Vintage Minor Register

Hello ,

Can anyone tell me what the original finish is for the Lucas CF cut-out?

Regards,
Halbe

Halbe,
I would have thought that black paint rather than polished brass. I will check all of mine and report back.

Hello Simon,

They would not have been polished brass , but were they painted and so which colour ?
Black or a darker shade of brown like Bakelite or chocolate (pure)
are the letters laid in with an off white colour?
This is how my CF looks now .



Regards
Halbe

Halbe, I cannot say what colour a cut out for a Morris Minor would have been but on every car I have owned they were a mat bronze natural colour - the lettering was never 'picked out'. I have just looked into a box of bits that has not seen the light of day for 40 years and the odd bits of covers are bronze metal. Not polished but natural. How you would get this finish today I do not know. I would try cleaning yours with brasso (lightly) so as not to cut through the bronze to brass. The clips may well have been painted black. Highlander.

I think I'd agree with that.

But I would like to suggest a subtle but very useful modification - to the two small bolts that attach the cut-out to the firewall. It is to fit the bolts with their heads on the inside (which I think was the original way), and to cut two tiny screwdriver slots in the threaded ends. That way, you can hold the bolt with a screwdriver while you release the nuts from under the bonnet if you ever want to remove the cut-out without having to remove the fuel tank first!

Thank´s guys,

I started cleaning the CF (very carefully) and indeed the colour is a sort of patinated bronze.!
I show you how it turns out later this week.
Ian,your idea about the bolts is again excellent.
I'll use it for the coil bolt's too

Regards
Halbe

Another useful modification is to add an earth terminal to the chassis of the cut out and wire it to the main chassis or earth return rather than rely on the bulkhead for the earth return. It is also worth considering adding earth return to the lighting circuits to cut down on the voltage drop.