I'm in the process of sorting my headlight and wondered if anyone knew what colour the rim (and blackout mask) would have been originally in 1944? Some photos show it being a similar colour to the rest of the bike and some show it as a darker colour.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

Lee. We have seen late war NOS replacement headlamps with black rims. I have painted some of mine black, as in my mind, artistic licence prevails. If you don't want any discussion or criticism from rivet counters...paint it to match the bike. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

The 1940 Spares List for the Matchless G3/WO lists the headlamp rim as being Khaki Green and it would have cost you 7 shillings and 3 pence

On most period photos they seems to be black, up until a field paint job of course.

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

I think there are two questions here. If you've got a combined mask and rim, as the ones in Henks picture seem to be, the whole thing was usually black, but the earlier rims, as listed in the Matchless Spares List, would have come green and the separate black painted blackout would have been added to that, but as with most things there were differences and anomilies, so it's up to you what you want to do really.

My Norton rim was untouched KG No.3 - this was of course one of the very early ones that utilised only the paper mask behind the ever-so-vulnerable 'Difusa'.

I think that if the intention on a bike running for practical reasons with lights and no mask is to give the visual impression of the mask then the rim is best painted black.

Thanks chaps - black it is.

Would it also have a helping of gas detector paint on the top?

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

Hi Lee..Yes, Gas Detector paint as well...Ian

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

Whilst we are on the subject, what colour does gas detector paint go if it detacts gas and was there actually any point in using it? Surely by the time you've realised it's changed colour you've got a lung full?

Hi Bill, One lung full is better than ten I guess...I used some original gas paint on my M20 and when I washed the brush in thinners it went a darkish orange/red..That was the later 'mustard' coloured British gas paint. There was an earlier yellow gas paint and the American Green gas paint which I guess we also used at some point. I have a tin of the Green stuff but haven't tried it for a chemical reaction yet..I suppose you could apply an orange/red paint and drive round everywhere with a gas mask on.. ....Ian

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

Here is some original gas detector paint. Supplied by John Tinley, from his little reserve. Fortunately I don't think any gas was ever used in WW2. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

No Gas was proven to have been used against the Western Allies..though there are anecdotal accounts of it's use in one attack in Normandy. Use against the Western Allies was not sanctioned by Hitler.....Apparently the Japanese used it against the Chinese on a number of documented occassions and the Germans used it against the Russians during the bombardment of the fortress cities of Sevastopol and Brest-Litovsk and against cut off Russian forces in the Pripet Marshes 'pocket'. After a Luftwaffe raid against an American Convoy in Bari Harbour (Italy) over 600 people died from the effects of Mustard gas which was in Artillery shells aboard one of the American ships. These were being delivered for possible 'counter measures' attacks after Hitler threatened to use gas against the Italians if they changed sides.....Ian

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

Ian, I've worn an old gas mask and I've ridden lots of old bikes, but as for doing the two together, I'd rather not, I don't know how they managed, it must have been awful.

Nice photo Ron, the anti-gas paint on your G3 looks a lot browner than I'd have thought, but as it's the real deal, there's no argument is there.

Well it's original paint from an original tin...But I don't know what the passing of time might have done to it. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

A very long time ago I was on a bike run, I think we went to Minehead or somewhere near there. One of my mates bought a gas mask, the brown canvas type with a long hose. I put it on under my open face helmet when we all rode out of there. It wasn't a good idea, the 2 small round eye holes misted up straight away. I could just see the bike in front and took it of when we got out of town. The look on the people's faces was total amazement (so I was told) but I wouldn't recommend it

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

It's certainly not recommended to mount respirators these days. Both Service and civilian types included asbestos in the filter layers and these are now delaminating....We all did it as kids, of course.

The gas detector paint was supposed to turn a pinky red in the presence of mustard gas. I had a patch of the early bright yellow paint and it didn't respond to my attempts to create chlorine by mixing bleach and...we won't go into that here....

All vehicles had to have an irregular patch within sight of the driver and there were boards in residential areas too, along with the tops of pillar boxes.

In the event of a raid, respirators would have been mounted so the paint was really an aid to knowing if it was safe to take it off again.

The pre-war Army trials included respirator sections. They must have been seriously hard work.

LB,

I was a motorcycle scout for an antiwar demonstration in Washington DC in 1970 and carried an ex-WWII mask for use against tear gas. And yes, I did try to ride my Indian Chief bobber wearing the mask. Didn't go far, and don't recommend it!

Jeff

email (option): jjbandoo@aol.com

I've had a couple of NOS DU42 headlamps, the one in SCC Brown No.2 came with a black rim and the very late war khaki green (without ameter) one came with a green rim.

All the original blackout masks I've had have been black.

So it probable depends on what year your bike is, but in 1944 it should have a mask not a rim and glass.

Rob.

email (option): robmiller11@yahoo.co.uk