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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Atco green

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Not really very technical this question, so I thought it might be netter placed here. I've been reading the threads on Atco green paint, but I've not seen this one mentioned ...  Atco Royal Green 400ml Acrylic Gloss Aerosol Spray Paint. It's on eBay. Just wondering if anyone has used it. My Atco 14" has a lighter green (which I like), but here and there there's also a darker green splashed about. Not sure why. Darker green looks OK, but I think the lighter colour might be the original for this age of mower.

I'm not aiming to restore the mower to show standards, as I'll be using it, but I'd like to strip the panels back, rust proof and prime, then spray. Just so it looks presentable. 

Best wishes, 

Darren

 

wristpin Wed, 19/06/2019

The Royale ( with an e) refers to the green introduced with the Royale range of heavy duty 20, 24 and 30” mowers. Your De Luxe would have had the older Atco Green.  That’s all I know; hopefully someone has researched the RAL numbers.

Darren - FAC Thu, 20/06/2019

Reading a few of the threads on the forum, I see paint code S5040G30Y mentioned, but that seems to relate to 1930s /40s mowers. I've not seen mention of that code in relation to my De Luxe (late '60s / '70s). It is possible to do an online match, but having played with it, I'm not sure it's that useful. Elsewhere, I found mention of BS 381C Olive Green 220. This colour does look pretty close to what I remember the colour to be, and it also matches some of the paint on my mowers. Might order some just to see.

Darren 

Henno Thu, 20/06/2019

I did some research while restoring 2 14s Balmoral's, same green as the Royale's. That is almost RAL 6005. Then we did a Commodore B17 which color quiet different, I had the colour measured and mixed at a local car paint shop. They use PPG paint. It was found in their computer as:

Manufacturer: DAF Trucks DELFLEET (UHS HB PLUS)

OEM Code: N9254, N9254, 70509, 3009

Description: BRANDS BIER GROEN*  + 1 gram F318 (on 1 can of spray of 400 grams)

Reference:30105817 PRIME Solid

* Yep you read that well: that is green for the Brand beer brand on Daf Trucks.

 

Currently we are working on a Commodore B14 which is a lot lighter (colour scheme's seem to work like Hayter parts, see other thread, ; they used what was available on a day), but we decided to paint it in the B17 colour, otherwise we would have a 3rd colour to work with. Oh yeah, there is a Webb AB1476 waiting in the shed to be restored, and that's different again.... ;-(

If you want to standardise on RAL colours then this site is useful: https://www.ralcolor.com/  and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAL_colors

 

Darren - FAC Thu, 20/06/2019

Thanks Henno. Lots of useful information there. 

From what I've read so far, and I might be mistaken, but I think the Royale and Commodore colours are slightly different to what would have been on the 14" Deluxe. This lighter green is visible in places on my mower, although someone has touched it up in places with a darker green. 

Looking at that helpful RAL chart, I'd say that the closest colours to what I have are 6010 or 6017, but of course there are lots of factors at play that determine how we see colours, and that's made more difficult by viewing on a screen. 

Darren

wristpin Thu, 20/06/2019

Remember that when looking at your De Luxe the paint will almost certainly have faded so the inside of the chain case or under a handle bar grip will be as near as you can get to the original colour.

Darren - FAC Fri, 21/06/2019

That makes sense, thank you Wristpin. I'll take a look.

As the 14" didn't come with a grass box, I looked around on eBay for one. Found one that is claimed to be new old stock, and for the Deluxe. It does look very nice, although I paid more than I'd have liked for it. Still, it'll give me a guide to matching the colour.

Next job for me is stripping the panels. I've a bench top media blaster, so at least I can tackle the smaller ones in that. 

Darren 

Darren - FAC Tue, 25/06/2019

I've now got my new grass box, which is claimed to be new old stock. It looks nice, but as I suspected, it's the darker green, rather than the lighter that I think is correct for my model.

As Wristpin suggested, I took a look under the handle to see what the colour should be and it is the lighter green. I have a dilemma now, do I spray all the panels in the darker green, or redo the grass box in the preferred lighter green. See photos ...

 

gtc Wed, 26/06/2019

do I spray all the panels in the darker green, or redo the grass box in the preferred lighter green

On the basis of ease, I'd respray the grass box. I prefer the lighter green, too.

Darren - FAC Wed, 26/06/2019

Unfortunately, GTC, it's only under the handles (as in the photo) where the paint is in reasonable condition. Elsewhere, paint is missing and there's surface rust, so I'm in the process of stripping it all back to bare metal, treating the rust, and covering with a zinc rich primer, before respray. And so it's not just a case of spraying the grass box, sadly. My choice is between spraying the mower the light green that I prefer and then doing the box (which is already nice, but in the darker green) in that colour, or doing the mower in the darker green to match the box. Other option I suppose, is to do the mower in the lighter green and leave the box in the darker colour. That would probably annoy me a bit, but in reality I doubt I'll use the grassbox that much. Then again, I suppose I could use it, and after a few years it might need a new coat and then I could change it.

Thanks, Darren 

Buryan Sun, 25/08/2019

May be scandalous, but I'm a Lister man, so I'm going for Mid Brunswick Green on my Atco Scythe!!

 

UPDATE:

I have posted two pics of the red I chose (Vapormatic - Case IH XL Ted) and (Paragon) Mid Brunswick Green.  I took a screen shot of the green because somehow I managed to photograph in 'Quicktime' and couldn't convert it to an ordinary photo!  I  also uploaded one with the red next to the green.  Both paints go on very well indeed and both thin with ordinary thinners - I used brushes.  Hope that might be helpful, even if not accurate! 

Don't know where the photos have gone to - it said they had uploaded!  Where are they???!!!  They are showing and I pressed save and nothing happens?  Ah-ha - read the blurb and here we are!

 

 

 

The one thing I can guarantee is that the results won't be anything like Martin ?'s magnificent restoration - but then mine has got to cut a meadow - - !!

Antbr123 Mon, 26/08/2019

One word of caution on paint matching - learnt personally resulting in great expense and disappointment. 

Don't rely on your computer screen resolution to give you a good colour match.  I found the best way was to take the mower parts to a local car paint distributor and use their colour swatches under a lamp to simulate natural daylight.  They also had a handheld light spectrometer which measured the light reflectivity and gloss level. They should have the standard RAL colour swatches.

I have used various websites which listed RAL colour swatches and BS Standards.  I chose what I thought was the correct colour on the computer screen only to be shocked at how inaccurate it proved to be.

 

regards,

Tony

Buryan Mon, 09/09/2019

DARREN - my Mother bought one of your Atco's in the mid 60's and looking at your grassbox it suddenly reminds me of the same dark emerald green - slightly sick-making, actually!  Our model (long since gone) was certainly painted in your grass-box colour - I mowed with it hundreds of times.

As I said - try Lister - Mid Brunswick Green - my Atco Scythe is looking rather fine in that livery!

 

Best wishes,

Kenneth.