[alfa] Nero Pastello (was: Clear Coat on Alfa Red Paint?)

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dean W. Cains, responding to Ray Manners' question about clear coat on an '87 Spider, wrote " Well, I've also got an '87 Spider Veloce, and there's no clear coat over the 'Nero Pastello', so I don't imagine there'd be a clear coat over your 'Rosso'."

I had replied to Ray last night off-digest saying that my '87 Milano had a clear coat over a 'Nero Pastello' basecoat, and mentioned my initial puzzlement over the 'Nero Pastello' name. "Pastello" is, according to the English-Italian-English dictionary, what it sounds like- the Italian term for the English Pastel. In English 'Pastel' is usually a light color, but even more usually non-shiny; it is the colored chalks used in certain artworks, and the English term comes from the Italian and ultimately from the Latin, the same root as English 'paste' and Italian 'pasta'. So I assumed that Nero Pastello was the non-reflective or minimally reflective black basecoat which derived most or all of its shine from a clearcoat. 
 
Whatever Nero Pastello is proves nothing about a contemporary Rosso, but if anyone can shed light on Italian use of the term pastello in automotive paints I would be interested.

John H.
Raleigh N.C.
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided