Colours & Trim

Austin A40 Sports - Colours & Trim

I don't know of a comprehensive list of body colours available during the production run of the Austin A40 Sports. To complicate things Austin has changed the available colours during the two and a half years the car was produced.

Late 1950 launch colours were: Ming Blue, Apple Green, Cream and Black (thanks to Austin historian Norman Milne for this information).

The Austin Service Journal includes a colour identification chart dated 12th May 1952 that lists Apple Green, Sports Grey, Azure Blue, Steel Dust Grey, Bahamas Cream, Ming Blue, Peacock Blue, Sky Blue and Black as available colours. Apple Green and Sports Grey were sythetic enamels, the othrs cellulose type of colours. An addition is surely Sports Fawn, possibly also Spring Green and Romney Blue.

Based on this information and a number of contemporary VALSPAR cellulose colour swatches in my collection I compiled the following chart:

Available interiour configurations are not certain as well: There are very few cars that still have their factory original interior. So based on pictures, plausible original trim variants might have been:

Burgundy upholstery with cream piping and red carpets

Black upholstery with cream piping and gray carpets

Gray upholstery with burgundy piping and gray carpets

Beige upholstery with beige, green or blue piping and fawn carpets

The front seats on my car were trimed in real leather, dyed in a traditional way. The back bench in covered in a thicker type of leathercloth. There is a contemporary ad claiming these materials were supplied by Connolly. Sides screens were trimmed with a thinner type of Rexine leathercloth. The Floor is covered with a Wilton type Hessian backed carpet with Rexine edge bindings. The back bench trim changed according to the availability of leather hide.