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



Hi John:

I always think of a pastel color as one with a muted or pale shade, and I think that's appropriate for the Nero Pastello because it's not a pure black. I've never associated the term pastel with the level of gloss, and would also say that the older yellow, "giallo pagoda", is a pastel color. Most people I'm sure miss it, but in just the right light, such as when the angle of the sun is low, my '87 Spider is a really deep, dark gray, rather than black. It can't be more than a few shades away from black, but it's definitely not black.

Regards,

Dean

At 12:54 AM 7/12/2004, you wrote:

Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 21:20:03 -0400
From: "John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>
Subject: [alfa] Nero Pastello (was: Clear Coat on Alfa Red Paint?)

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.
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