I think it must have all been a ghastly mistake!
Had a hilarious conversation a few weeks back with the former Maintenance
Foreman of the Triumph Paint and Trim Shops. He kept me entertained for
both sides of a long play cassette - and I hadn't got a spare!!!!!!!!!!!
It seems Black was only painted on bodies on Friday afternoons in case it
contaminated the paint supply lines before the weekly clean out on
Saturdays. Interestingly, between colour switches - yellow to red to green
etc - they never flushed the lines. Just relied on the hydraulic effect of
a different colour going down the line and held the spray pistols at a
convenient wall until the right colour came out. Story goes that on
occasions, someone forgot to tell the spray shop that a colour had been
changed and I was told it was not at all unusual to see a 'rainbow'
Spitfire / Herald / 2000 going through the ovens with a yellow front end,
merging to orange middle and finishing with a bright red boot.
Reminds me of the day when an angry customer challenged me with his
Spitfire which had wire wheels on the front, disc wheels on the rear and
one of each for a spare. I didn't believe him until I saw the car myself.
John Mac
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