Touch up paint

[Guest]

Crazy question but is it still possible to get touch up paint for a Red 1982 GS750E. The paint on everything looks pretty good but with all my taking the tank on and off to service I buggered up the bead edge at the front of the tank some. I am almost done with mechanicals so have turned my eye to some cosmetics.

[wacky941]

This is a subject that comes up quite often on this forum.
The problem that you have is that the paints used on these bikes are no longer available because there were pigments contained in the paints that have been outlawed by the EPA, mainly based on California environmental restrictions so, because the pigments were outlawed, the paint color recipes are no longer procurable.
The solution as you will be told will be to go down to your local paint house or auto painting facility and have it paint matched using a computer. For many of us this never worked out. In my case, I was also referred to a major vintage paint company that has two offices, one on the east coast and one on the west coast, forgive me because at the moment that I'm writing this I cannot remember the name but I'll update this post later when I remember the name. At the time it was referred to me, I just happened to be in Palmdale California where their west coast office happens to be so, I decided to speak to them face to face. It turns out that what they will do is, you remove your side cover and send it to them and they will pour through their vast array of paint swatches and pick the ones that they feel closely match your paint then, they will do a visual side by side comparison of the paint and choose the one that they feel is the closest match. After meeting with them, I felt that there is no reason at all that I should pay them to do a side by side comparison of paint when I can do the exact same thing.


EDIT: The name of the company is Color Rite. http://www.colorrite.com


What I did was, I found the largest auto dealer near me that had the largest selection of multiple brand vehicles and models of those brands.
This is my bike, it might even be the same paint color as yours.


1982 GS1100E, I believe that the original color of this is called Candy Fancy Maroon.

I removed a side cover and took it to the dealer and stepped onto the lot, looked around for anything that looked similar in color then compared the two and within ten minutes I found that the 2010 Dodge Ram truck (also the Charger and a couple others in the Dodge line) was a perfect match.


The picture at the top of this post is with the bike already painted as it looks today. I needed to replace both side covers and I had added a fairing so, all pieces needed to be painted, that's what brought me to that point.
I had a friend of mine paint the pieces for me and like I said, you can see they were a perfect match. The only way that you can tell that I had anything painted is if you really know the '82 1100E and have a sharp eye for detail. The only way you can tell is if you compare the picture above to this one:


What you will see is that where the GS meets the 1100E, the spacing for the newly painted piece is almost twice the spacing than the original. Other than that, you can't tell I had anything repainted. By the way, the numbers and letters GS 1100E are not decals like the original, he painted them on so, even that was color matched.
I even had him paint my tool box to match,




And a helmet:


Anyway, if your bike is in fact the same color as mine, then you can go to your local auto paint supply and let them know that you need the paint for a 2010 Dodge Ram that is called Inferno Red Crystal Pearl.




Or, if not, you can do what I did and find the perfect match.

I hope this helps. Didn't mean for it to be so wordy, just hopefully trying to save you some time, heartache and headaches.



Just for the heck of it, I want to throw this in, the same friend that does my paint work, I had him paint a shield that I had bought on eBay for me. I wanted him to paint my Family Crest on to it so I could mount it to the wall along with a couple really sharp actual rapiers, as you can see, it turned out excellent.
It's hard to tell in the picture but, the shield is about three foot tall.


Again, sorry about the overkill in my response, it's just that it took me a couple years to finally find the paint I needed and since then I have been spreading the word.

[AMK]

This is a subject that comes up quite often on this forum.
The problem that you have is that the paints used on these bikes are no longer available because there were pigments contained in the paints that have been outlawed by the EPA, mainly based on California environmental restrictions so, because the pigments were outlawed, the paint color recipes are no longer procurable.
The solution as you will be told will be to go down to your local paint house or auto painting facility and have it paint matched using a computer. For many of us this never worked out. In my case, I was also referred to a major vintage paint company that has two offices, one on the east coast and one on the west coast, forgive me because at the moment that I'm writing this I cannot remember the name but I'll update this post later when I remember the name. At the time it was referred to me, I just happened to be in Palmdale California where their west coast office happens to be so, I decided to speak to them face to face. It turns out that what they will do is, you remove your side cover and send it to them and they will pour through their vast array of paint swatches and pick the ones that they feel closely match your paint then, they will do a visual side by side comparison of the paint and choose the one that they feel is the closest match. After meeting with them, I felt that there is no reason at all that I should pay them to do a side by side comparison of paint when I can do the exact same thing.

What I did was, I found the largest auto dealer near me that had the largest selection of multiple brand vehicles and models of those brands.
This is my bike, it might even be the same paint color as yours.


1982 GS1100E, I believe that the original color of this is called Candy Fancy Maroon.

I removed a side cover and took it to the dealer and stepped onto the lot, looked around for anything that looked similar in color then compared the two and within ten minutes I found that the 2010 Dodge Ram truck (also the Charger and a couple others in the Dodge line) was a perfect match.


The picture at the top of this post is with the bike already painted as it looks today. I needed to replace both side covers and I had added a fairing so, all pieces needed to be painted, that's what brought me to that point.
I had a friend of mine paint the pieces for me and like I said, you can see they were a perfect match. The only way that you can tell that I had anything painted is if you really know the '82 1100E and have a sharp eye for detail. The only way you can tell is if you compare the picture above to this one:


What you will see is that where the GS meets the 1100E, the spacing for the newly painted piece is almost twice the spacing than the original. Other than that, you can't tell I had anything repainted. By the way, the numbers and letters GS 1100E are not decals like the original, he painted them on so, even that was color matched.
I even had him paint my tool box to match,




And a helmet:


Anyway, if your bike is in fact the same color as mine, then you can go to your local auto paint supply and let them know that you need the paint for a 2010 Dodge Ram that is called Inferno Red Crystal Pearl.




Or, if not, you can do what I did and find the perfect match.

I hope this helps. Didn't mean for it to be so wordy, just hopefully trying to save you some time, heartache and headaches.



Just for the heck of it, I want to throw this in, the same friend that does my paint work, I had him paint a shield that I had bought on eBay for me. I wanted him to paint my Family Crest on to it so I could mount it to the wall along with a couple really sharp actual rapiers, as you can see, it turned out excellent.
It's hard to tell in the picture but, the shield is about three foot tall.


Again, sorry about the overkill in my response, it's just that it took me a couple years to finally find the paint I needed and since then I have been spreading the word.

That is totally "anal" but I love it. Beautiful!

[wacky941]

That is totally "anal" but I love it. Beautiful!

Thank you,

[greg78gs750]

nail polish comes in a squillion different colors and can work pretty well for little touchups...esp in less than obvious areas