painted 'resale red' years ago. As such, my plan it to revert back to silver.

Even though I don't mind Sepia myself, I totally get why people can't abide with it. When I was playing with 240Zs, my wife forbade me from buying any in Safari Gold, a color affectionately known in the Z community as 'baby poo'. I've never asked her about buying a Sepia car. While I wouldn't mind Sepia, I know her answer in advance.

So while I would generally want to go back to the original color on most cars, if you are planning to keep it yourself, who cares what the original color was? Make yourself happy with it.

[gdj911]

I experienced painting back to the original color of pastel blue. The color was beautiful the experience was not. So , I’ll hesitate to ever paint another early 911. However, if I did, I would go back to the original color on a valuable 911 if it were any other color, butt sepia.