Cruiser Green/ Civil Defence Grey

[JosephJoe]

Gentlemen,

Does anyone have any pictures of a bike painted the correct Cruiser Green or Civil Defence Grey.
I would like to choose from these two colors for my Ul '42.

Thanks,

Joe

[JosephJoe]

Come on gentlemen, why so shy?

Joe

[Chris Haynes]

There is no such color as Civil Defense Gray. 1942 colors were Skyway Blue, Cruiser Green, Flight Red, Brilliant Black, Olive Green for Exports, Police Gray.

[JosephJoe]

Thanks Chris,

The color " Civil Defence Gray" is named on the website of John Pierce.

Joe

[Chris Haynes]

Thanks Chris,

The color " Civil Defence Gray" is named on the website of John Pierce.

Joe

It isn't listed in any H-D literature.

[JosephJoe]

Chris,

As far as I concerned, during war time, this gray color was used when they ran out of the regular colors.

Joe

[Rubone]

H-D used Police Grey for both police and utilitarian builds during the war. They never named a color "Civil Defense Grey" as Chris stated. And not all Civil Defense units painted their bikes to match. Period Photos show mixed bags of colors and years with Civil Defense logos on them. They were mostly Club members working as volunteers.

[sirhrmechanic]

Just because this got my attention... I did some searches on "Civil Defense Grey"... and it seems only to come up in a few references to motorcycles... on forums.

None of the auto-makers that were supplying cars to the Navy, etc. list that color in their catalog. As Chris said... never in an HD catalog or in literature. No reference to it anywhere, in fact.

Of course, Navy Grey was pretty universal in the time period. As the old saying went "If it moves... salute it. If it doesn't move, paint it grey." Millions of gallons of 'grey' paint were produced and were probably available... and probably all that was available. Unless you wanted olive green.

So the term 'civil defense grey' seems to be a recent construct... not a color any more than "British Racing Green" defines a single Pantone color.

Cheers,

Sirhr

[vph-d]

Robbie,
Are you saying the factory war time Grey is the same color as Police Grey? I thought the two colors were different...
I've never heard of C.D. Grey as a factory color. During WW2 and the early 50s, the military used a two number code to identify colors. Since the early 60s, a 5 number code has been in use.
VPH-D

[Chris Haynes]

Police Grey is part number 11615-41. According to Palmer the WWII Grey is the same Gray used in 1937. It returned 1944-1946. He doesn't give a part number fot the 1944-1946 color.