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February 18, 2004
G'day all
Good point Alan.
Sprites and Midgets (and many other BMC cars) were assembled here by the Austin Motor Company (Australia) Pty Ltd, in an inner Sydney suburb of Zetland. The site was sold off for residential and industrial use some 20 years ago. Fortunately there are a few guys who worked for BMC during the 1950's and 1960's who meet a few times a year, and who visit interested car clubs to talk about their experiences, show photos of the cars being constructed etc. It's great that these guys are still around sharing their knowledge.
There was a range of standard colours that the cars were painted (no, I'm not going there). However, if you were prepared to wait, you could have your car painted any colour you liked - just place an order.
Most buyers of course just visited one of the BMC dealers, were shown the range and what was in stock, and chose the colour they preferred - white, red, green or blue. Then they filled in the paperwork and drove away in their car. But if they wanted grey, brown or any other colour, the order was placed, went through the system, sat in a queue, and a few months later their car rolled off the assembly line. So they weren't "Foreman's friends" - they were officially ordered and painted like this.
This is in fact not unique at all to either BMC or Australia. If you were to visit your local car dealer even toady, a dealer where the cars are in fact built in your country (and I know that's not so easy these days) and asked for a special colour, I bet most of them could do it. Sure, they will try to talk you out of it, perhaps even tell you it can't be done, as they would rather sell you a car off the showroom floor. I know it can be done here with Holdens (GMH). You want metallic purple - no problem, pay your money and wait 6 months.
The other reason for the non-standard colours (as I think Ed pointed out) was that they weren't going to stop the assembly line when they ran out of paint. Thus the "what's in the gun" procedure. There were a number of assembly lines running at the same time. Sprites on this one, Morris Minor on the next etc. If the Sprite line ran out of Rhiems Blue, and the Nurburg White hadn't arrived yet, the painter would walk 20 ft to the next line and ask the guy there "What's in the gun?". Iris Blue - sounds OK to me.
So no, I wouldn't call Tartan Red or Jay Blue "official" Sprite colours. But by the same token, when the owner turns up at a concourse with the original factory ID plate rivetted to the firewall declaring that his car left Zetland painted this colour, it's a bit difficult to say it's not original.
So if you are certain your car was originally painted a non-standard colour - perhaps you are right. Pity it's not so easy to prove it. I guess we are lucky to have the colour name stamped on the ID plate - irrefutable evidence that the car was originally this colour.
avagoodday
Colin
"Colin@SpriteParts" < colin@... > 29821
Posted on February 18, 2004 07:17 AM
Posted to category(s) Body | Engine (external) | International | Miscellaneous | Restoration | US States
