Endeavour Blue

[geomellish]

Any views as to the correct Blue for an Endeavour tank? A "mid-blue" has been suggested, rather than the the usual and darker Douglas Oxford Blue.
I was thinking perhaps RAL5005 Signal Blue?
Thanks, George

[EW-Ron]

Mmmm ?  (pics selected completely at random )

[EW-Ron]

It would appear there are other shades about.
(Not a large pic)

[geomellish]

These are the three blues I'm currently dithering over.... I suppose that if everyone has repainted their tanks then there is no longer, if there ever was, a standard Endeavour blue

[Doug]

Closest I have is 1936 Aero blue:



... and 1938 Aero blue:



-Doug

[Eric S]

My 1936 has a different layout
Is it correct?

EDIT It is a 1937, not 36

[EW-Ron]

This one does seem to have a different location for your 'tank' decal.

https://www.classic-motorcycle.com/Picture/2160/0/5c09fc27-b709-4ab5-978c-8b2c30231f9c-2160-0

[TonyC]

Can't help with the correct colour, but here are some images of the Endeavour.
Cheers Tony

[TonyC]

Can't help with the correct colour, but here are some images of the Endeavour.
Cheers Tony

[Dads bike]

afternoon George

I also had difficulty finding the correct tank colour when I did my Endeavour, there seem to be two trains of opinion, firstly a light Cambridge blue and secondly the Douglas blue (Oxford blue) that is no longer available.
Looking at available pics on line, people seem to have refinished their units with early production run machines seem to have the Cambridge blue finish and the latter machines have the darker blue.
The following pics show the route I went down in choosing the blue that I did.

The first two pics are of a fairly unmolested original finish Endeavour. The only one in this state I could find. This is the colour I tried to match.
The third pic is of my tank after lightly taking the paint work back to find what had been applied. This is the area under the rubber knee grips, the whole tank is painted gloss black, with the panels painted over it.
As you can see there is for the panels a light blue on top of the black and a darker blue on top of the light blue.
The tank painter/refinisher that I used was confident that this was how it was originally painted and the light blue panels are a sealer undercoat against the black, allowing the top coat darker blue a colour stable background?

Good luck Steve

[Dads bike]

Also attached is the pride and Clarke sales sheets for the 1936 Endeavour

Steve

[Dads bike]

In answer to Eric ref his 1936 Aero tank Finnish.

Is it correct? As it stands no! The panels are incorrect and The Aero Douglas transfer as on his tank was only applied to the 1937 model 6P engine and frame prefix
For 1936 the Aero tanks were painted, blue panels over black with a gold pinstripe, somewhere in the tech folder of the forum is the correct panel measurements and positioning.

That said this is not the whole story for the 1936 Aero spec.
During 1936 Douglas went bankrupt, the administrator passed all of the assembled machines and parts to make up further machines over to Pride and Clarke to sell on and sold off most of the factory tooling.
Pride and Clarke used the parts to make up completed machines Jeff Clews book the best twin makes mention of this, and as the correct spec of parts became exhausted they used whatever was readily available to them, ie when the Miller lighting ran out they fitted Lucas etc. now seemingly they also ran out of available tanks, Jeff Clews comment was “some hybrid machines were produced”
During 1937 when Douglas were back in business and new spare parts became available Pride and Clarke used the 1937 Aero spares to complete their incomplete 1936 machines and a limited batch of 1936 machines were offered for sale at a heavily discounted price.
SEE THE SPEC on the attached Pride and Clarke sales sheet dated July 29 1937 ref the 1936 machines being offered for sale
This is where the tank differs, in the pic the blue colour is the reflection of the sky in the chrome.
This batch of late 1936 Aeros had chrome tanks with black panels (1937 tanks) they did not have the Aero Douglas transfer just the Douglas transfer, also attached was their own supply transfer see pic.
So if you have a high engine number M prifix and high frame number along with a T prifx gearbox I.e a late 1936 unit you may well be in the realm of this batch of machines.
I had one that I assume was from this batch, it had the chrome tank etc. frame No AE1024, engine No 6M403 gearbox T400.
It’s still out there somewhere.

Hope this is of help to you Eric
Steve

[Dads bike]

Supplied by pride and Clarke 600 Aero Douglas transfer

[Doug]

You need to be wary of the shade of blue as appearing falsely in B&W photographs of circa 1935 Douglases. So much so the periodicals commented on it, as this excerpt from The Motor Cycle, October 9, 1934.



I also recall seeing another explanation on the periodicals (probably the competing Motor Cycling) that it was specifically due to a change in the paint formulation that caused the blue to appear much paler when photographed (in B&W) than formally, but to the eye it was the same, traditional Douglas deep blue.

The excerpt above is more a a blanket statement that all blue tends to photograph light, which is not true. They had no trouble photographing dark blue earlier, or later during the Aero models. So a change (temporary?) in the paint that reflected the light differently, perhaps wavelengths the film emulsion was sensitive to but the eye was oblivious to, seems a reasonable explanetion.

I think this has lead many a restorer to incorrectly re-paint their petrol tanks in a lighter shade.

-Doug

[Eric S]

Steve
I replied to your comment above on my "tank painting" post.

Eric

[geomellish]

Thanks for all of the help. I went with RAL5005 Signal Blue

[Eric S]

Nice,
who did it?

[geomellish]

The tank was done by  Andy Marsden at https://www.ultimatebikepaint.co.uk/
 whom I would recommend.
Regards George