David ,
Tks for posting the photos.
As you mention colour of any car is a personal choice but painting a current bright colour or one that is not a period colour on a 70 year old car is certainly not the best choice, especially for future resale.
Early Bristol 400's had only 4 standard colours Black , Maroon , Metallic Green & Metallic Blue but in the later production there were a few painted the 401 colours like Cambridge Grey, Heather Grey, Azure Blue.
Generally the metallic colours suit and highlight the shape of the rounded flowing wings , dark colours tend to make the body look smaller and light colours do the opposite.
I think if you painted it Ivory /OEW it would tend to look like a prototype Transit van, so certainly not my choice .
A darker colour and even think about some type of two tone , possibly a different coloured roof or different shade of the same colour on the roof.
Being a one off Coachbuilt body originality is not that important, but I quite
like dark burgundy/maroon, that it was first painted. I painted my first 400 dark burgundy and after about 25 years changed it to the original Metallic Green.
Attached are two photos to compare colours on 400's
Good Luck with your choice
Geoff
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