I have decided that the engine in my 1962 850 is looking quite shabby and so have lifted it out for a repaint. It was last painted in 1985, and in acrylic lacquer! Surprisingly, the paint stayed on for decades without too much deterioration, but in today’s competitive world, standards have lifted quite a bit. I have two questions which I would value your opinion.

1. Engine mounts. The present engine mounts (nearly 40 years old) have the consistency of petrified wood. I have two new old stock engine mounts which still exhibit some rubbery give when pressed with finger. While it might be very satisfying to have genuine parts, I wonder if present new parts (no doubt made by loving hands in some Asian country) are worth considering, or just go with the genuine ones even though they are old, but never used?

2. Paint. As mentioned above, the paint was acrylic lacquer since at that time, that’s all the paint shop could mix to match a crankshaft pulley I saved when rebuilding the motor in the 1980s. This I know is the original pulley with the original green (although it had done 20 years service). Now, I have had a look at the paint from Variety Paints sold as mowog green, but it is too yellow in my opinion and all they say is that it is “premium quality” with no indication as to exactly what it is. I can see minisport advertise a dark green engine paint, but they don’t say what it is either and the colour is a bit hard to see on the photo. Online, there is “BMC green” which is apparently the same as “Austin Healey Green” made by POR but I don’t have a sample and the information says made using “the finest pigments and colour ingredients” (not sure what the difference is there) but at least the blurb says “high temperature” which is reassuring. The local Bunnings was able to match my pulley, but could only do it in epoxy enamel metal paint, but this has an upper working temp of only 80C. Has anyone had experience with the POR or minisport product?

Photo shows engine (supported by an approved bracket on the head studs) with old paint stripped off.

Regards
Tony

G'day Tony,

When I was restoring Minnie, I used the green enamel from Minisport and reckon it looks really good. I thinned it with enamel thinners and sprayed it on. I did prep the motor first with an engine enamel primer out of spray can. I cleaned everything with prewash and thought I'd got into all the nooks and crannies but must have missed a few cos after 2 years and about 4,000 miles, there's a few little patches around the spark plugs that have come off. I've just touched these bits up with a brush, as I did when I had a weeping welsh plug and needed to fix that.

I think the paint was in a 1 litre tin and if I was doing it again, I'd probably buy 2. I did have just enough though with 1 tin but 2 would give you heaps to play with.

A few pics to give you some idea of what it looks like before and after.

As for the engine mounts, I used the captive nut version from Minisport which I found very easy to use BUT the holes do need some work with a round file to make sure they actually fit on the subframe and motor. Easy to do while motor is still out. So far so good quality wise.

Cheers, Rocky

Thanks for those beaut photos and description Rocky. I've ordered the minisport tin today and going on past service, it will arrive tomorrow. The POR-15 BMC Green (sometimes called Austin Healey green) is too yellow - more like olive green. The only two points of reference I have some confidence in is my original pulley with flaking paint decades old, and the photo below showing painted engines in the Australian factory. But, of course colouyr reproduction on that photo has gone through several steps and is probably only 90% accurate. The yellow fans look OK so perhaps the green is also OK. I will report back when more information is available. Surprisingly the paint guy at Bunnings matched the pulley very well, but they really only sell house paint.

The older engine mounts are probably much better quality rubber than new items, newer rubber isn't what it used to be. I had no success with the captive nut type and will avoid them in future.
As for paint a high temp is probably best but maybe overkill but the most important thing for longevity is preperation. Get the prep right and most paint will be good.

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Cheers Dave.

I found an old rocker cover with original paint, so I cleaned it up and did a clear coat on top.


And compared to the Minikingdom dark green on the head and block

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Timmy's rocker cover is the same green as my crankshaft pulley - which doesn't match the factory photo but the factory photo can't be relied upon, it being a colour slide, printed as a photo, and then scanned. I await with interest the tin from Mini sport. The picture below shows the situation so far. The one in the middle is GW's ex 850 which he claims is untouched from the factory. The others are as marked along with some dabs on the pulley for Variety Paints and POR.

I wonder if BMC went to great lengths to maintain the exact colour of paint for items like the power plant over a long period? I ask this because when getting paint for my 1970 Cooper S power plant I used the original rocker cover and had it matched by eye. A bit later I compared my rocker cover to a couple of original others in metallic green and there were subtle but noticeable differences. Maybe that's because of a different paint supplier, or perhaps because maintaining uniformity wasn't as important as it was for body colours.

The end result is that perhaps there isn't a correct green.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Also paint colour fades over time. Perhaps not so much in the engine bay.

The aim of getting the “right” colour needs to be taken into account. I wanted to freshen my power plant so it continued to look like a well maintained 50 year old car, not one that had just come off the assembly line, so the current original green rocker cover was the benchmark. Whether it was the same colour green when applied in 1970 was effectively irrelevant.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Well folks, the minisport tin came promptly (delivered from Adelaide to Sydney in less than 24 hours). The picture below shows the three contenders. Bunnings is closest to the original pulley green and very close also to Timmy's rocker cover. POR-15 is no where near it, and Minisport is much to dark. Looks like I'll just have to go to a paint outfit and have it matched.
Edit: It's all been dropped off at a local Autolac factory and will report back tomorrow.

Hey Tony, just to confuse you a bit more, here's a few pics of Minnie's original engine colour. It's a 1963 model and the same owner since 1964 that I bought her off so absolutely as it came from the factory.

Some pics are outside in the sun and others in the shed.

Re engine mounts in recent times the Rover mounts were best. But dearer.
I had trouble previously with captive nut ones too thick.
Quinton Hazell mounts (NLA now?) had the hole offset distance between the 2 plates wrong. I had to slot them on the mill.

Edit
I like captive nuts in mounts but the ones used were soft as cheese. They strip too easy.
I tack welded standard hex nuts onto Rover or best quality mounts instead. I used a jig to centre the nuts over the holes.
Not doing any more, my eyesight isn't the best now.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Thanks for those pictures Rocky. That rocker cover is very close to Timmy's and also my pulley so I'd say that is the original official green. I'd also agree wtih Doug that there probably wasn't an officlal green anyway.

Thanks for that info Kevin. I have two new Leyland NOS mounts which I will use, but I'll check the holes on all sides before I get to the stage where I am dangling bolts on a magnet and wondering why they won't go in.

My paint should be ready tomorrow lunch time. I Iam hopeful they'll get it right.

Well folks I can report good progress. The chaps at autolac spent two days on the paint and got a very good match to the original pulley green. The picture below shows progress this morning. Overall result is: POR-15 Austin Healey Green: too yellow; Variety Paints Mowog green: too yellow; Minisport: Too dark; Autolac and Bunnings: Good colour match. The Autolac paint is an industrial paint described as TB300 Synthetic Top Coat. It's difficult to determine the rated temperature, but a similar paint in this range is rated at 150C which is considerably better than 80C from Bunnings.

The only problem is that the guy at Autolac did not record what be put into it. He started off with a standard colour "added a it of white here, and a bit of black there" until he got it right. So, to get another tin means going with a sample and having him do it again.

It took about 750ml to do the engine and gearbox, and I even managed to get a fashionable and authentic run in the timing cover front case. All I need to do now is to get it all back in the car without scratching it.

Thanks for all you advice and pictures. Very helpful. Regards Tony