Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi could anyone tell me where to find the paint code for my 57 4door i think colour is like grey/green murky colour not sure tho
tony.

From your description, probably Sage Green (BMC code GN-5. ICI code 3116).
Post a photo so I can confirm for you.

here dont know if you can make out the colour,

The roof looks like Sage Green. The boot looks like a 'proper' grey. Is the interior a darker green, or grey seats/dark green carpets??

the seats have been redone in red the boot is a replacement which is blue atm the whole bottom half is a light blue primer but the top looks original.

...and the top is definitely Sage Green.

Sage Green was a 57 colour but look somewhere which is unlikely to have been (re-) painted i.e. under dash or inside glove boxes. I think the body number or chassis no. gave the paint colour too.

yes its the top colour im really after looks to be original paint there,
the other just looks like a primer where someone else as started but does look a nice colour kinda suits it.

As i said confirm by looking at a place which is unlikely too have been painted. Look at Sage Green Pete's restoration on this site. He did a fine job. The interior of a sage green 57 was originally green too. Petes more modern vinyl seats look excellent in it tho!

firedrake1942 wrote: I think the body number or chassis no. gave the paint colour too.

That is true of earlier cars, up to 1958, I think. The third letter of the chassis number prefix is the paint colour, although it is not specific (i.e. E = mid-green, T = light green and U = dark green). But that should allow you to work out the exact colour when referenced against the available colours for 1957 cars.

Only chassis numbers prefixed F** include a colour code. E.G. FBA11-XXXXXX where F=Morris Minor. B=2 door saloon. A=black paint. 1=right hand drive UK. 1=synthetic paint.

3rd letter in group always referred to paint colour but only very generically. A=black. B=grey. C=Red (includes beige colours). D=Blue. E=Green.

As the op's car is a '57 4-door believed originally green, the chassis number, assuming its an RHD home market car, should be FAE11-******
The MA*** prefixes didn't appear until mid-'58.

Our November 1958 registered car, has a chassis number that starts with 'FBU1' and the paint code is GN12 (BMC Dark Green), which is definitely the original paint colour.

It was a 2-door saloon, and was made into a 'post-production' convertible in 1998, so the 'F' and 'B' are correct, as is the '1' for RHD, but what is the 'U'?

No FBU in my records, although quoted by MMOC Dorset branch as an example of a 2-door chassis prefix. Possibly additional '3rd letters' were used for ease of identification as the number of varying colours increased. That'll be a research project for me (reaches for anorak )
Green two door should be FBE but that said, by November '58 it apparently should have an MA2S prefix. The MA** prefixes replaced the F** ones in June/July '58 apparently.

palacebear wrote:Only chassis numbers prefixed F** include a colour code. E.G. FBA11-XXXXXX where F=Morris Minor. B=2 door saloon. A=black paint. 1=right hand drive UK. 1=synthetic paint.

3rd letter in group always referred to paint colour but only very generically. A=black. B=grey. C=Red (includes beige colours). D=Blue. E=Green.

As the op's car is a '57 4-door believed originally green, the chassis number, assuming its an RHD home market car, should be FAE11-******
The MA*** prefixes didn't appear until mid-'58.

chassis number is FAB1 or 81

FAB1 = 4-door. GREY. UK right-hand drive. I'm even more confused now!

Thunderbirds are go
Sorry couldn't resist

Back to Tracey Island with you, Immediately!

Surely that should be 'back to Creighton-Ward Manor...'?

The first registration date was 1 November 1958, and when I cut the roof off there was a date of September 1958 on the inside of the roof, which I took to be the bodyshell date, so registered very soon after the actual build was completed?

The MM Potteries Branch has more paint codes listed for up to mid-1958, and includes 'U' as 'Dark Green', so that is now the full plate interpretation, I think?There is no 'second' letter after the '1', for the paint 'type', but it definitely was originally cellulose paint, which in the earlier chassis coding was the a 'blank'. The chassis plate is still the original and is of the April 1952 - Mid-1958 type.

There is a 'body' number label on the right hand side of the engine bay, as you look into the bay, would that give any useful information on the build date, as September 1958 does not seem to accord with the 'up to mid-1958' chassis code series or the type of plate fitted?

Going back to the original question 'Paint Code 57 4 Door'. The suggestion of Sage Green, GN5, was certainly available in 1957, and the interior would have been either green or grey, was it before being changed to red? The other 'original' colour that might be possible is 'Clarendon Grey' GR6, which goes with the chassis plate code, and would originally have had a maroon interior.

Thank you for posting this. It's a very useful resource for amateur resesrchers like me. The only records I have had to work with date from 1952/3 when the colour code letter was far less specific, being limited to five (A to E covering black, grey, red, blue, green). I thought the Potteries branch would have it somewhere but I've not been able to locate it for some reason.

Looking at Ray Newell's book, the paint-type code was dropped from the chassis number when (or soon after) the MM1000 replaced the Series 2. I suppose its possible that chassis numbers were allocated well in advance of build, so its possible that a very late F** number could have been applied to a car built after the change to MA** numbers. (Consider that the Minor Millions were allocated chassis numbers 'out of sequence' with numbers 1,000,000 to 1,000,349 being used whilst 'normal' cars were stil being allocated numbers in the 960,000 range).