Hi all. I have recently aquired a 1940, M20 which has been sheltering in an Oxfordshire shed since 1972. The frame and metal work are a bit rusty and needs sorted so I have stripped it and will have it soda blasted over the next few weeks and apart from needing a gasket set to make it a little more oil tight everything is in it's place. (It does not have a volks air filter, maybe later) including it's original WD tyres with tread.
I do not want to paint it in green so I would like to hear from anyone who could advise on the colour the bikes were painted in for desert use. A code and sample would be great.
i do not have a colour code but i can send you a sample and you could get it matched at your local paint shop and i could email you a picture of my bike to see if you like the colour roger
"Most" WM20s were probably not painted "green" - A 1940 model would normally have been khaki green but for the greater part of the war, due to a shortage of the green chromate pigments, they were painted SCC (Standard Camouflage Colour) No.2 Brown.
Some were subsequently repainted in the Middle East but most were allowed to fade (and the brown quickly dulled when exposed to sun and sand). There were frequent shortages of paint in the Middle East theatre.
If you want a wartime shade then you need to be looking at Light Stone and not one of the yellowish post-war colours.
My old Matchless G3 was sent to Egypt in 1941 and stayed there until 1958 and the only colour I can find underneath the Pride and Clarke civilian maroon paint is good old Khaki Green Number 3, it can't ever have been blasted over with sand colour despite 17 years service in the Middle East.
