Lister D colour

I have a Lister D that I believe came from a cement mixer. Don't know where its been or whats been done to it other than cover it in red oxide paint. I am unable to find any trace of original paint and wondered if it came from a mixer would it have been Yellow?

Thanks in advance.
Alan

No, it would have been green, the people who built the mixer might have painted it yellow but I've never seen one that was originally yellow

Appletop is right, Lister would have sent it off to the mixer manufacturer in green (usually mid-Brunswick green, apart from some wartime ones where a different shade of green was sometimes used for short periods due to paint shortages).  Any change of colour would have occurred after that, probably after a few years when the piece of plant it was attached to got scratched, dented and rusty, and someone wanted to tart it up a bit to either sell it on or get a few more years of hire fees from it!

I've seen a couple in different colours.

Thanks for the info and the pictures. First time I have seen a picture of aD in a mixer, they look like they are clockwise running where as mine is anti-clockwise.

Possible, some were anticlock.

I've seen Ds in all sorts of colours, and some with the lettering on the casting and various nuts and bolts painted red or gold, and some with brass tank straps fitted, but they've not left the factory like that, it's subsequent owners that have repainted them and/or added some bling to them up.  For instance, I doubt that Liner mixer above would have left the factory with its wheels painted up like a Showman's engine - after the first week of use they'd have been covered in mortar and cement dust anyway so it would have been a waste of money for the factory to do it.    However, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing that if it makes the owner happy, it's only a coat of paint when all said and done.

I think its going to be green.

alan8859 wrote:I think its going to be green.

You could always have a look if there's any surviving original paint between the fuel tank and the cylinder head and places like that where rust and the paint bush of a subsequent owner haven't reached? However, this may only tell you what colour the engine was when it left the Lister factory, and not necessarily what colour the cement mixer factory might have painted it.

Although, my thinking would be, why would a mixer manufacturer go to the expense of repainting an engine when it came with a perfectly good coat of paint from Lister? Particularly during and after the second world war when paint was scarce, and when cutting production time and costs became the overall goal of most companies in a bid to remain competitive.

[quote="A Lister"][quote="alan8859"]I think its going to be green.[/quote]
Although, my thinking would be, why would a mixer manufacturer go to the expense of repainting an engine when it came with a perfectly good coat of paint from Lister?  Particularly during and after the second world war when paint was scarce, and when cutting production time and costs became the overall goal of most companies in a bid to remain competitive.    [/quote]

Because if it was spray coated then it is easier to just blat paint over everything regardless.

Appletop wrote:Possible, some were anticlock.

Winget mixers usually had used anti-clockwise engines.  I had two ex mixer D Type engines, one from a 1936 Frederick Parker and also a 1945 Liner one, and they were both clockwise rotation and still in the original mid brunswick paint.

Pete.

Firstly, thanks for all the replies. The mystery is solved, this morning I took off the governor cover plate because the copious amount of red oxide that covers the engine had seized the push rod. Cleaning off the thick layer of red oxide revealed another extremely thick layer of yellow paint covering the original green, so it will be green again.

After scraping off the red oxide there was body filler and after getting that off was a crack so job stopped for now.

Is that defenitly a crack? Looking at the area that is I have had, in the past a D with a simular "crack" and it turned out to be in the casting and not a crack. I'd seriously doubt filler would hold water in for any lenght of time...

It's difficult to tell and the filler had been there for a long time. It seems to hold water ok so may put filler back on for cosmetic reasons.

I agree with Appletop, one of my D's has a similar casting fault, it wouldnt have had filler when it left the factory, just paint.
It was only the big engines RH, Blackstone and maybe Petter's etc who hid their casting defects to justify the cost of their engines

MaryAlice

Thanks for that I will carry on with the restoration.