Rich
I have always understood that the copper colour is that used for genuine
replacement Armstrong Shock Adsorbers. I say replacement because I
believe that those supplied as original equipment were either unpainted
or sometimes painted black.
As I say this is what I understood but I could be wrong. I have a copper
coloured pair on the rear of my BN2 are they have there since the 1960s
or earlier. However they are adjustable so obviously not the originals
>
>Over the years I've observed a lot of copper coloured shocks on big Healeys
>and other BMC cars of the '50's and ;60's. I have never been able to prove
>these to have been installed originally, but have often wondered as to their
>identity or meaning. Some folks have a theory that they may have been part of
>the BMC "Gold Seal Factory Replacement" scheme of the period. However, I've
>seen Gold Seal remanufactured items and they were painted gold, not copper.
>
>Recently I was talking to a friend who was born and raised in the town of
>Abingdon, in the U.K. and in his early driving years often visited the
>Abingdon Competitions Department on Saturday mornings where one could purchase
>factory approved items right there over the counter. He tells me that the
>copper painted Armstrong shocks indicated they were revalved and were
>considered a heavier duty shock for competition work, and he'd bought a set to
>upgrade his '65 MG Midget. A chum of his bought some to upgrade his '68
>MGB/GT, and so on.
>
>Why I'm asking this now is that I'm currently doing a restoration on a
>relatively low mileage '54 BN1 that's been off the road for over 40 years. It
>has a virtually fresh full set of copper painted shocks, and I'd hate to be
>changing this out if it's a legitimate part of the car.
>
>Has anybody else any experience or comments about this?
--
John Harper
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