131 color?!

[covjek]

I was wondering if 131`s ever came in black originally and if it did,what market was it for?From what i`m seeing in various FIAT manuals and articles(mostly German) the colors are,to say the least funny.

[simon131]

Certainly as far as I know the only 'standard' 131 available in black from the factory was the Sport/Racing - and that was generally a 'special order'.

I have seen a few non-Sport 131s that were painted black after they left the factory either by their current owner (an example being a polish registered 131 S that was recently available on ebay.co.uk) or as part of a 're-modelling' exercise (such as the stretched 'limosine' that I have often seen on the web).

No doubt someone will shoot my theory down in flames, but this is what I currently think to be true.

The standard colours for 131s, especially series 1 and 2 cars, are very '70's'. Oranges and salmon pinks were all the rage! The later series 3 cars were much more subdued.

[Thotos]

As I am sure you know, black is a difficult colour for cars because it shows up any irregularities in the panels. A lot of manufacturers used to specially select cars from their production lines to paint black. I am sure modern production methods nowadays have negated the need to specially select cars for painting black but it was certainly the case back in the 70's and early 80's. The 131 Sport/Racing had slightly different profile front wings to the other 131s so obviously different presses were used for the front wings. It could be that different presses were used for some of the other panels as well which is why only the Sport/Racing was available in black; lower production volumes meant the presses stayed good for longer? Or maybe they were also specially selected off the production line for special-order black paint.

[covjek]

I`m more interested in series 3 saloon.I`ve had it in red before the rebuild and i want to put it in black this time(with Mk3 grey side trims and grey velour inside).It`s just i don`t want to do it if the color code is not factory original.I`m very sensitive to these things since i want "factory spec" quality,no more and sure as hell no less. On the other hand i could go with salmon pink

[Thotos]

As far as I know, black was not available for any Series 3 cars. It certainly wasn't available in the UK.

[covjek]

Dang!I was really hoping for a black metallic .The thing is,factory color schemes are too light and it kills the crome trim.That`s a thinker .What do you think,should i turn a blind eye on the factory specs and go with say Nero 981F (metallic black) or stick with the stock color?

[hicky131]

You could allways paint it a proper colour!

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[covjek]

As far as the Sport/Racing goes i`m more of a Gun metal gray guy,but my second favorite is orange,really .But speaking of Mk 3 Diesel...somehow i don`t think the bump on the hood would look good in orange .

[hicky131]

Your quite right. The series 3 cars look less "agressive"shall we say than the sport model and as such should have a less agressive colour.

I quite like this colour:-

[parrish]

Orange definetly makes the car stand out!
Lovely colour