ENGINE
COLOR
Most
if not all of the G-15 engines and brackets were
painted black. The R-16 and the U-20 came in a dark
blue-green color. After recently seeing some original
pictures of the elusive "turquois" color used on early
60's Datsuns I believe the later engines were painted
either in the "Nissan Blue." or a color between the
two. The turquoise used as a car color was much
lighter than the turquoise or blue-green that was used
on the engines. The "car-color" turquoise is similar
(or identical) to the color found on some of the
transmission shifter brackets. These two colors share
a similarity in that something painted "Nissan Blue"
and viewed indoors, looks like the color "Turquoise"
viewed in the sunshine. Without an example of each
part in your hand it can be difficult to be sure of
which color you are looking at. Of course, it is
possible that neither of these colors is "Turquoise"
or "Nissan Blue."
To
photograph these colors we used a couple of parts that
are new (circa 1967) and that were still wrapped or
boxed to prevent light hitting the paint. I took
photos both in the sunshine and indoors to give you an
idea of what the parts may look like in your garage
and outside.
I
then took the part and compared it to what the monitor
was showing the color to be, and modified the color on
the monitor to match the part. Every monitor shows
colors at least slightly different, but this is about
as close as we can get. (Sure beats trying to describe
it to you on the phone!)
I
have found both new production and old production
parts that use either of the colors. One person's
"blue" is another's "green". In our 38 years of
looking at roadsters and parts I've only seen two
assembled new factory engines, and both of them were
the darker of the darker turquoise. All of the new
shortblocks I've seen came unpainted.
Personally,
I think these are hideous colors for an engine to live
with. For you "originalophiles" you will probably hate
this but LIVE A LITTLE! Competition orange, pink,
basic black or RED!
Or
even a decent shade of BLUE
will probably get you more compliments than the
where-did-you-get-that-color turquoise. Down inside
the engine bay the turquoise looks very
dark.
