How hard is it to match

[Cruser]

factory paint on the ventures or is it better to start all over and paint the whole bike after doing crack repairs on the fairing?

[friesman]

I had my 85's bags and trunk painted a tyear ago when all the clear coat was coming off the brown. The fellow that painted just took the paint code from here ( its in the history section, I think) and one of my side panels that had good paint OEM paint to match it with, and i am very happy with the result. You really cant see the difference unless you examine the bike really closely. (A couple of weeks ago it won best vintage bike at an area show/shine.)

A giveaway other than the color is that I didnt have the accent colour put back on as I didnt like it so the bike does have the silvery/gold trim on fairing but not on side bags or trunk anymore.

There are some pics before and after in my profile if you want to have a look.

 

Brian

[bongobobny]

Well, repaint one part, then the rest of the bike starts to look shabby in comparison...

 

Yes, you can get away with just one part depending on if it physically comes in contact with another part. If it doesn't, it can be just a shade off and never noticed. However, if you paint the whole bike, you can make it any color combination and any style you want!

[MasterGuns]

Check out the pics of my 86 in my User stuff. When I first purchased this bike, both the lower fairings, the lower nose piece and the abs part attached just under the headlight all need replaced due to the PO abuse. I had a few of the parts on-hand and what I didn't have already I picked up on fleabay. I took the entire bike to a local body repair shop that has done body work on my daughters car "FIVE" times (at that time; now 7 times) and had their paint guy mix to match. He mixed the base coat as close as he said he could get it and I ran with that. I painted all those parts myself with equipment Ii have in my garage. Check out the pics. Bet you can't tell and you still couldn't see any dif even if you were next to the parts in bright sun light. So, depending on the skills of the mixing dude, yes the paint can be matched. Even if you use the mixing instructions contained on this website, the shade of the new paint may not match exactly the shade currently on the bike as the paint on the bike most likely may have faded somewhat over time. Good luck. A couple years back I decided to paint my brother-in-laws 83. It was so faded, I just repainted the entire bike; every plastic body part there is. I think the number of "things' was 15 or 17; can't really remember. I told him that if I was going to do the shooting, I would only shoot it jet black. Turned out absolutely marvelous. Since then, maybe two and half years, he has put only 134 miles on the thing. Wish he'd sell it to me. Again, good luck.

[Cruser]

I will have to check out the formula, The one for my goldwing was three coats to get the color, a real PITA.

 

Thanks for the replies ,now I just have to decide if brown is my color or if I want it my own colors.