Paints at the time were often enamel and contained lead, I suspect that under the correct factory conditions this could be applied directly to the metal? It technically only had to stay on for the 3 year guarantee period but clearly some has lasted well until now.
At some point paints also gained the title "gas proof", but I have never been sure what this meant, either unaffected by the known was gases or able to withstand cleaning of mustard gas?
Unsure about the wartime period but BSA normally used a biege/yellow primer...Could 'gas proof' mean proof of the presence of gas?...A slightly different use of english....Ian
The original Norton parts tha I've seen mosty seem to have been blown over with a very thin black layer. It's difficult to tell if this was a "primer" or simply a protective layer applied to components put into storage and reflecting pre-war practice ?
"Gas Proof" refers the ease of gas droplet decontamination. Pre-war gloss finishes could be washed off, but early attempts at a true matt finish absorbed the compounds and decontamination was not possible.
Well most vehicles were given a patch of "Gas Detection" paint. So I'm not sure that the whole vehicle would be covered in Gas Detection and a patch of different gas detection? Ron
Ha Ha...My last post was nonsense as I got fixated on 'gas paint'...
I imagine 'gas proof' meant it did not react or change colour when exposed to phosgene, for example...You wouldn't want your M20 suddenly turning orange when you're trying to keep a low profile:tangerine: ...Ian
