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WWII Blackout cars, what about the Royal fleet?


MarrsCars

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I have been interested in the various factory produced, and self-painted, blackout cars from WWII and while looking through some impressive images of the lengths the British went through to keep London in the dark so to say, I became curious about the Royal Family cars. I've seen pics of civilian and military cars in blackout form but never any images of the Royal cars, were they too fitted in blackout gear or were the Rolls-Royces, Daimlers, etc., simply not used during wartime?

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Based on absolutely nothing, my guess is they continued to use the prewar cars they had on hand, and that they were modified as required by law. I think this involved blackout covers on the lights, and painting the ends of the rear fenders white.

It is also possible the official Daimlers were mothballed and less conspicuous cars used for security reasons.

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I was asked to repaint a 1937 fire truck a while ago . They asked me to remove all the chrome that was painted gold so that they may have it rechromed.

To my suprize, the gold paint must have been out on during the war as the chrome under it was in absolute perfect condition.

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Can someone please detail about American cars using Blackout? Did all the manufactures do this? How effective would it have been with chrome bumpers and silver side mirrors like in the '42 Chevy example? Did they paint bumpers too or was that optional and if optional, wouldn't that have defeated the purpose? And how about the headlights - shields and their use?

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The blackout models were made between the declaration of war in December 1941, and cessation of civilian auto production in I think, April 1942.

The idea was to conserve chromium, nickel and copper which were used for chrome and stainless steel.

All auto makers had to substitute painted trim for chrome, in some cases existing stocks of chrome plated or stainless parts were painted over so everything would match.

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The blackout models were made between the declaration of war in December 1941, and cessation of civilian auto production in I think, April 1942.

The idea was to conserve chromium, nickel and copper which were used for chrome and stainless steel.

All auto makers had to substitute painted trim for chrome, in some cases existing stocks of chrome plated or stainless parts were painted over so everything would match.

Didn't I see some models with painted bumpers (non chromed/nickel plated) from the factory? I guess I am thinking "blackout" as being like air-raid blackout meaning no reflective chrome and headlight hoods (slots)?

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Can someone please detail about American cars using Blackout? Did all the manufactures do this? How effective would it have been with chrome bumpers and silver side mirrors like in the '42 Chevy example? Did they paint bumpers too or was that optional and if optional, wouldn't that have defeated the purpose? And how about the headlights - shields and their use?

This was not an effort to make the cars less visible, it was an effort to save the materials used in chrome plating the parts.

All US Civilian production of automobiles ended February 10, 1942.

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This was not an effort to make the cars less visible, it was an effort to save the materials used in chrome plating the parts.

All US Civilian production of automobiles ended February 10, 1942.

I guess the terminology is a bit misleading since there were "blackout drills" held in communities across the country at the same time. Maybe if they simply called them "de-chromed" versions? Or "War Effort" models?

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