Whoooo boy Bob, That's a whole bunch of answers....lol. OK.
I went to my auto body supplier / paint mixer supplier for a consult today to pick the paint colour so that I could get started stripping and prepping.
The original Yamaha 'Star Black' paint has a widely dispersed irregular sized metal flake.
They said if they could even match that they didn't know how I could lay that down. Certainly couldn't be done in rattle cans so I'd have to pull out the HVLP guns.
I told them I wasn't concerned about an exact match because as we know Mama Yama never released the paint formulas. I just wanted a nice black metal flake, maybe with a bit of gold in it to compliment the decals colour.
She suggested `Ford Tuxedo Black Metallic` and said a lot of guys love it on bikes because in the sun it really pops, sparkles and dazzles.
I like pop, sparkle and dazzle!
As it turns out this paint colour can be mixed in rattle cans so I'll go that route rather than pull out the guns. I could get it at Canadian Tire in rattle cans but that would be the original formula. The `Tuxedo Black` has a few different metal flake colours in it. She said she tweaks the formula all the time depending on the application and surrounding colours. So, she is going to cut back on the blue metal flake in the original formula and add more gold to compliment the gold decals.
I already have the reproduction original
decal kit. Turns out Diablo Cycle is in my town and they did these up for me at no cost as a thank you for providing them with the original artwork, which is their standard operating procedure. Same thing they did with the handlebar switch decals. They also sell the
tank badges so I will buy and replace those rather than having to go through the gymnastics of painting gold letters on black background badges.
Here are some pics of the Standard `Ford Tuxedo Black Metallic` formula but as I mentioned she will mix in a little more gold on mine.
On this Harley tank it is the base colour.
Soooo, that's the plan. Stripping, sanding and fingers crossed.