Has anyone got a decent resolution picture of a circa 1958 M21 chrome/maroon tank I can have please? I'm having mine rechromed and painted and I could do with a decent pic for my painter to use. I had a look online by the pics I could find weren't detailed enough.

Gary.

email (option): gj.owen@hotmail.co.uk

Is this any help? Some pictures on this forum post.

http://www.britbike.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=282940

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

Maroon with cream panels was the standard paint scheme for a 1958 M21...

The maroon and chrome finish was from the 'options list ' at additional cost...Ian

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

Thanks, I think these will be just the job

Gary.

email (option): gj.owen@hotmail.co.uk

Yes, assuming this is the original tank, the first owner went with the upgrade option. My painter wanted £200 to strip the chrome, fill a few dents, and do a cream and maroon finish. The chromer has quoted £180 for a triple plate rechrome only ( plus a bit for the painter to do the maroon) so I thought I may as well keep it as originally supplied.

Don't suppose anyone knows how I can get a good match for Devon Red (Maroon); RS Paints are a bit pricey for such a small quantity and I can't help thinking Halfords must have something close?

Gary.

email (option): gj.owen@hotmail.co.uk

Devon Red isn't maroon...It's red...It's like a 'letter box' red and was the original tank colour on my 1951 B33...

Polly Palmer (Britie Motorcycles) used to do all the BSA colours...Don't know if he's still going but try a google search....Ian

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

I've been searching for a colour match for BSA Flamboyant Blue. After talking to lots of people on forums with some great advice, and even talking to C and D Autos (BSA Specialists), I've been told that even 2 BSA's coming out the factory the same colour wouldn't match each other. So trying to get an exact colour match is impossible.

John Chrichlow at MS Motorcycles was recommended to me and I have collected the paint {which is cellulose, not water based) at half the price of RS paints water based paint.

http://www.msmotorcyclesuk.com/

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

The guy in the next unit to me does paint, he can usually match any colour and if it's going on a petrol tank I'd recommend that you use two pack paint or at the very least a two pack lacquer over the cellulose paint. No matter how careful you are masking the filler cap you'll usually find that any other paint will lift after a period of time
Dave

email (option): davmax@ntlworld.com

['I've been told that even 2 BSA's coming out the factory the same colour wouldn't match each other.']...

What a load of rubbish...I used to watch new BSAs etc. being unloaded from the lorries at a local bike shop and then lined up in the showroom and (obviously) the colours matched...

What do people think BSA used to do at the factory...carefully mismatch them?...

How could two machines..or any number of machines, sprayed from the same batch of colour be mismatched?....Even discrepancies between paint batches would have been minute...Paint after all is produced by a controlled industrial method designed to minimise variation...

They weren't mixing it with a stick in an old bucket at the back of the BSA paintshop!!... ....Ian

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

The petrol has even got under the 2 pack on my 16H filler cap. It's lifted so I've had to peel it off and touch it up. Nothing seems to like petrol for too long.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

I was only quoting what lots of people on the Britbike BSA forum told me when I was trying to find out exactly what shade of blue Flamboyant Blue is. It's probably like us lot discussing what shade of green KG3 is.

Here's a quote..

Re: BSA B25 Starfire [Re: Horror]
BSA_WM20 Offline
BritBike Forum member

Registered: 05/05/04
Posts: 2869
Loc: Sydney Australia

Any one can tell you the name of the colour, all you need is a copy of the sales catalogue.
However translating that name into a colour is a different matter.
Now I will repeat what other have said & I will shout just to make sure you hear.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE "CORRECT" COLOUR FOR ANY POST WAR BSA THAT WAS SPRAY PAINTED.
NO BIKES EVER STOOD IN A SHOWROOM THAT WAS EXACTLY THE SAME COLOUR FROM FONT TO BACK AND NO 2 BIKES WERE EXACTLY THE SAME SO STOP BEATING YOUR SELF UP OVER SOMETHING THAT NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Don't believe me, I lie..
go to your local library , drag the old bound or microfiched copies of motorcyle magazines concurrent with your Starfire and read the test reports, note how they roast BSA over the disgusting quality control on the surface finish and in particular the inconsistent colours . Even the frames the were dipped were different shades.
_________________________
Bike Beesa
Trevor

This is from a BSA forum Ian, so not my comments and he wasn't the only person to say the same thing. I was saying to Gary it'll be hard to know what the exact colour was. I wasn't trying to start an argument.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

I'm not argueing...Merely pointing out that I don't agree..

I have worked in quantity production of various products and it's a controlled industrial process that is specifically set up to produce conformity in the specification of the end product for marketing, regulatory and H&S reasons.....

The constituent parts of a product are dispensed individually by weight or volume for each batch of product, to defined tolerances..

These then go through a controlled mixing/manufacturing process which is tested at various stages to ensure conformity with a laid down standard for the end product...It's not some sort of haphazard process...

It's why when you open a can of Heinz beans they look and taste exactly the same every time...even if they were produced years apart...

This is what the market demands and paint manufacture will be governed by exactly the same principles...

BSA didn't manufacture their own paint...they bought it in by the batch as a ready to use product...

I'd be interested to know by what process they got from an externally produced finished product, manufactured under controlled conditions and supplied ready for application, to bikes and components that resembled Josephs multi coloured dream coat...

It doesn't strike me as either logical or likely after a career in engineering based in manufacturing.. Having seen machines from Norton, BSA and Triumph new in the showrooms as well the concept doesn't match the evidence of my own eyes either...

Is the proposition seriously that if you painted 100 bikes from the same batch of paint they would all be different shades of the same colour?..Or that if you dipped 100 frames into the same enamelling bath they would all be different?....How?Ian

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

The post was about the B25 and the problem that was pointed out to me with the "Flamboyant" paints or Candy paints is it depends on the number of coats the sprayer puts on, one more coat and the colour is darker etc. A different sprayer will do it differently and every bike isn't sprayed from the same batch of paint, that would be impossible. I'm sure there are always going to be slight differences between any batch of paint, you even have to get wallpaper from the same batch or they're different.

The problem we have as bike restorers is matching a name of paint with the colour. If I find out that my bike's colour for the year is "Slug trail green", knowing the name of the colour doesn't really help if no paint suppliers know what that means, or there interpretation of the colour is different than someone else's. We're then left with trying to colour match faded old paintwork. I had the BSA colour codes for 3 different "Flamboyant Blues" but that didn't help at all, I've had to go with what a supplier had. So near enough has to do.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk