Twenty colour sheme

Hi Colin,
from my observations over the years most outside maker/supplier items could be their own off the shelf colours like Generators, Voltage Regs. etc. but for the main they usually had a shot of Cat Yellow at the final painting of the machine at Cat before being forwarded to the Dealers.
However air cleaners in my time--1962-2004 wear over painted Cat Yellow, was how we received them straight off the ship from USA.
If the item was replaced then most likely they would be the supplier's own colours in the box.

As I seem to recall, the Exhaust Manifolds were Silver Frost up until around mid 1960's when they went to high temperature Matt Black--from about that time on most machines were just painted Cat yellow, that soon went black and peeled off, as by then most machines had side covers fitted and so Silver/Black paint was not seen. I see labour costs as the reason for change as they had to be hand painted.
I saw it as a tissy up for aesthetic appeal--like the Red highlights on early Grey Cats

At our Dealer at least, the manifolds on open sided engine compartments often got the Matt Black, if in an enclosure they were just left Cat Yellow to burn off.

Some recollections from my past, others will most likely differ due to Dealer preferences.

Cheers,
Eddie B.

According to the Bob LaVoie book on gas Cats, all Big 20s should be grey with red accents. He mentions that there is talk of the San Leandro Big 20s being grey with black accents. I have a Big 20 parts machine that is all yellow. Obviously a repaint. If yours is a PL20 it would have the red accents. If an L20, there is a chance it would have black accents. Maybe other people know more but Bon LaVoie seems to be very knowledgeable.

According to the Bob LaVoie book on gas Cats, all Big 20s should be grey with red accents. He mentions that there is talk of the San Leandro Big 20s being grey with black accents. I have a Big 20 parts machine that is all yellow. Obviously a repaint. If yours is a PL20 it would have the red accents. If an L20, there is a chance it would have black accents. Maybe other people know more but Bon LaVoie seems to be very knowledgeable.

GrantJ

By chance, does LaVoie give serial numbers for the L builds that were accented in black? I have never heard of this before. I thought only red accents were used. I have a PL and a L but neither show signs that the fuel tank straps or radiator were ever painted black. The PL was a military tractor so shows traces of olive drab green later painted over with yellow. I would be interested to hear more details if the black scheme was ever used.

JanM

No, LaVoie does not give any serial numbers concerning painting. He assumes all Big 20s were grey with red accents but there might have been some Ls with black. Not very definite about it at all. From the few photos I have seen of Big 20s the only thing that I could see that was probably black or red would have been the wiggly Cat name on the radiator and the vertical bars on the radiator protector/shield. The Ag museum in Woodland Calif, might have more info. Grant.

I sanded a while on the radiator of my Big 20, and under the yellow was some black which I thought was interesting and I sanded some more and under the black was yellow again and then bare metal. The poor old beast has probably been painted many times in the almost 100 years of its existence. I didnt find any trace of grey. Grant.

I have done a bit more sanding here. Whole tractor was yellow when I got it. I have found black on the air cleaner ,fan shroud, fuel tank straps and the wavy caterpillar on the radiator. No black so far on the TWENTY lettering on he radiator sides and only grey under the yellow on the radiator guard. All of the grey I am finding is much lighter than the grey on the ACMOC model twenty that I believe was carefully chosen. Could be faded.
Was hopping to get this painted before harvest but that is looking harder every day.
cheers colin

Hey Col,

You could paint it PINK so that it stands out in the crowd at a rally, be different and stand out from the rest.

The Mad Wombat

Ha Ha! practice what you preach Mr President ( i know you already do and you are not to be encouraged) not my style thanks.
It will be battleship grey (not sure which battleship) with black trim me thinks.