As I understand It, war time built bikes had unpainted engines as they left the factory till as least 1946 then they were painted during rebuilds however more than one source tells us that the James ML had a factory painted engine, there is a photo in O @ M that has a painted one,but that might have been painted in a repair workshop, But Was the RE flea engine painted in the factory as well, The rebuilt engine RE flea in a crate recently for sale was not painted. why did the James engine get painted ?andrew

email (option): warbikes@gmail.com

Andrew, James engines certainly look painted on original B/W photo's, but RE's were not (exept the primary chaincase cover), but on the other hand Welbike Engines were completely painted, why??? I don't know, must be in the original spec's somewhere.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

In the 1940 dated spares list for the Matchless G3/WO just about everything is listed as being Khaki Green Number 3 straight from the factory, including engine casings, gearbox, rocker box and so on.

Norton engines (or gearboxes) were as far as known never painted by the factory.

All paint found on them have been applied at one of the likely many ocassions where the bike was repainted in service.
I have one engine that has at least three different coats of paint on it.
On my website I added a contemporary picture of a ME workshop where you can see a guy spray painting a complete bike. I doubt they would have shielded any part of the bike prior to spraying.

Cheers,

Rob

email (option): Wd16h@telfort.nl

I spoke to an Army signwriter who said they covered the parts they didn't want to spray with grease and then sprayed the whole thing, cleaning off the grease when the paint had dried...I suppose what was covered and what wasn't depended on the individual workshop.
Like Nortons none of the aluminium of the engine or gearbox was painted at the BSA factory....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

What about silver paint. I have 2 WM20 engines '39 & '40 both have remains of silver paint left on some places?

Happy New Year
Kalle

Hi Kalle..Yes, BSA did paint the crankcases pre war for a while.(and gearboxes on some models). It seems to be on early WD engines as well though I'm not entirely sure when they stopped doing it...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com