Hi,i picked up an engine and gearbox at weekend,they still bear the original green livery,however they are overpainted in chocolate brown,is this a standard military colour?and where in the world would such a dark colour be used, engine number is stamped 11273 WM20 B ,any info appreciated cheers rick
My Norton 16H left the factory in brown. It's because of a shortage of one of the colour paints that goes to make green, so I was told. My bike is late 1941. I'm sure someone will confirm if this is correct. I've also just bought so NOS 16H foot rests, and under the grease they're brown.
Sorry to go party crashing but paint shortage was not the cause for the change of colour. An army directive changed the colour from KG3 (Khaki Green #3) to Dark Earth which is chocolate colour. I am sure that Rik could give you an excat date but it is somewhere in 1941.
hi leon,cheers for that,cheers john,has anybody got a colour picture of a genuine brown earth bike,or even a restored one so i can see how they look? cheers rick
The colour in question is SCC (Standard Camouflage Colour) No.2 brown. According to Mike Starmer, there was an increasing shortage during 1941 of the chromium oxide compound used to give KG No.3 its green tint and alternative schemes were therefore sought.
The change to SCC No.2 seems to have been officially mentioned during November 1941. This gives us some lee-way as the official documents usually reflect changes that had already occurred but also state that existing green stocks were to be used up first and we just don't know what sort of stocks the motorcycle manufacturers had.
The colour continued until the introduction of British Olive Drab during early-mid 1944 which means that most British and Canadian manufactured vehicles which went to France in June 1944 were brown.
Lex has a whole restored Big4 in SCC No.2 - It's an acquired taste but accurate for a large proportion of WM20s when new.
Here a picture of the bike, that now has to come apart to be resprayed!! at the time of spraying the parts, (10 years ago!) there was not so much detailed info!!
And the official colours from the manual from 1942
It all depends on how you screen is showing the colours, but you get an idea of it anyway.