Pat Manning had purchased a blue brake plate years ago. The story of the Blue bike was that after Bill F.'s ownership, it eventually ended up with a dealer. The dealer allowed an interested customer to test ride the bike. He had a fatal crash and the bike was pieced out. This brake plate had been bent, lending some credence to the tale, and heat was used to straighten the anchor peg.
It is always difficult to assess color from photos. The original photo above shows the bike well, but I always thought that the green of the trees in the background was too dark and that the blue color, while not robin's egg blue, was not quite so green.
Here is a shot of the inside of the brake plate taken outside:
The plate was painted at the Factory with grey primer and then sprayed blue (I assume as dipping would have been too expensive). The back had been sprayed white after the anchor repair. I wet sanded it and rubbed it to get as much original color as possible. There was no blue paint on the front, which had been sprayed black.
David