Paint Colours
CKD cars were sent to Australia painted in red primer only, the final colour being applied locally using locally available paints and colours. As a result the colours used on Australian Sprites and Midgets are different to those assembled in the UK. Details of the paint type and colour can be found on the identification plate which is attached to the firewall near the battery earth wire.
The paint colour name was prefixed with a single digit representing the paint type:
1 – Enamel
3 – Laquer
4 – Acrylic Enamel
The paint colour name was also followed by another single digit representing the paint manufacturer:
1 – BALM
2 – Lusteroid
3 – Berger
4 – Brolite
5 – Taubman
6 – Spartan
Following are some of the colours that are known to have been used on the various Sprite and Midget models:
Aintree Green – Sprite Mk1
Arianca Tan – Midget Mk3
Bard Grey – Sprite Mk1
Black – Sprite Mk3a
British Racing Green – Sprite Mk1, Mk2a, Mk3, Mk3a
Cameno Gold – Midget Mk3
Card Red – Sprite Mk1
Carnation Red – Sprite Mk1
Champion Red – Sprite Mk3, Mk3a
Chartreuse – Sprite Mk1
Crystal White – Midget Mk3
Daffodil Yellow – Midget Mk3
Gambier Turquoise – Midget Mk3
G.T.O. Green – Midget Mk3
Hawthorn Green – Midget Mk3
Heron White – Sprite Mk1
Indigo Blue – Midget Mk3
Jay Blue – Midget Mk3
Jet Red – Midget Mk3
Katoomba Grey – Sprite Mk2a
Lake Green – Midget Mk3
LeMans Red – Sprite Mk1
Marine Blue – Sprite Mk3a
Monarco Blue – Sprite Mk1
Monza Red – Sprite Mk1, Mk2, Mk2a
Nurburg White – Sprite Mk1, Mk2, Mk2a, Mk3, Mk3a
Primrose Yellow – Midget Mk3
Rheims Blue – Sprite Mk1, Mk2a
Sandown Red – Midget Mk3
Sapphire Blue – Midget Mk3
Sky Blue – Sprite Mk3
Stella Blue – Midget Mk3
Snow White – Midget Mk3
Storm Grey – Sprite Mk3
The above list is compiled from colour names appearing on the identification plates of Australian assembled cars belonging to members of The Sprite Car Club of Australia (Inc), and from people who have sumitted information to this site. This list is in no way complete.
The BMC Australia Colour Range
As mentioned earlier, the colours used by BMC Australia were different to those used by the parent company in the UK. Pat McGuckin from Care Distributors Pty Ltd has very kindly supplied a set of BALM colour chips for the BMC colour range from 1963 to 1969. It must be remembered that the BMC product range covered a number of marques such as Austin, Austin-Healey, Morris, MG, Wolseley, etc. and that not all of these colours ended up on Sprites. Balm Paints became Dulux and around 1999 Dulux sold their Automotive and Refinish paint sections to PPG.