Flathead Colour

[Lynn Eades]

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]

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]

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.

[horsa]

There might have been more than one color since the first engines were different than the later Mercury type which was a little more powerful. A few shots are attached of the Mercury pattern engine which matches the same color as the pulley and heads that I have.

The pulley on the other message is darker looking from 65+ years of NOS dirt. One of the engine shots was taken after brushing and wiping it down with oil on rags so it has a brighter and more glossy look with direct sunshine on it. The other shots haven't been cleaned up. You can see how dull it looks in comparison and could pass for a blue/gray shade. When cleaned and oiled, it looked like the more glossy shot of the front of the engine.