1969 990 Selectamatic & loader colours

[Jeff.990]

Hello, my first post, as a newbie 990 Selectamatic 1969 owner. Some great insights and knowledge in the forum – thanks for those regular and knowledgable posters. A truly great resource.

The current paint regime of my recently-bought 990 (under lot of oil/crud/etc):

Bonnet, wheels & mud guards – orchid white.
Grill – missing.
Tractor body and 880/990 folding roll-bar mounting frame – poppy red.
Folding top part of roll-bar missing.
Loader front frame (attached to main tractor body) and lifting arms – poppy red.
Loader rear part of frame (closest to seat) – yellow.
Bucket – yellow; muck fork - poppy red.

From other posts and online picture searching, I believe these are the default colours:

Bonnet, wheels & mud guards – orchid white.
Tractor body – chocolate brown (and a poppy red grill).
Loader frame & arms – poppy red?
Buckets – poppy red?

I’d really appreciate confirmation and any comment on tractor colours and what the loader colour would have been.

From picture, can anyone identify the loader manufacturer? Leaky seals will need some attention soon. It has 2 main lifting rams and a single bucket ram, with shoulder-height controls on right hand side of steering wheel with an unused space for a third lever.

At the risk of going off-the-standard, I think the red poppy is a great body colour rather than choc brown. But brown hides the leaks..!

Thanks
Jeff
Bridgend, South Wales.

[ollek]

Please find enclosed a link to the official David Brown colour codes https://dbtc.co.uk/index.php/information/colour-codes The loader arms was orchide white (or brown for older type loaders) and the loader frame parts chocolate brown, or Power Red on later (from 1972) tractors (same colour as the tractor engine and frame). These are the colours for a David Brown tractor and David Brown loader in Europe, other loader manufacturers had different colours and in US, you will find even more different colours as they fitted US made front loaders, called Case loaders. The loader in the picture is not a David Brown loader, meaning that the loader manufacturer can have had colours that are not known any longer. Poppy red was the colour for the Selectamatic grill up until 1972, and for no other parts of the tractor or loader. You can paint the tractor in any colours (poppy red frame if you like the colour better than the correct colour) if you do not want to keep it original. I have seen both black and green bonnets. And please do not mix the poppy red with the Case Power Red, these are different colours. Power Red is used on later Selectamatic tractors engine and frame (starting in 1972)

[tomryall]

The loader is a milmaster , it is not a model made for a DB it was made for some other make of tractor and fitted to your tractor by some handyman, also the front of the loader has been modified from trip control to power.it will never look a decent fit.the pike inside the front bucket looks like an older Quickie model.

[Jeff.990]

Thanks Ollek and Tomryal for your quick and helpful replies. Now I can focus my searching and colour decisions for the multi-coloured mixed-heritage front end loader.

The buckets fit on three removable ~22mm pins and yes, it looks like a cable-pull has been modified to use a ram. Whilst not pretty, it's working well. Pallet forks on the list of additions for the loader..

Regards
Jeff