Hi All,
Technically there appears to be no one true colour for Atco machines built prior to the 1960's. I have Atcos dating from the 1920's to the late 1950's and they are all slightly different in colour (and I am talking about comparing samples of original paint that has not faded). Even mowers made in the same year can vary noticeably in colour. This applies to both the red and green colours used, but the green seems to have the greatest variation. One story that I have heard is that Atco would buy paint from the cheapest supplier on the day and consequently there would be variation between the batches. From experience, the best thing to do is find a sample of the original paint (if you can find it on the machine somewhere - e.g. under the chain guard) and get it colour matched. However, it must be noted that getting a 100% match may be quite difficult as modern pigments are different to those used in the 1950's and earlier. Whilst the colour match may not be 100%, a good paint supplier can generally get fairly close to original - I have to say that I am happy with the paint that I had made up for a few of my current restorations as it is certaily very close to the original colour.
Cheers,
Sir Chook
