1969 Norton colours

Cheyenne · Apr 11, 2017

Ok found out my bike is indeed a TRUE Type R, it was painted orange. What colours were avail in 1969 ?

Thank you

Rohan · Apr 11, 2017

Roy Bacons book on restoring Nortons sez

1969. R - petrol tank in fireflake red or sapphire blue
blah blah silver sidecover and oil tank.

Note that tanks back then were fibreglass, so the color was in the gelcoat.

Cheyenne · Apr 11, 2017

Rohan said:
Roy Bacons book on restoring Nortons sez

1969. R - petrol tank in fireflake red or sapphire blue
blah blah silver sidecover and oil tank.

Note that tanks back then were fibreglass, so the color was in the gelcoat.

oh good so I can strip paint and get the colour back

Rohan · Apr 11, 2017

Assuming you still have the original tank !

Have a look inside the tank, through the tank cap.
You may still be able to see a trace of the initial color. ?
Might need a strong light, to light up the fibreglass inside.

Watch out for fuel fumes, you don't want to fire it up or breathe that stuff !

Cheyenne · Apr 11, 2017

Rohan said:
Assuming you still have the original tank !

Have a look inside the tank, through the tank cap.
You may still be able to see a trace of the initial color. ?
Might need a strong light, to light up the fibreglass inside.

Watch out for fuel fumes, you don't want to fire it up or breathe that stuff !

Tank was sealed and bad job was done,so guess ..

Cheyenne · Apr 11, 2017

Does the silver have a name. Is it an Argent Silver?

gortnipper · Apr 11, 2017

I have seen 69 silver listed as QuickSilver MetalFlake and as an equivalent of Opel Silver 135.

DogT · Apr 13, 2017

I tried to take the black paint off my flake blue tank (Apr 69) and it turned sort of blue/silver. The blue came off mostly with the paint.

B+Bogus · Apr 14, 2017

DogT said:
I tried to take the black paint off my flake blue tank (Apr 69) and it turned sort of blue/silver. The blue came off mostly with the paint.

I've seen lots of tanks like this - the gelcoat is really thin on top of the flakes, so after some serious polishing or rubbing down the flakes break through and turn silver (they're just dyed aluminium). Looks ugly

The R type tank would have been silver flake (not a colour - just aluminium flakes) with candy red topcoat, so potentially salvageable.
I've never seen the sapphire blue, so can't comment on that one.

If it's a fibreglass tank, it's worth weighing the options of going to a whole lot of effort and expense to restore something which can't hold modern fuel - except avgas!, or buying a new steel tank and getting that painted.

Rohan · Apr 14, 2017

B+Bogus said:
DogT said:

The R type tank would have been silver flake (not a colour - just aluminium flakes) with candy red topcoat, so potentially salvageable.

Click to expand...

Roy Bacons Norton Resto book sez it was Fireflake Red for the 1969 Type R,
so would it have had a red topcoat ??

CandyApple Red v's Fireflake Red has been discussed before.
Fireflake Red didn't appear too much - one/two seasons only ? - but CandyApple Red made a few appearances...

B+Bogus · Apr 14, 2017

Rohan said:
B+Bogus said:

DogT said:

The R type tank would have been silver flake (not a colour - just aluminium flakes) with candy red topcoat, so potentially salvageable.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Roy Bacons Norton Resto book sez it was Fireflake Red for the 1969 Type R,
so would it have had a red topcoat ??

CandyApple Red v's Fireflake Red has been discussed before.
Fireflake Red didn't appear too much - one/two seasons only ? - but CandyApple Red made a few appearances...

Agreed Fireflake Red was not done for long (68-70?), but Candy red first appeared for the 850, I believe. This was over a regular silver base though.

Looking at photos of early red/silver Fastbacks it's 'clear' :roll: that the silver is metalflake and the red is a candy topcoat, giving the 'Fireflake red'.

Some recent photos of unrestored bikes show the red fading off due to UV - different to being worn through like the other flake colours.

From what I read it was done as an afterthought to jazz up the plain silver which wasn't selling well.
Broken link removed

B+Bogus · Apr 14, 2017

Came across this - no idea of the history or anything, but could this be Sapphire blue?

http://www.nortonownersclub.org/noc-chat/technical4-commando-forum/412738890/92764259/image-jpg

Rohan · Apr 14, 2017

B+Bogus said:
Agreed Fireflake Red was not done for long (68-70?), but Candy red first appeared for the 850, I believe. This was over a regular silver base though.

