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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watrose!drforsey
From: drforsey@watrose.UUCP (drforsey)
Newsgroups: net.cycle
Subject: Re: Painting Windjammer fairing
Message-ID: <8129@watrose.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Aug-86 15:14:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: watrose.8129
Posted: Tue Aug 26 15:14:52 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Aug-86 04:05:43 EDT
References: <396@twitch.UUCP> <502@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 51


Gary
   I wouldn't be too confident of getting a good colour match for your
Windjammer, unless Vetter does it for you.
My bike, an '83 750 Sabre, is also the candy wineberry red
colour of your bike. Last fall, it got knocked over in a parking lot
by a bus, doing damage to the tune of $1800, largely due to the
$1100 price of a new Hondaline Sport Fairing. (All prices are in
Canadian dollars.)  However, the fairing was no longer available in my
colour, so I had to search for someone to refinish the damaged one.
  I quizzed every major autobody place in town, including custom 
painting places, and also hit some Harley shops, but no-one would
do the work because they said it would be too hard to get an acceptable 
colour match. 
  The candy finish is the problem. It starts with a sparkly base coat
in some shade of silver or charcoal or gold. Then the red goes on. It is
a clear red, but the more you put on the darker it gets. Finally a clear
gloss coat goes on top.  So, what base colour? What shade of red? How many
coats? The paint suppliers couldn't get a good match even though they had
my sidecover for a sample.
   I tried to get Honda to supply me with factory original paint, or at
least the standard codes describing the formula/mix, but no go.
I tried to persuade them to paint it for me (I'd ship it etc) but the
painting gets done in Japan, where, by the way, pollution laws aren't as
strict so they use paint with higher lead content to get richer colour.
The Honda touch-up paint is all mixed sparkles and red and is only good
for just what it says: touch-ups.
   How does this end? Well, I finally found a guy who does Corvettes and
Harleys. He has lots of paint lying around, some of it very old when it was
available in quantity from the manufacturers. He spent quite a while 
experimenting and came up with a fairly good match. It took him three tries
to get it right on the bike, though.  Fortunately, angles, shadows, and
contours all conspire to hide the patch from casual inspection, but when
you get down and look, you can tell it has been painted. 

   After all this discouraging tale-telling, my advice is
1) Shop around a LOT for a painter with skill and experience who is willing
   to put a lot of work into getting a good match (and be prepared to PAY him
   for it (ouch)); or

2) Paint the whole bike along with the fairing. I know it sounds dumb,
   but this is what all the autobody shops recommended. At least everything
   will be the same colour.

3) Be sure Vetter doesn't offer the Windjammer in your colour. I'm sure
   I've seen some around in wineberry. The Interstates/Aspencades a few
   years ago were wineberry, and Vetter made colour matched Windjammers 
   for them, no?

Good luck
	Robyn