Hitchcocks Forum

Hi
I live in Western Australia and I am currently restoring my father’s 1953 Meteor.
It has been sitting for 47 years and it is a bit of a basket case.
My father originally had the 1953 Meteor and took it out of that frame, then he put the engine & forks back into a 51 - 52 bullet frame.
There are some BSA bits and pieces on it, such as the rear brake assembly, so it is semi-custom from the start.
I am building it with as many original parts as I can, but I doubt that it will be a full original restoration.
I noticed in a past thread 2010 someone was able to source a paint match in Australia for polychromatic copper beech and I was wondering if anyone could give me more details about this.
Trying to find original paint for this bike has been extremely frustrating for me, as there are suppliers in the UK, but getting it to Australia due to dangerous goods shipping regulations seems to be a problem apparently.
Is the polychromatic copper beech maroon in colour?
The only example of it that can see is a pair of fork covers for sale on Hitchcock’s, but it looks more like a metallic brown to me.
I am also trying to find a paint code for the red colour which embosses the Royal Enfield sign on the timing cover and the gear indicator position displayed on the gearbox cover.
Any help with these subjects would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
P

Dookie, I doubt Craig will see this he has been very busy with work for quite some time he hasn't been heard from for quite a while now. He may put his head into RECOA Inc because we are trying to find that colour but don't hold your breath. Craigs Meteor really hurt him because every time he took it out it bent another push rod. The last time I heard he road it was at Bungendore early last year and it let him down again

Dookie, I have a 53 Meteor and a 53 500 Bullet in this colour. It is a metallic dark brown (the clue is in the name, "copper beech" a beautiful autumn leaf tree here in the UK,) and is quite hard to match. I got mine done by a stove enamel paint maker from an original paint sample. The fork covers you see on this site were painted from a sample off my 500 Bullet and so are a very accurate match. The paint is quite dark and only really shows well in bright sunshine so you'd be ok in Oz! The REOC (UK) put together some paint matches compared to cars but this was back in the 1980s and hasn't been updated since so most are now obsolete. However, I have recently seen some BMW Minis in a colour that looks very similar indeed to Poly Copper Beech. I'll try and find out what it is! Finally, I know of quite a few Meteor owners and none have had the problems Norm reports so I think that's a one off situation. However, the early stamped steel pushrods are prone to breaking up and should be replaced with the 1954-5 type if possible. The 1956 onwards ones are different so won't fit. Let me know if you want more help?
REgards, Mark

Hi Mark, poor Craig I felt so sorry for him because he tried so hard to get it running from a bad basket case, spent several years working on it with any spare time he could . I don't know how many rods he bent and we discussed the problem many times. Problem was at the time he was living about 1200ks from me and it was too far to go and put our heads together to try and sort it out

Norm, I know Craig, well through email! And I got some bits through to him via my cousin who works for Quantas. He eventually dropped off the radar, sadly, the problem must have been fixable. I had to make new pushrods for mine when the steel ones cracked up and it caused a bit of head scratching and a lot of research but it's sorted now. I have all the data if ever anyone should need it! REgards, Mark

Hi Mark, Craig is very busy with work these days, it is all pretty secret what he does he just doesn't get play time anymore.
Cheers Norm

Norm, I know about the work, my cousin told me. If he does come back to you, let him know about the pushrod info, I kept all the data because it was a pain to do so I wanted to save anyone else the bother!
REgards, Mark

Hi Dookie, as fare as I can recall,the OPEL COSTA RICA METALLIC BROWN (420LL)
is close.
Don't know if you can get this in Australia.

Hope this helps,safe riding

Yorkie

Hi Fella's
Thank you all so much for your help with the paint, much appreciated, it was so hard to get a match on the Polychromatic Copper Beech I decided on another colour.
At one stage the only way I thought I would be able to get a match was to buy some in the UK, get a painter to spray up a small panel and then post the panel to Australia and it all just got too hard.
Since then, Yorkie has given me the info for the OPEL COSTA RICA METALLIC BROWN (420LL), so I will keep that code as a back up, because I have already bought the other paint.
Regards,Dookie

Dookie, just a tip: I feared that Opel colour would crop up, it's the one I warned against, it being about 40 years old! I had a match made for my bike from original paint and had a sample sheet made too. I lent it to someone who promised to give it back when they'd finished with it. I'm still waiting...
REgards, Mark