Any idea what the factory engine colour of a 1972 clubman would of been? It is currently a pale green.

I don't know exactly, but in the "How To.." section on here there are colour charts.
See page 18 of the below:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=66469
The blue seems to ring a coloured bell in my memory now I see it.

Green until at least 1973, probably till the end of the 1098.

Do you mean clubman GT? Then their engines would have been Cooper S
Green Metallic.
Standard minis were never green. 1098cc minis were a metallic gold.
Later clubman were blue and later ones black.

My notes have Gold in 71, Blue in 74, Black in 77. Unsure when the changeovers occurred.

This is the current colour.



6th month of 1972
1098cc

Not much of it left and could possibly have been repainted in its life.

From your photo it looks to be old Cooper S Metallic Green. There isn't any other colours layers underneath the green either so it may be the original colour coat or the unit was stripped completely before repainting.
From memory, the ancillaries like the starter motor, plastic alternator cover, distributor, etc., often got sprayed (or over sprayed) as well as the power unit.

Standard minis were never green eh! Now I may be getting on a bit, but I had two 1100 minis, a '71 and a '73. Both were green!

Here are the BMC colours used in the late 60's. Classic Gold was used on the Deluxe, Matic and Moke. Metallic Green on the Basic Mini and Cooper S.



Using the same engine paint format for the earlier BMC cars above as a guide - YG2S6 would be Metallic Green and YG2S7 would be Classic Gold. But then again they may have just gone to the one paint colour for both.

Blue paint was used from 1973 to 1975.

Black Paint from 1976 to 1978.

Interesting thanks for your help guys. I didn't expect this to be such a unclear topic. I guess BMC/BLMC didn't always do everything by logical order or means.

It would probably be a handy tool if more information was collected on this topic and a reference chart was made on model/years of all production and engine colour. Information collected and put in one place. This would provide some clarity for people restoring minis back to their original standard.

Just an idea

Looks like the green may be original

Yes. Green might be the right colour for your '72 engine. My '69 mini K (1098) was definitely gold metallic when I bought it new.

I think that it is one of the aims of this website to list this kind of detail, in the absence of factory records, to help owners who want to keep their car close to "original".
And your example of engine colour shows that "original" is often hard to define.
Remember we are talking about BMC here - not Ford "blue" or GM orange.