Which colour would be original?

[Seanlandy]

Morning all. As many of you will know, I am just working my way through the plethora of questions for my new to me 2a LW. My current one regards colour. It looks like it may have been a green (NATO?) from factory and then painted the brighter (Deep Bronze?) As per the panel I revealed when I took off the tailgate catch plate. I was wondering which is likely to have been right, or does it really not matter. I want to get some paint to paint the tailgate and then use the same colour to paint the rest, at some point, so would rather not do it twice. Thanks in advance.

[geoff]

The colour under the tailgate catch looks like it is original.

Take a look under other items or maybe behind the dash panel for colour confirmation, dash especially .

That said the end colour is your choice

[diffwhine]

Not quite. All LWTs in that batch were delivered to the MOD in Bronze Green. They were then painted as required by each unit in a matt olive green which may have been a version of NATO green, but even that was variable,

[582LTR]

As long as it has not been removed previously, under the VIN plate is often a good indication of original colour.

Regards

James

[2DieselMan]

I believe that best chance of finding the original paint colour is under Solid Riveted Galvanised Capping on the Tub. 
As unless the Land Rover has had a really good & proper BareMetal restoration the paint under these Galvanised Capping's will show the original paint.

Therefore to me the original paint under the tailgate capping look like original Bronze Green

[Seanlandy]

Thank you for the replies thus far. The tailgate catch had to have the rivets drilled, so the green underneath does look very glossy and clean. The VIN plate is not in place. (A job for a later date). Is the green not under the catch plate, what is referred to as the bronze green?
The dash and seat box look like this, as does what is left of the body panels. .

Thinking about it, it I would drill the rivets in a conventional way, would these not be the domed ones as mentioned in the other Rivetting post?

[22900013A]

That looks to have been originally deep bronze green, then overpainted in goodness knows what, certainly doesn't look to be a military colour. In service they were usually matt olive drab/dark green/nato green often with matt black disruptive camo.

[Ratty2A]

Re: "drilling out in the conventional way". If you mean how do I drill out solid rivets, rather than pop-type rivets, then a common approach is to use a sharp chisel and knock the heads clean off with a hammer then just push the shank through the hole with a punch.

Replacing solid rivets like-for-like is much more tricky than removing them.

[Seanlandy]

Ah. Right They must have been pop rivets, if I could drill them out without the need to cold chisel them off. Not used to solid ones. The front of the tub has some camo on it as per photo, which would again perhaps suggest it was the original bright green. In gloss though. Does the B Card tell us anything colourwise?

[diffwhine]

The B Card won't tell you anything useful. Its the original contract number which determines the ex works colour. Pretty much for all army Lightweights (certainly the 2As), they entered service as Bronze Green and then were repainted to suit.
If yours was built under WV7478, it entered service as a bronze green vehicle. Your BMIHT certificate should confirm this.

[Seanlandy]

Bronze green it is, or rather will be then. Thank you.
It seems I need to get hold of this certificate. The B Card didn't really show a lot. Or maybe I just don't know how to read it properly.

[diffwhine]

The B Card is witchcraft only understood by a few enlightened few (of which I am not one...!). I got help to decipher mine through the club, but all it tells you really is basic stuff:
Contract number
Which units it was issued to
Chassis number
Disposal and cast information

Its basically a stock management card, not an asset information card. Now if somebody could track down the brief for WV7474 I reckon a few people would be very interested in seeing that, but I've never seen it.

[Seanlandy]

Well if you don't understand the witchcraft with your expertise, what chance for me? Lol.

[diffwhine]

Ah - but that's military witchcraft... I avoided the military - all that shouting and running about is not for me.

[Seanlandy]

I see. Not into all that stuff, but you do have a 2a from my birth year, so for me that would be cool.

So this is the colour I need.