I am looking to re-paint my Bsa wm20. Made in feb 1941. It has at some point been painted in late colour olive drab as it was in service until 1961. Under the fuel tank and in various other other hard to reach places appears to be bronze green, it is also evident in the chips in the olive drab. It does not appear to be khaki number 3 as too shiny and dark.
It does look like the orginal coat of paint. Does anyone know what it is called if different to bronze green or a know a paint code. I would like to put it back to the orginal colour.
Thanks in advance.
1941 production can't really have been anything other than Khaki Green No.3 originally. It's almost inconceivable that a bike which remained in service until 1961 had not undergone a full rebuild which would mean that the cycle parts would have been mix and match from various donors too.
If carried out in a Base Workshop then it's quite possible that chemical stripping tanks were used and that the bronze green is the standard post-war colour. This remained in use until the early 1970s when NATO Green was introduced. Any matt finish therefore almost certainly has to have been applied during its civilian existence.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, it has a 1944 engine in it. Later cut off tank and pannier racks, I have now found traces of brown paint that I first thought was primer. I will look at the later khaki olive green. Its currently in late Nato green, which doesnt look right. I know its contract and tank number from 1941 and its rebuild number also the contract and tank number from the engine. So I guess I have a choice of colours all of which would / should be correct.
If I put my rivet-counter hat on (I never really take it off, to be honest) then I'd say that what you really have to do is look at the age of the most recent major component. To build an accurate 1941 machine, you'll need to change the fuel tank probaly the levers, the headlight, all sorts of things.
The REME rebuild system meant that bikes were dismantled down to individual components, each part reconditioned and then complete machines assembled...quite where the identity came from is sometimes a puzzle.
Bearing in mind your mix of parts and cutaway tank, a Normandy June 1944 impression (probably in Service Brown) is perhaps unlikely...but a rebuild delivered before the big push into the Netherlands in September 1944, painted British Olive Drab is quite possible, as of course is an Operation Varsity Rhine crossing scenario.
I think that I'd focus on the units who took part in the latter stages of the war in Europe and paint / mark accordingly.
