Door Check Strap Bracket Colour?

[tweedy998]

Hi all,
I'm currently doing a little Springtime tidying on our '65 Cooper 998. I'm just double checking that the door check strap brackets should be body colour, (in our instance; Tweed Grey) they both are at present but on the offside one the paint is a little thin so I was considering giving it a quick refinishing. Just making sure they aren't supposed to match the check strap colour or the 'Cummulus Grey' used on the switch panel. Cheers!

[surfblue63]

I thought they were black.

[1071bob]

The two countersunk plates which clamp the straps to the car are body colour, the curved bracket around the door seal and the other one inside the door pocket are black.

[tweedy998]

Thanks for the replies.

In the interests of originality, it looks like I'd better return them to black! They would blend in better with the door rubbers in black, so that certainly makes sense.

[TECH396]

Both My 68 & 66 were body colored for the pressed steel outer pieces. The inner brackets were black. I just have one photo showing the ones from my early April 68 MK2. Hard to see but they were blue from new

[tweedy998]

Ahh, well the rest of the car is very original, so perhaps they were body colour...

[Peter Laidler]

I have a few of the bits we're talking about in a box of odds and sods. And the two bits shown in the photo of the green car - above - are definitely colour matched on the bits that I have got...... Tartan and Island. On my Mk2, they were black to match the black interior

[tweedy998]

Thanks Peter, on mine, I'm wondering if it is actually the original paint finish now I've given them a closer inspection. I note replacement/repro items come finished in black... but ours are definitely a Tweed Grey hue if a little faded.

A bit of a conundrum.

We're trying to keep the car in as original spec as possible, so these finer details do matter to us. It's like my deliberations over the correct Old English White for the wheels, which I'm still mulling over, even though they'll be covered by the chrome hubcaps.

[Peter Laidler]

Wheel colour......... Phew... i have always wondered about the 'correct' colour for the Mk1 car wheels. Simply because - and I've said it a zillion times before - when I was restoring my Mk2 car, there were still zillions of mini's on the roads, especially here in Oxford!! I had about 30 colour chips of different variations of silver given to me by the paint makers Glasurit who were based here. And whenever I saw a mini and didn't look too suspicious, I'd lean over and try to match up the 'best' match, then put a tick on the back of the appropriate colour chip. I came to the conclusion, shared by Glasurit Technical that there was no definite colour! Dunlop or RO just painted them, er......., silver. as supplied by ICI for its hard wearing capability

On that basis, I say that the same happened to Mk1 wheels. Dunlop just did them '.....a sort of creamy off-white sort of colour.....' I could be wrong of course but that's my experience in the 80's Indeed, I have an unused one, from ST at Abingdon that is a very creamy white.

Tweed Grey....., in my opinion the best colour of 'em all and as for the little 998's,....., love 'em to bits

[Andrew1967]

More recent discussions seem to point to most Mk1 wheels being Land Rover Limestone LRC007 (if I remember correctly) and certainly not OEW as folklore has always suggested.

I’m soon to get my S wheels blasted and (probably) powder coated and will be done in Land Rover Limestone.

[AndyPen]

I don't have a photo to hand but have posted one before on here somewhere. My '64 Grey car was grey with tartan red interior. The top metal was also red, not body colour on this one.

[Peter Laidler]

Back to Andy's wheel colour thread. Just had a look at a couple of Mk1's hanging up in my garage (including a very early 4.5 without hub-cap fixings) and Andy's colour estimation fits in.

[SMOKE GREY]

My original unrestored 62 car has plates in body colour. The plate that sits over the door seal is black.

[TECH396]

I don't have a photo to hand but have posted one before on here somewhere. My '64 Grey car was grey with tartan red interior. The top metal was also red, not body colour on this one.

Based on Andypen's, and Peter's findings here, It appears possible ( in general terms), they were mostly painted body color, unless it was in too much contrast to the interior color. In which case, the factory would then choose the best suited for the color of the interior. IE, My Island blue exterior had Island blue strap retainers with black interior, but If the car was Grey with Red interior( Like Andy's), it was matched closer to the interior color.
Or Peters Mk2 being white with Black interior, it was best to paint them black, and not white. Just more food for thought.Hmmmm

[Tim]

That makes a lot of sense.

I recommend simpling painting the car black, with a black interior. Then there can be no argument over black or body coloured.

Tim

[AndyPen]

I have found a shot - from my recent pics of our unmolested 64 early hydro grey car's kick plate. Grey car and red metal cover as you can see.

Sorry for the delay, I am miles away from this car at the moment.

red-check-strap.jpg

[tweedy998]

Thanks to everyone for the replies on this, really appreciated!

And also the insights on my slight wheel colour tangent. The Land Rover colour sounds like a goer, and I thoroughly enjoyed the image of Peter and his silver swatches surreptitiously checking out other Mini's in the 80's..

When I resprayed my reverse rims back in the 90's I wasn't so picky and simply did them a Halfords rattle can cream, before changing to champagne beige to match the body colour of a car at the time.

[Peter Laidler]

I understood that little colour-matched things like the door check strap brackets were wired-up inside the car when the completed body 'in-the-white' went through the paint shop. There they got a quick blow job as the car went through. Same as things like the colour matched petrol filler caps. Certainly, pictures of MG's ready to go through the paint shop show bits hanging on wire. Mind you, there was plenty of other stuff that went through the paint booths such as tool boxes and stuff from home, called 'homers.....'