Looking at photos of early red/silver Fastbacks it's 'clear' :roll: that the silver is metalflake and the red is a candy topcoat, giving the 'Fireflake red'.

Matchless/Norton scramblers were Candy Apple Red - from somewhere in the early/mid 1960s.
There were also a very limited number of Candy Apple greens and blues for some hybrids.

I'm not sure that the 2 tone red & silver Fastbacks were ever claimed to be Fireflake Red either ??

When this was discussed before, someone produced a Fireflake Red example....

Dean · Apr 15, 2017

B+Bogus said:
Came across this - no idea of the history or anything, but could this be Sapphire blue?

http://www.nortonownersclub.org/noc-chat/technical4-commando-forum/412738890/92764259/image-jpg

That looks familiar... oh right it's mine. It's a 68 sn is 128372 so it's pretty early. I should see if I can get any information from the Norton owners club. I believe that they have the factory records.

Pretty sure it's factory finish. I have scratched a bit of the finish off and there doesn't seem to be any other colours underneath. Is the gel coat normally on the under side as well? You can see in the picture where the seat has worn off the blue to the silver flake under. Have never seen another bike finished the same but a few with the red and silver. Any help would be appreciated. Of course there is no way to know if it's original to this bike.

DogT · Apr 15, 2017

My 69S FF blue had a lot of the blue color on the underneath, but it's an S tank, not FB. Don't know if things changed in the years. If you need I can get a picture, but it'll be a pain.

Rohan · Apr 15, 2017

Isn't that blue/silver fastback tank showing traces of red underneath ??
That would make it a repaint, for sure...

A good looking bike in this color scheme.
So did you buy it, or was it you selling it ?

B+Bogus · Apr 16, 2017

Dean said:
That looks familiar... oh right it's mine. It's a 68 sn is 128372 so it's pretty early. I should see if I can get any information from the Norton owners club. I believe that they have the factory records.

Pretty sure it's factory finish. I have scratched a bit of the finish off and there doesn't seem to be any other colours underneath. Is the gel coat normally on the under side as well? You can see in the picture where the seat has worn off the blue to the silver flake under. Have never seen another bike finished the same but a few with the red and silver. Any help would be appreciated. Of course there is no way to know if it's original to this bike.

Hey Dean,

Thanks for chiming in

Great to see your bike with exactly the info I'm interested in. There's the possibility that it may be a repaint, but I'm not sure.
The flake gelcoat would have only been on the top half of the tank, so no problem there. The underside looks identical to a silver flake Roadster tank I refurbed a while ago. I have a later FB tank in Fireflake Royal Blue (same colour as Dog T's 'S') and the underside is plain blue fibreglass, the same colour as a BSA Barracuda I had years ago.
Never seen one like yours before, and as with the red, it's evidently a candy colour over the Fireflake silver base.
It's actually held up pretty well for something getting on 50 years old - Great to see

As for the factory records check, forum member ZF owns Andover Norton and has been known to step in on these types of discussion in the past, so if you're looking in Joe...

It would be great to confirm if this is Sapphire Blue

Dean · Apr 16, 2017

Hi Rohan

The red colour you can see underneath is the tank sealer that has a past owner has used to try and seal the tank. It even has finger prints in it. I bought it and its in the process of being restored. It came from Colorado and I shipped it to the UAE.

The more I look at it the more I think it is factory.

Cheyenne · Apr 17, 2017

B+Bogus said:
DogT said:

I tried to take the black paint off my flake blue tank (Apr 69) and it turned sort of blue/silver. The blue came off mostly with the paint.

Click to expand...

I've seen lots of tanks like this - the gelcoat is really thin on top of the flakes, so after some serious polishing or rubbing down the flakes break through and turn silver (they're just dyed aluminium). Looks ugly

The R type tank would have been silver flake (not a colour - just aluminium flakes) with candy red topcoat, so potentially salvageable.
I've never seen the sapphire blue, so can't comment on that one.

If it's a fibreglass tank, it's worth weighing the options of going to a whole lot of effort and expense to restore something which can't hold modern fuel - except avgas!, or buying a new steel tank and getting that painted.

Stripper went through the paint I guess, underside of tank is red but when paint on top came off I have Silver tank

1969 Norton colours

Cheyenne

Rohan

Cheyenne

Rohan

Cheyenne

Cheyenne

gortnipper

DogT

B+Bogus

Rohan

B+Bogus

B+Bogus

Rohan

Dean

Attachments

DogT

Rohan

B+Bogus

Dean

Attachments

Cheyenne

Similar threads