I recently enquired about an R1 for sale on ebay. What caught my eye was the burner head was the very early type, 1930/40s I think, and copper fire bowl. The seller had restored the heater and had spray painted the tank, even the control cock and to me most surprisingly the back of the fire bowl. I asked the seller if the paint would blister on the back of the bowl and he explained it probably would with enough use, but then the same was true of the painted originals. So here's the question, is the seller correct in saying Tilley painted the back of the fire bowls of some R1 heaters? It seems very unlikely to me for the obvious reason of blistering. However I'm no expert on R1s so I await education.
Paint can be more resilient that you might think - how hot does your car bodywork get in direct sunlight during summer? If paint is directly above a burning mantle as on FL floodlight projectors or some AL inspection lamps then it will burn off but it's surprising how local that can be. Sometimes the rear of Tilley radiator reflectors were gold-coloured or black - probably not R1 or R1A models, though. These were base models and often have a silver-coloured finish but whether this is paint or unpolished plating, I can't recall...
Confirm I have a black paint coating on the back of one of my Kayen heater. The other one has a red oxide primer. It looks rubbish so plan to re-spray black someday
I still have the 1940's R1 that we had at home in the 1950's, the back of the copper reflector is painted with the same gold paint as the tank. Henry.
I have an R1 35-40 with XN cock the back of reflector the is original and has a clear coating (in ref gallery) here 1935-40 Tilley R1
Here are some unfettled examples: Tilley R1 with Tilley gold. Early R1 Plated or tinned. Late R1 ?tinned Early R1 polished brass. Tilley gold. Kayen with black paint. Cheers Tony
