From: BarryLovelock
Date: 21 Feb 2002
Time: 09:16:35
Remote Name: 194.168.74.31
No, in my view it is highly likely they were body-colour and the under bonnet black was a myth too. My 1936 tourer was sprayed green in 1950 and retains that colour and paint to this day; it is maroon underneath but the original colour was dark blue (actually called Royal Blue) as mentioned. The fuel tank is and always has been blue - see the picture on Bruce's link about Nobby Springs. If you think about the bonnet and under bonnet area, there is no way on a cheap, mass-produced car, that Austin's would have bothered to mask off everything to spray black.