Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

I recently aquired this 1946> petrol tank. It looks that the red paint and pin striping are original, but the badges are black… who can shine his light on this? Should the badges also be red? It looks they are still soldered and never where replaced.

Paul
not sure where you are from but all post war chrome tank Red Hunters (and deluxe models) sent to Australia were fitted with black tank badges, not the red badges.
David

Thank you David!
Best Regards, Paul
The Netherlands

Usually the red badges/red tank rule applies but it was possible to order anything that the factory could supply, such as a de-luxe model in red. Always worth consulting the parts book for the year in question, 1947-48 says red badges/red tank. I do know of at least one other anomaly for the Australian market and the Danes had chrome tank in 1952-53 when no-one else had, the Finnish usually had 19" front wheel on Hunters, and somebody always specified 'Made in England' transfers.

Thank you Roger. I understood this petrol tank once belonged to a 1948 NH, which ended to the scrape yard! Can’t find the 1948 partbooks for the single machines, however the 1948>1949 KH models mentions partnumber 5004-34 which is also black.

Roger
The other anomaly for the Australian market would probably be the tool box knobs. While a bottle knob was generally fitted to post war bikes, Australian models were fitted with possibly 6557-32 a knob with a raised central bar across the centre of the knob.
David