Flathead Colour

ajmac · #1 21-05-10, 10:13

What colour were the Flathead V8s painted for war production?
Reading about Mercury V8s I saw reference to these being painted a different colour to Ford units.

tankbarrell · #2 21-05-10, 11:51

The T16s engine was painted Ford Blue, a dark grey blue not unlike the bars on this forum, at least on my monitor! I have (had) a couple of NOS T16 water pump bodies and they were that colour.

RichardT10829 · #3 21-05-10, 13:16

I have seen them in Battleship grey (or a few tints darker) and in Black. Mine will hopefull be done in grey though as i like that

tankbarrell · #4 21-05-10, 14:03

You'll see them in all sorts of colours, very few original though!

Lynn Eades · #5 21-05-10, 14:03

This has been discussed before on this forum, and yes, some years the Merc was a different colour than ford. There is a very informative web site that covers this, but cannot remember the details.

horsa · #6 21-05-10, 18:19

Most of the Ford sites on-line that I've seen don't cover the wartime years since no dealer catalogs were made during that time as civilian vehicle manufacturing was suspended. Some speculate that the postwar colors must have started following the last published pre-war listed color which I don't think is accurate.

The Ford 4-cyclinder used on jeeps was a gray color while that same engine in a Willys was the color of the vehicle body.

For the T-16 V8 engine which is the 24-stud pattern, the color was a very dark rifle green shade. This had been one of the pre-war colors as compared with the postwar blue. We found this color on two T-16 engines and transmissions that were still hooked up inside vehicles. And NOS wartime Ford G166 tagged water pump pulleys and crank shaft pulleys I've had were this color as well. I've also got a pair of NOS heads that color but they are not tagged.

Attached shot is a wartime water pump pulley made in 1944. Doubt this was repainted after the war since the vehicles and parts were all sold as surplus.

Not sure of colors for the 21-stud V8 used on British and Canadian carriers.

tankbarrell · #7 21-05-10, 18:44

That looks dark blue/grey to me! The pump bodies I had were certainly wartime NOS and were definately blue as was the engine that came out of my T16. Different factories? I'll see if I can find a pump body.

martyn · #8 21-05-10, 19:36

most of the v8s ive seen are that great colour rust red lol,
ive seen 2 in dark green think they are recon old stock, and 1 ford grey, and 3 in duck egg green, a friend has a windsor that has only got 16 miles on it came out of pounds yard in the 50s and still has all its packing tape on the engine air filter and inlets will ask what colour that is?

horsa · #9 21-05-10, 19:53

Guess we need to be careful when generalizing colors. Australian carriers seem to have a different shade of rust on their engines when compared with those in North America. Likely they won't match your rust variation in the UK either.

A friend of mine here in the USA will be taking possession of a 1943 dated T-16 with a 46XX serial number later this summer. It never went overseas and so never got any British modifications applied to it. The engine is dead but original to the vehicle so I will post what we find on it in a month or two. I haven't seen it in person yet but the vehicle is still in all original paint so likely the engine is also. It won't tell us anything conclusive but will at least be another thing we can use to see if there is a trend for the T-16s.

RichardT10829 · #10 21-05-10, 21:05

I am just going to throw this out there, but what about Rally X red :-

it is a proven fact that red adds BHP to any engine

this one being my last engine build a full custom 1380cc A series with T3 turbo charger pushing 20psi boost and producing 225 bhp at the crank.... kinda makes ya wonder what they did wrong with the large CC V8's we have in our carriers

Hope i have tickled some of you

Richie

ajmac · #11 06-09-10, 11:25

Did anyone get anywhere with ID of wartime colours? I want to get it right and will be painting my gearbox the correct colour for US production 1943. The box already has a little original paint and looks like a deep blue/green, almost like a hammerite metalic green.... probably post war. Hopefully I can find some original color under the dizzy on the engine.... however I would have thought that both the pre / early war Ford green and late war / post war Ford dark blue would be available 'off the shelf', are they?

RichardT10829 · #12 06-09-10, 11:36

AJ ring martyn up he spent some time on this subjetc, now that he has a queue of folk wanting engines built by him he has had to get the correct schemes etc. worth a call he is only around the corner from you buddy.

andrew honychurch · #13 01-11-10, 18:46

I am sure that I will be told otherwise, but working on my Mercury 100HP T16 engine the only colour I can see on any of it is black. The water pumps appear to have been khaki at some stage but of course they may have been painted. I wish I could find another colour but so far nothing. Is it possible that the military spec engine for T16 could have been black ?

Aidan · #14 02-11-10, 02:13

I belive it was the standard ford Engine Green . Henry Ford would have Aproved

Aidan

andrew honychurch · #15 02-11-10, 16:25

I suspect this story will run and run. As I said the green I can find on mine are on the water pumps. Looking at the photo of the very original T16 owned by a friend of David Gordon, the sump looks to be black as per mine. Anyway, as an aside I ran into this colour on a French Army jeep engine. It looks very like the colour on the water pump pulleys David posted earlier. I can get this colour paint no problem so may go with this , otherwise I am thinking dark Grey or Black There is also a picture of my engine as is.

Hanno Spoelstra · #16 02-11-10, 16:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew honychurch

I can get this colour paint no problem so may go with this , otherwise I am thinking dark Grey or Black There is also a picture of my engine as is.

Andrew,

If your engine is black, I would repaint it as such, also because that colour helps dissipate heat which is a bonus for a V8 running in the confines of a Carrier.

Hanno

andrew honychurch · #17 02-11-10, 18:01

you may well be right , I just was looking for an excuse to change the colour as its a bit dull but maybe it is correct for mine. Its frustrating not being able to discover. I did have a friend who had a T16 out of a crate many many years ago. I wonder if he has any old photos he could check out? Must be worth a call anyway.

A