Trying to following the engine block color adventure, so far it seems to
look like:
Originals may have had variations in color including the Red/Orange
that has shown up
Black is the politically correct color for points cars and looks
good.
Gray is not common, or factory supplied, but makes practical sense
Blue/green was apparently used by the factory for factory rebuilt
engines
Car I'm currently working on had all or these colors present except
gray. Blue green on this one was probably a prior owner rather than the
factory. The rest appear on generator, starter and water pump. Doubt
that the engine will be this colorful when I finish. Those of you that
are into points cars will need to chime in if 'black" is improper. There
are too many stories of the red/orange and examples in different parts of
the world for there not to have been some production using this color.
It doesn't strike me as a color that would be randomly selected after an
engine left the factory.
It appears that there was a variation in engine color over time and
model. The article that posted a while back on the history of "british
racing green" makes a good parallel example of common color evolution.
Jonmac's "supplier variation" would support that idea if taken to
represent more than variation of a single color.
Jack McCarrick
jonmac wrote:
> As I understood the factory used remainders of paint to paint the
> engines.
> The most common colour is the orange/red shade you have on your
> engine. My
> TR3a also came in orange/red. I repainted my engine in orange/red. A
> large
> number of people however transfer to black. If you prefer originality
> go for
> orange/red!!
>
> With the greatest respect, I think your first sentence is not
> strictly in line with reality. I grant you the quality of engine
> paint was never all that spectacular - but using remainders
> (left-overs? - and from where?), I have to disagree.
> Last July, I had a long meeting with the former chargehand of the
> paintshop about 'happenings' as a whole and I gathered yet more
> 'politically incorrect' info from him. As far as engine paint and
> body paint was concerned, STI had three key paint suppliers - ICI,
> P&J and Dockers. These companies were continually under threat from
> other minority suppliers on price and it is well known these
> companies got an "in" by supplying engine paint. Because no specific
> shade reference was (allegedly) given, all sorts of variations on a
> colour theme were used. This certainly suggests that left-overs might
> have been in use but I can assure listers that for 'remainders' you
> should use an alternative term which is 'supplier colour variation.'
>
> John Mac
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