Paul,
After having just finished the full Monty on my SII motor I dug around and
researched the engine color before painting it again. I am not trying to
Concours this truck but I at least want to know what was exactly original
then make my decisions from there.
What I found was that there was every indication that my block had never
been completely disassembled and inside there was a light camel colored
paint used to basically seal up the iron block. On the outside of this
block I found very light gray paint. Further inspection found a crack
between no's 3 and 4 so I had to go after another SII block. Tore that one
down and cleaned it thoroughly and there was the same paint, at least on the
inside. The outer surfaces had the gray paint but there was less of it.
BTW, this wasn't faded blue/green, tested for that.
Then talking to some folks who knew the engines back when these were
contemporary automobiles, they all independently said that for these early
motors, none were painted this Robin's Egg Blue. So where did this color
come from? Apparently, all parts from the UK that were originally this
color were from military sources. What has happened in the last few decades
is that for some reason everyone thought it was an appropriate color and
started using it. Most commonly, the variant of Detroit Diesel Green and
some other version known as Alpine Green were used - they all basically look
the same anyway. I even called some of the larger suppliers in the US and
asked them what they used on their rebuilds and all said they used this
particular Detroit Diesel Green. After the rebuild they spray the whole
darn block, manifolds, ancillaries, everything!
Then I found some old color pictures of early SII trucks and I found the
same gray again. Okay, I was convinced that gray was the way to go. So
here's what I did and I can tell you that it looks fantastic. All were out
of the spray can from the local hardware store and I spent less than $10 to
respray the whole thing
oil pan - Gloss black high temp paint by Rustoleum
front cover - Gloss black high temp paint by Rustoleum
block - Ford gray high temp paint by Rustoleum
intake manifold - bead blasted to metal color
valve cover - bead blasted to metal color
exhaust manifold - flat black high temp coating by Performance Coatings
(actually this cost $100)
I have to say that this is the best darn looking tractor motor I have ever
seen - looks as utility as it really is - nothing fancy - super basic.
Now the only thing that really matters when we paint this stuff is that we
LROs are satisfied with the net results. Well, I couldn't be happier. The
engine is not back in the truck yet so everything is completely visible. I
am more than happy to email anyone images of this finished product for you
to compare with the green that most seem to want. I believe Pete Hope has
some images of a new SIIa motor that is all green. Oh, that's another
point. What I said about the motors not being green save for military units
only holds for original SII motors. I found the Robin's Egg Blue (or
similar) to be on later blocks.
Hope this helps,
Rich Williams
'60 SII 109 SW
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Apr 26 2001 - 20:26:23 EDT