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What's Your Frame Color?

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JohnnyMead

JohnnyMead

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I've been exploring the underside of my TR3A and have discovered that under the all the grease and dirt the frame is red (where it has paint left). I thought at first it was overspray, but its red in protected places and stuff that's bolted on is black.
I've read the factory sometimes used colors other than black. Are there folks out there that have found different colors?

John
TS75605
Carbondale, IL
 
John-

Welcome to the forum. My 59 3A frame is white, the original body color was silverstone gray.

Randy
 
Mine is black but I understand (from Piggotts books) that frames were often sprayed with whatever was available. I think a few guys here have non black frames.
 
I have had powder blue and beige frames.
 
Under the 50 years of accumulated "protectant", my frame is powder blue like Twosheds'. Must have been sprayed from the same can of left-over paint.

Tom
 
<span style="color: #663300">Rust Brown</span>
 
White, but its had a frame off... so who knows originally.
 
In 1987, when I took my 1958 TR3A apart for its full restoration, I found that some parts of my frame were primrose yellow which was not even a TR colour till about a year later. The rest of the frame was covered with surface rust. See photo. I asked Bill Piggott about this and he had never heard of any other colours. He added "I could do no wrong if I painted it all black. After all, in England, we call the frame and all the other parts under there, the "blackworks". So I sprayed mine black. Since then, I have seen and heard of all sorts of frames being painted other colours. It seems that the firm who built the bodies and frames, and then partially assembled them were also making lots of other cars for S-T as well as for other car companies, and when a gun still had some paint left over, they would spray the nearest bare frame with what was still in the gun. This, they thought, might add a bit of protection.
 

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I like to keep a car original but I could not repaint the frame green on a blue car. You can see the original green in the picture.
 

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Back in the OLD, OLD days (pre-war era), everything was primer. Then they'd give the new guy a bucket and some paint and he'd paint only what you could see. I encountered this on a very orignal pre-war Rolls.
 
My tr4 frames are black (1961 & 1962). But i will be painting the one i use white, goes with my paint scheme on the car-BRG(original) with red interior white piping(original) & engine, white dash(original), white soft top (original), and white & red stripes.
I hate black paint. I work on my own cars and black always makes it harder to see what you are working on.
I will only use (flat) black on hot parts that need to give off heat. With hot parts i would prefer to use aluminum-black anodized, if possible (paint is a heat barrier so it has to be very thin).
Rob
 
All my Spits have had the frames painted the same color as the car.
 
'59 TR3A, Sebring White body, Powder Blue chassis.
 
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