Thread: hercus 9" precision lathe

I'd suggest doing a search on this forum about the topic as the discussion comes up a lot. However the bottom line is, despite what you may read, there is no one colour that Hercus used. I have 3 Hercus machines (ok one I painted myself after some dreadful attempts before me by others, but there was some original colour tucked away), and all 3 are slightly different shades. In addition, other accessories I've bought are also different shades. The paint manufacturer who originally supplied Hercus has been taken over, but they wouldn't have been a very big customer anyway in the grand scheme of things.

The best solution is to take a part off your machine and take it to a competent auto/industrial paint supplier and ask their colour matcher to match it. Alternatively visit a local smash repairer and ask if they will sell you the paint matched. A good repairer will be able to match the colour relatively accurately. Good friends of mine were in this trade, and I was always amazed at how they knew which colours to add to get a match, it's a real art. However, also be aware that's a one-off paint and any subsequent attempts to match it, just like to the original, will never be 100%. I had to buy more paint for mine, and I swear the guy doing the matching was colour blind! On a big surface you can get away with this by blending when you spray and then finishing with clear. I've seen a demo where the colour match was intentionally dreadful, yet properly blended, after the clear went on our eyes couldn't tell. However on a machine where you're typically painting components independently one doesn't have the luxury of blending. So if you can find a colour off the shelf that is close enough to your machine go for that, even if it's not perfect, at least it will be consistent next time you need some.

Pete

Edit: FWIW if the original paint is in reasonable condition I'd seriously suggest just leaving it. I have a surface grinder like that, hit it with T-cut to take all the crap out of the paint, then just left it. There are definitely a few areas I'll eventually touch up, but very low on my list of priorities. The lathe on the other hand I had little choice, somebody had hit it with cheap paint for a quick sale and it looked disgusting. I prepped and painted it as if it was a car, and it's a LOT of work to do that with such small and fiddly parts. Next machine I do it will be back to factory finish and no more.

For me, a small item I had purchased was brought "close enough" by spraying with a "Colourbond" colour that I think was Willow Green -- it is not on the current colour chart but Wilderness looks to be the same/similar.

I bought a pre-packed spray can from the auto paint guy near Blackburn Rd/Dandenong Road and he looked at it saying it was a little too "xxx". (where xxx means a primary colour I can't remember) but at 4x the cost for a colour matched spray can both he and I could understand my acceptance of "close enough".

On the machine I don't notice the difference. Once dry it has stood up well to oil.

Here are 2 examples of colour one 260 restored by Bitza500(the colour was a bit washed out by the flash) using a colour match for "vista green" and a 9C turret using Killrust's colorbond wilderness green. As you can see the vista leans more toward the blue spectrum.

thanks pete,thats exactly what ime going to do,(remove a part and get it colourmatched),probably get an epoxy paint mix/matched to it and that will be pretty close.

thanks,havinago,ive got some mist green epoxy paint that is pretty close also but i only want to paint this once and i might as well get the paint as close as possible to the original first off and be done with it ,because at the end of the day it will cost about the same for the paint either way!

as far as i can see from the photos thats a pretty good colour match,perfect i reckon!

MT,

Originally, the 9" Hercus lathe was painted dark grey, in keeping with Southbend. Southbend's started off black. Hercus changed to Crowhurst Green, then vista green for the 260's, a lighter shade.

When I started restoring my 9" Hercus AR, the closest commercial match I could find was
Dulux Quit Rust Green Freeze OC. It was a shade lighter than Crowhurst green in the can, and dried 2 shades lighter.

Crowhurst is no longer in business, and were taken over by Wattyl. The formula is no longer kept by Wattyl. Someone will correct me if it wasn't Wattyl, I could be wrong there.

Ken

Ken, that's the story, you have it 100% correct. However as mentioned, I have many different parts and accessories from different machines and the shades of green vary between many of them. That seems peculiar to me, as one would think that any manufacturer would simply order the same paint from the same manufacturer as replacement stock, particularly for this type of item, unlike say a car where the paint/colour is a critical part of the whole product. However for whatever reason they definitely vary, and at least some of them are definitely the factory finish.

Despite what I said earlier about colour-matching being the "best" solution, I think I should actually quantify that somewhat and say that if you're able to find a suitable colour off a manufacturer's colour chart I would definitely go with that. I went to a lot of trouble (and expense) to try to match my colours, and in the end it was all a waste of time as the second lot of paint didn't match the first anyway While it looks much more prominent in photos than in real life, it still ruined a paint job I went to a lot of trouble with. The advantage of buying a colour off the shelf (especially if factory tinted) is that you can then forever go back and buy small quantities of this colour as required when you buy accessories for the machine, and be assured that the colour will pretty much perfectly match the rest of the machine.

Pete

Originally Posted by allterrain50

Here are 2 examples of colour one 260 restored by Bitza500(the colour was a bit washed out by the flash) using a colour match for "vista green" and a 9C turret using Killrust's colorbond wilderness green. As you can see the vista leans more toward the blue spectrum.

further to the colour match (at least on the 260) I had some brand new gears still in the original Hercus box fully wrapped up, Assuming these would be the original colour I have photographed them alongside some parts Painted for a 9" restoration I'm doing at the moment. I think it's a very close match see what you think.
Mal