- Thu Jun 04, 2020 6:18 pm
#90507
I now understand why it has proven so difficult to match paint colour for my 1951 G2. The factory spec is ‘polychromatic silver-grey’. What that actually means is two-tone silver and grey.
Of course, that makes the problem even more difficult as I now need two unmatchable colours. Why unmatchable? Because the bike actually has several different colours – the only part that demonstrates that it once was two-tone is the tank. Very dirty it is but unmistakeable, affected by ethanol stains from our lovely petrol, and now also stained with black molasses (yes, I’m going that route to remove internal rust).
I have bought, so far, 9 different silver and grey rattle cans. None match. They are not even close. The ones that seem to be close are from the US (old chevrolet and chrysler colours) and they are unobtanium here in South Africa.
I have taken to carrying a clean piece of the mudguard around parking lots looking for a vehicle near-match. Nothing so far other than a lot of strange looks.
Why don’t I take it in for respray?
I don't want to completely strip the bike for someone else to respray - I can do it piecemeal, Besides they'll charge the earth and, post-covid, that's too much. I'm also wary of taking all the precious tinware to some large enterprise where they will "look after it like it was their own".
Maybe the answer is to make the frame gloss black and select any old light grey for the tinware. Anyone have any suggestions? Has no-one got an original one and discovered what colour paint to use?
Cheers, ChrisD