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Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

A bit confused by what Rinsey Mills has to say about paint on a 1934 tourer. Up to 1933 he says tourers had a black band along the waist. This is what I have seen on most examples. For 33/34 he quotes fine lines which I have never seen on a tourer. Does this mean fine lines on the black band (and thus similar to Nick Turley's RP on the cover) or just fine lines on the main body colour? Anyone know of an original example I could study?

Location: Shropshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

Robin Oldfield
A bit confused by what Rinsey Mills has to say about paint on a 1934 tourer. Up to 1933 he says tourers had a black band along the waist. This is what I have seen on most examples. For 33/34 he quotes fine lines which I have never seen on a tourer. Does this mean fine lines on the black band (and thus similar to Nick Turley's RP on the cover) or just fine lines on the main body colour? Anyone know of an original example I could study?


Apologies for raising this again, the above quote being from 2014, but in two years there will have been many more seveners following the forum, and the recent publication on the Association's on-line archives confirms the Rinsey Mills summary. Thus in the 1932 publication (924C) on colours the tourer has a black band. By October 1933 (924D)the two seater retains the bands with the tourer having fine lines. This is repeated in the November 1933 (924F) brochure. If the tourer had only fine lines what was the colour of the windscreen pillar, the base of which forms part of the body moulding. Photos and brochure depictions of the period are just not clear enough to see.

Thanks for your patience in reading this far!

Location: South Shropshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

Robin,

You raise an interesting point.

I don't think I have ever seen a tourer with twin fine lines, but brochure 924F is certainly quite specific on this point.

Let's look at it from a production point of view: the windscreen and pillars would have been fitted after the body was painted, so it seems logical to suppose that the pillars would all be a standard black. But as you point out, the pillar forms part of the waistband. If the rest of the waistband was body colour, even with the fine lines added after the screen was fitted, that would look very odd. I would suggest, therefore, that the waistband was painted black with the fine lines in addition.

Note that brochure 1034 which dates from December 1933, and therefore is for the 1934 season, shows the tourer with a dark (presumably black) waistband. But... I would always treat brochures (of all ages and makes, not just Sevens) with a degree of caution: they were produced before production and show intent rather than actuality.

Just my thoughts - anyone know for definite?

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

(Hi Mike, where were you on Wednesday? You missed another abject performance by yours truly)


I have looked closely at my (May '34) tourer.

Currently, the band is very dark blue, the same as the main part of the rest of the car.

It is not the original paint on the top layer at least, but on very close inspection there is an indication that the band was once light blue - sky blue - and with possibly 2 fine red - crimson - lines.

Is this likely? If so, I might be inspired to get the T cut out.

Without scraping paint away I cannot tell what was on the screen uprights, and they may well have been rubbed down.

Happy New Year!

Simon

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

[quote="Slack Alice" Simon]... but on very close inspection there is an indication that the band was once light blue - sky blue - and with possibly 2 fine red - crimson - lines.

Is this likely? If so, I might be inspired to get the T cut out...

[/quote]

Hi Simon,

Yes, I would think this is entirely possible. Remember the colour schemes quoted in the 924F publication are for cars 'held in stock'; alternatives from the Austin palette were available at no extra cost if the buyer was prepared to wait, and non-standard colours were available at extra cost - so really anything is possible!

As for Wednesday - I don't know! I was planning to come, but Thursday arrived before I remembered... I must have missed my medication!!!!!

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

It would appear that the band was sometimes a lighter colour than the body. Mills has on page 23 a 'factory picture' from 1933 and if you examine it closely it shows, particularly towards the back, a lighter colour for the band. Curiously if you look at the base of the pillar it seems to be black (or dark) but with a lighter coloured base. Using a magnifying glass I think you can see the transition on the pillar itself, suggesting it might have been painted to match the band when fixing. So might fine lines on later models have been painted on body colour applied at the time of fixing the pillar? Curiouser and curiouser!

Location: South Shropshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

|URL=http://s1094.photobucket.com

The "cog" in the photobucket instructions didn't do what I expected.

The photo is of two lines on my tourer waistline band.

I will try again.

I hate computing!

Simon

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i454/simon5350/P1050376.jpg

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

This is my second reply to the last post, the first having disappeared into the ether....

However, very interesting photo (stop yawning the rest of you!). The photo does not show clearly the lighter blue band, and as it is on the bonnet side (I think) it may not be original to the car. It would be informative to see what the windscreen pillar on the right looks like, and any fine lines discovered on the body tub would be a more convincing discovery. I have a spare tin of Nitromors if you want it.......

Location: South Shropshire

Re: Paint style on late LWB tourer 1934

I never thought I would be discussing tiny details like this...

The light blue might be a figment of my imagination. There are traces of the red lines on the main body, it is just that the end of the bonnet is where you can see there are two of them, clearly. One the other side, at the front, the lines are brought together to a V shaped starting point.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be sunny, so I could do more pics of the very small traces I can see.

No matter how closely I look I can see no detail on the base of the pillars, there is no indication of lines under the paint.

But I will look again, and send a few pictures.

Cheers

Simon

Location: On a hill in Wiltshire