Original color?

[mulwyk]

I keep finding traces of blue paint in odd places on my project BC12-D. On the inside of the boot cowl, what looks like blue overspray. Today, cleaning years worth of old grease and dirt off the brake mounting plates, I find more blue. Could this be the original color?

I compared the blue color I found to my Poly Fiber color chart and it seems to be somewhere between Lakeland Blue and Bahama Blue. The logbook says nothing about the original color, but in the '50s (10 years later) the wings were recovered in "Grade A and Cessna White". By the time I got the plane, 50 years later, it had been recovered three more times and it was painted Maroon and Creme.

Are there any records of the original colors? Is it possible that the old girl was painted blue fuselage with white wings when she came from the factory?

Bob Gustafson

[mhorowit]

Re: Original color?

I'm seeing blue paint as I chip the current coat of enamel off the yoke controls under the dash (the big 'H' thing) - Mike

[bladd]

Re: Original color?

My 1946 BC12-D NC96466 was originally silver over blue. The wings were silver as was the fuselage down to the bottom of the windows. The cowl, below the window frame, and back to the tail was a medium to dark blue with a sort of silvery hue. There is still original paint below the current white wings and red fuselage. I know the silver and blue was original because I have a color picture of the plane with it's first owner. I would love to know what the blue color was called so I could match it should I ever recover the plane. Perhaps your Taylorcraft had a similar paint scheme.

There is a Tcraft thumbnail on Selje's posts that appears to have a similar paint scheme except his plane is white over blue. Selje's blue is about what I imagine the original blue was on my plane. Perhaps Forrest knows who the paint supplier for Tcraft was in those early days and what the most popular paint schemes were. I for one would be interested to know.

[selje]

Re: Original color?

Selje's plane is Daytona White over Champion Blue chosen based on my memory of the first Taylorcraft that I had in the 60's.

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Original color?

There were many suppliers of dope as the prices varied. The base color was usually the dark color, red, blue, black, etc... this shows up on the forward tubes.. inside the cabin.. Yes we have lots of information on colors posted somewhere on the various forumns, I will try to get abck with that information.

[mhorowit]

Re: Original color?

I'm seeing blue paint as I chip the current coat of enamel off the yoke controls under the dash (the big 'H' thing) - Mike

At the top of this page is a picture of the front cowling of a Taylorcraft. That's the blue I'm seeing.

[Don Eide]

Re: Original color?

The T-craft I had in 1959 was silver and blue. The wings were silver with a blue leading edge and blue NC numbers. The fuselage was all blue with a silver stripe starting in the tail area and getting larger as it came forward. It was approximately 4 inches wide up on the cowling and than split into two approximately 2 inches wide and one ran up over the cowl and the other ran under the cowl and met up on the other side. On the picture that I have of that T-craft it looks like the stripes are on the front part of the cowl but not on the nose bowl, but it's a little hard to tell. Hope this helps.

Don

[mulwyk]

Re: Original color?

Mike:
Yes, that's the color. I found some more blue yesterday on the very bottom of the gear legs.

Bob Gustafson

[Jim Baker]

Re: Original color?

Ron-

Do you have the original picture? if so, can you make out the NC number on it? My '46 was blue and started out with Griffin flying Service.


Thanks.

[Jim Baker]

Re: Original color?

Wow, what a memory, Ron!! I'm lucky if I can remember what plane I flew
last week!

I would love a high resolution picture. There is a chance that a/c is my
'46 BC12D. If you post on the site that would be fine or, feel free to
e-mail it directly to me at [email protected]

Thanks! I'd love to see more of the pictures you took with your Spartus!