Vincent Tank Painting

Montlhery

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After putting a dent in my tank I am looking at getting it repainted . In the pdf available on the club website the technical paper says the "The Vincent" scroll should be aprox 3 7/8 to 4 inches from the weld on the front lugs . After all the tanks I have seen and measured this doesn't seem to be correct it is more like 5 to 5 1/2 inches . Point 2 is the mercury crest. from approx what engine number should the transfer with " The Vincent HRD Co ltd Stevenage" be ?
My guess is about 3000 to 9000 .And is anyone reproducing them with the original font.(the repros have different font) Any info or help on these topics would be appreciated.
 

chankly bore

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The position of the rectangle wherein the "VINCENT" transfer sits is as per the club information. I have seen an original machine (1951 Comet, seen in 1972) which confirms this.Most machines 1950 to 1953 seem to have the PR46/1 transfer, but it gets a bit hazy, particularly with some owners in the U.S.A. Vic Bogner did beautiful paint, but he put the transfers on the side of my tank too far back. Don't trust all the factory photographs because they were "doctored " substituting "VINCENT" for "H.R.D." to save taking new photos.
 

Montlhery

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Thanks for the reply Chankly , I am not sure what you mean by rectangle ? I know that Vincents employed people and not machines so there will be some variations as to the postions but I would suspect they would have had a template. I have seen some tanks where the scroll is almost up the top and it really looks terrible. I am not sure who did https://www.voc.uk.com/net/docs/tl/gold&xferstank.pdf but I would suggest the scroll should be around the tank more than 4 inches . Also I think I will go clear paint over the top which I know the factory did not do it but I think they would have approved of it (if it was available in the 50s) Yes I think 50 to late 53 would be correct for the numbers ie 3000 to mabye 9500 ?
 

TouringGodet

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I have an original unrestored tank, from a twin my father bought new. The scroll transfers vary by 1/2 an inch vertically from side to side, but are close to where the "Throwing Light On Obscure Objects" MPH article says they should be, and the mercury crest is exactly where that article says it should be, which is closer to the seat than most people nowadays put it. I admit, to me, the mercury crest looks better where most people put it, but it appears that that was not how it was typically done by the factory. If and when I ever restore it, I will put all three transfers exactly where they are now, replicating the offset the scrolls have. But that is one specific tank.

My Comet tank was recently done, and I hadn't yet seen (or actually, remembered) the article, so I did not tell the painter where the transfers should be, and the scrolls came out very close to the spec, but the mercury crest is closer to the oil filler, like most restorations, and that is fine.

Don't even get me started on which mercury crest a given bike should have. A famous restorer in LA puts the Vincent Engineers version on just about all Series Cs, despite my telling him very few Cs should have that version. At the end of 1952, bikes in the high 98xx range were being built and road tested. When did the factory adopt the Vincent Engineers name? Do the math to figure out how many Cs should have that transfer.

As for the font etc. used in some repro transfers, the VOC found some documented old stock original transfers, and had new artwork done. The transfers now available from the Spares Company are true to the original transfers. The various repros over the years had indeed strayed noticeably from the originals.
 
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Montlhery

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Thanks Steve , very interesting will have to check the spares mercury crest as I have a few factory originals left . Are the new ones now being sold ? I agree it is not that hard to get it correct with a small bit of research . I would be very interested to know the measurement of the front of the scroll to the front lug weld on your bike ? Thanks for your help.
 

chankly bore

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By " rectangle", I mean the smallest rectangle you can draw which holds the given design. See the abovementioned "Throwing Light" article. I believe you can see reproductions of transfers on the Spares Co. website, but don't quote me. The Comet I mentioned from 1972 had the paint worn through in places by the rider's leathers, but the original transfers were mostly there. They were within a freep of Frank Griffin's mensuration.
 
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