Jethro raised this topic with me recently. Pinning down the many transitions in paint colour with Rover is not as clear cut as might seem to be the case. We are all familiar with the hammertone blue of the mid 1970s and the "red Rovers" of the 1980s through to today. But it looks like they must have switched back and forth with the paint colours in the early years.
I have seen late 1950s?-early 60s Rover 18s with the old style of handlebars, which had a plain blue base and red Villiers engine. Also a 1960s Rover Royal with Villiers engine that was painted hammertone blue with red engine. Oddly, I have a 1960s Rover 18 that was painted hammertone green! Why they switched to green for that one is a complete mystery to me.
It seems they used the industrial yellow almost exclusively on the 1960s Rover Rider (HD25) up until about late 1975 when they switched to hammertone blue and red on that as well. The HD25's in the 80s were painted red. It seems they were still selling these HD25's, or at least the parts, into the 2000s, as I came across a spare parts manual for them which is dated 2003. My understanding is the blue hammertone was (re-)introduced broadly in 1976, possibly even from late 1975, to coincide with Rover's second "Royal" period.
The less common industrial yellow seen mostly on the early model HD25 was very similar to Cat Yellow or John Deere Construction Yellow. I presume Rover would have likely purchased a widely available construction yellow paint at the time.
I have written to MTD but they seem to have lost all of the history. Apparently when they took over Rover they dumped everything prior to that time. It seems they are regretting that now as they are interested in the history of their own mowers and are relying on the public to tell them. It would be good to get a handle on the different colours used in different eras. It does seem the "Rover red" did not appear early on, unless there are examples that I am not aware of.
