9. Petrol Tank Painting
In response to numerous enquiries regarding petrol tank painting; and to save me time on e-mail replies......here are my ideas. beware of the idea of "original". painting of tanks in the pre- and post war period was done by hand and on some days of the week, the hand responded to its brain in slightly different ways. ( I once met an old chap at the isle of man, who actually was a painter at Bracebridge street and he told me this! ) sales literature does not always follow the style that left the factory. some tanks were chrome plated, some were in dull nickel, some were never plated. panels were in silver with black and red lines. in the majority of tanks the red line was inside the black, but occasionally this was reversed!! I would never recommend re-chroming a petrol tank. the amount of pre-plate polishing required to provide a suitable service for chroming, leaves the metal dangerously thin in places and with disastrous consequences!!!!!!
I like the following, which although not original, looks better than the pictures depict! where the chrome should be is silver and where the silver is, is polychromatic grey !!!!!!!!!!!! ( both Norton colours ) click on thumbnails to see what I mean.....
INCIDENTALLY, THIS MACHINE IS NOT ORIGINAL EITHER.IT IS A SHORT STROKE ES2 MOTOR (now 84mm bore and 79mm stroke), downdraught inlet track, two spark plugs, and a lot of special bits inside! Incidentally, the paint was applied by JBS MOTORCYCLE PAINTING ( check them out on my links page )
10. Norton Silver can be replicated by using: 1974 VW Beetle silver, or Vauxhall star silver mist, or Vauxhall silver starfire metallic,or for a "greeny" patina, then use Vauxhall Platinum starfire metallic Rover silver leaf, MME421 is also a good match.
POLYCHROMATIC GREY: Fiat dark grey metallic; Ford Granada pearl grey metallic or VW Audi platinum ( ICI: L98G 9305B )
11. Seven pre-war inter tanks
Seven pre-war inter tanks are all different!!!! The one at the end is a new reproduction in aluminium.
