under bonnet colour Aprilia.

[Peter Ratcliffe]

Im now about 1500 hours into a total rebuild of my 1939 Aprilia.Its now all ready for paint which I have chosen as a blue/grey.My question is, what colour would the under bonnet area and bulkhead  have originally been.I had assumed it would all have been body colour, but recent conversations with other owners suggest that everything here was originally black. Your opinions on this matter would be much appreciated.

[williamcorke]

I think black is correct. I've a photo archive of 1350 / pre-war Aprilias as reference for the (sporadic, eventual!) restoration of mine and they all have black engine bays. The photos below are of a supposedly unrestored car.

[Jay]

I believe Simon Ingman looked into this, I have a feeling that it was the same as the body, however UK cars which were painted in the UK at Aplerton were supplied black engine bays. But could be wrong.     

[simonandjuliet]

Indeed, for my S2 berlina (therefore Italian import) the engine bay was body coloured. I stripped the engine bay back to bare metal and during the process found several crude layers of black over the green (my car was repainted in the late 60's) and then the original body colour (not green) .

The only colour under the original colour was the red primer

The later cars had a second skin on the bulkhead and this was always black on my car

That's for an S2 so doesn't really help you, sorry !

[Sliding Pillar]

Satin black ✔️

[Jay]

Peter, I would be interested to see some pictures on how it’s coming a long, I find a pictorial history of restorations invaluable when work on cars, hats off to Simon. I must update my post at some point.   

[ColinMarr]

My 1939 Lusso, originally supplied from Alperton was certainly matt-black under the bonnet.

[Peter Ratcliffe]

Thank you all for your helpful replies.It looks as though on balance, I should paint the two false bulkhead cover panels black. I suspect that as I proceed with reassembly, there will be more questions to ask of you.