1988 engine bay painted black and white?

[sydewaysix]

I am looking at a 1988 ASC McLaren which has white exterior, blue interior and blue top. I saw a post here where it was explained that in 1988, most cars with blue interiors came with white engine bays due to ASC being backed up with orders, though some still got painted black.

For the car I am looking at, the sides are painted black but the radiator support is white. It doesn’t seem to have been masked off as the black “fades” onto the white radiator support almost like overspray. The firewall is black.

Seller claims the car has never been painted so I am curious if this is a common “issue/oversight” that ASC had with these cars.

[negusm]

Could be possible. You'd have to really look and see if you can see any body damage or repairs that might tell the story. If you find none at all, then you'll have to conclude on what you see whether there was a factory error.

These cars were literally hand made one at a time and we don't know all the mistakes that were made. It does seem unlikely though that one came through with that kind of mistake that would immediately be noticed on a brand new luxury priced car.

[svo413]

ASC ordered the cars based on interior color and transmission type. For example, my wife's 88 was Ford built with a gray interior, black exterior and automatic trans. ASC painted the exterior white. From this, I would expect all auto trans cars with a gray interior would have came black and repainted any ASC exterior color.

I have not looked into cars with a blue interior. Ford had some color combo limits so probably red cars could not be ordered with blue interiors. That would be listed in the Ford sales brochure.

Sandy may have outlined the colors at some point. I have noted a few odd underhood combinations such as red exterior, red under hood and red interior.

[svo413]

Here is the info Sandy posted.

ALL 1987-1990 rolled off Dearborn Assembly in Raven Black,
EXCEPT cars ordered with a blue colored interior.

For 1987,
1989 & 1990 these cars were painted in Oxford White.

In 1988
these cars were painted in Pastel Smoke. (A huge fleet of
State, Local, Police and Government fleet all wanting Oxford
White, precluded painting cars that were going to be re-painted
anyhow, in Oxford White, so they used Pastel Smoke, a very pale
pastel grey, as like the name, the color of cigarette smoke, Non-
Metallic.

[ChuckG]

I've seen pics in the holding lot--presumably from 1987 because there are GNXs there too, and there were lots of color Mustang notches waiting for conversion. It was on the ASC/McLaren FB page.