Color (tank/side covers/headlight/fork ears):
Down to the million dollar question.....what to do about the paint. The paint was not in horrible shape when I got it. In fact, some of it could likely have been salvaged if properly prepped and re-cleared. That being said, I had 2 issues.....
1) As mentioned previously, this bike took a spill at some point. The tank had a crease and some dings in it, down to bare metal, the headlight and left fork-ear was a little misshapen and had some missing paint as well. So if I wanted this thing to look right, some sort of repair was in order, beyond just clear-coat. Some pics here:
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2) As I'm sure lots of folks here know....Yamaha factory paint schemes can be a bit elusive. Most colors only existed for a single model year.... and while information on the colors can be found if you look hard enough, good luck trying to replicate them. For example, the TX650A in the US came in "Cinnamon Brown".
First coat- Custom Silver B/C PNT-00000-00-82
Second coat- Cinnamon Brown Candy T/C PNT00000-00-N1
Final coat- Clear PNT-65000-04-00
(From <
http://www.xs650.com/threads/74-tx650a-cinnamon-brown.39046/>)
Those aren't exactly universal paint codes. And even if I could get my hands on those exact colors, I've got 40+ years of patina and fade on this thing, and there are visible differences in the color even between the two side covers. So a touch-up was going to be a tall order, especially with a unique color like this and not to mention I HATE paint and I'm not good at it, so I was planning to outsource this.
I shopped the job around a little and got a range of prices from ~$1200 up to ~$1750, which would include trying to recreate the stock color. Let's say bids on the lower end didn't inspire a lot of confidence... My concern on the high side was not just the money (although I was a little surprised there)....there's an elephant in the room here, and maybe you guys have thought it yourselves.... This is my first bike! I've got like 30 hours of seat time. I will say I'm a good rider, but something felt a little foolhardy about having a show-quality resto paint job on a bike that I'm still, frankly, learning on. So.....where does that leave me....
So.....at this point, I had a good relationship with my local powder coating shop having done my chassis parts and rims, as well as having access to my buddy with the vinyl cutter. So I started thinking about powder coating as a solution. The dings in the tank could be repaired with high temp epoxy, used like a heatproof Bondo. I started looking for color options.
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I ultimately settled on a color called "Lazer Copper", which I think is in the spirit of the original. So off to the powder shop....
Similarly, I started taking a bunch of measurements of the graphics to send to my friend, to create the artwork.
You might ask why I didn't just buy some of the repro decals that are out there.... well, honestly, I think the ones Chris made for me are much better looking, but I also wanted to try a bit of an experiment. While there are a few criticisms of powder coating for body color, the most significant one to me is that you can't clear coat over the decals, because they can't stand the heat. I thought that if I could get the decals made in really high quality, high temp resistant vinyl (Oracal 751) then maaaaaaaybe, I could do my powder base coat, apply the decals, powder clear over them and I'd have the best of both worlds! Fast forward.....this didn't work haha. I wish I had done a little more R&D on it myself, but my powder guy tried it on a piece of scrap and said it wasn't working and just did the color/clear. Which I get, it's not his job to figure this out for me. But I think in the future I might experiment with this a little more, as I think there could be a really useful solution here and I'm not so convinced it couldn't be made to work.
Anyways....here are the decals I had made. Fantastic job Chris!
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And as for the powder coat.....I went with a color called "Lazer Copper". When I got the parts back, I was stunned.....it looked way better than I could have ever imagined. And very true to stock, which is exactly what I was hoping for.
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After I applied the decals (these are multi-layer....black first, then white, then in the case of the side covers, silver last). Takes a careful hand, but not too difficult. There's still a little flat spot where the dent was, but honestly I have no problem with that. And the best part is it cost $500, including the repair, plus the $125 I gave my buddy for all his help with the decals (and now I have a ready source for replacements ;-)
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So.....I love the way these came out. Time will tell how the vinyl will hold up...it is exterior grade and meant for industrial applications, but it will have some rubbing on it from my pants and the bike cover, so we'll see how it goes. Honestly, if I have to replace it on the tank every year it's only 20 minutes and I have a ready source for new ones. Curious to see if there are cheers or pitchforks from this group hahaha.