actual paint finish on vehicles

[jpw]

I have seen many lovingly restored vehicles and many period pictures of vehicles being repaired, But what I'd really like to know is how god the paint finish on the repaired or repainted parts was. My thinking is that with masses of parts being fixed up from active service (assuming they touched up knackered paintwork) was it neat? or was it patch it up bit rough around the edges with brush marks type job?.

 

regards

John

[fv1609]

John a lot will depend on the nation, the era, the theatre, the unit, the role of that vehicle, the sense of pride of the unit & its CO & whether they were in conflict or had time on their hands.

I see many beautifully painted Land Rovers where the owners have gone down to bare metal & built up a show room finish, which might resemble how it looked off the production line. One vehicle I know of had 7 layers of IRR NATO Green paint. It looked rather tatty especially were some of it had chipped & patch paintwork didn't blend in very well.

The owner hadn't realised it was forbidden to remove previous IRR paintwork unless it had chipped because the IRR effect is dependant not just on the topcoat but the layers underneath. If patch painting had to be done then several coats were needed to build up the IRR effect in that area. 

I have a DGFVE Spec for a S3 Lightweight where a single coat of IRR NATO Green is specified with the admission that this would not be sufficient to give the vehicle the required IRR effect. So it would only have had a smart showroom finish for a very short time until it had been painted up to the required standard. 

We all know how (genuine) IRR NATO Green fades to a greyish colour, but the IRR pigment itself fades at a greater rate so regular repainting was required.

On occasions I have been at a show to see a new enthusiast explain that when time permits the rather scruffy paintwork will be striped off & metal up paint job undertaken on their vehicle that they feel slightly embarrassed about.

But I am not sure they really believe me when I suggest that their vehicle with scruffy paintwork looks very realistic & more like an in-service vehicle than some of the showroom paint jobs in the display.

 

[jpw]

Hi, Clive. Thank you for your insight. I'm looking at painting a ww2 motorcycle ( currently consists of rust, so there is nothing to save.) It make me feel better about my brush strokes in the paint and  keeping the minor knocks and dents.

Regards

john

[Rootes75]

I always like to see an MV especially wartime that is workmanlike, hand painted or touched up in places. My thoughts are it does make it look more authentic, in theatre vehicles would have a hard life and never look showroom condition.

[earlymb]

I like a vehicle restored to factory paint (if the original paint couldn't be saved) and let that age naturally, with touch-ups if needed and primer showing through on wear areas etc

[AlienFTM]

I went to Tankfest a decade ago and saw a line of privately owned tanks. All looked good, but "shiny" and clean.

At the end was a cracker. Old, scruffy, lived in. But what was it? Into (decades old) recognition mode. Road wheels: T54/55. Gun T62. Nope.

Guy wanders over. "Like it? What do you think it is?"

"I can only assume it's a Type 59."

 "You're the only person all day to guess right."

 "But the gun?"

"It's an L7."

 I hadn't seen that coming. Great, lived in piece of kit. I never got to the bottom of who fitted the ubiquitous L7 to a Type 59

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by AlienFTM

[John F]

13 minutes ago, AlienFTM said:

I never got to the bottom of who fitted the ubiquitous L7 to a Type 59

 

From Wikipedia:

"Royal Ordnance designed variants with 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7 gun as an upgrade package for owners of the Type 59. The upgrades incorporated 105 mm L7A3 gun with thermal sleeve and ammunition stowage of 34 rounds, British smoke grenade dischargers on both sides of the turret, Graviner fire-suppression system, Vickers Instruments L50 gunner's sight with laser-rangefinder, Avimo driver's sight night-vision device, Marconi's Centaur weapon system with digital FCS, Mantis commander's sight and solid-state drives. Another upgrade package also installed ROMOR-A reactive armour on the side hulls and ROMOR-B passive appliqué armour on the front hull and turret, along with the aforementioned upgrades. The Type 59 tanks used in the project were acquired from Pakistan, and the upgraded tanks were exhibited in British Army Equipment Exhibition 1984.^[27][28] No Type 59s served with British forces."

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by John F