looking to find the best colormatch paint for my restoration of my bike, honda red, thanks

Any decent body shop can do it, I've even taken my stuff to the local NAPA and they did an excellent job, the color matched perfect and they put it in spray cans for me.

i used krylon banner red for crowbars 70 I just did, its pretty damn close i would say maybe a shade off of the stock red plastics.

Why would you go to either one of those places?....go to a paint shop thats what paint shops are for and are the places that NAPA(used to work there) and body shops ( worked at a few of these also) get their paint matched, take off the part you want matched and take it in for a machine match if you want it perfect.

No offense but I dont know why you guys insist on rattle canning your 70's buy some real paint that will last and have a shine.

They can put quality paint in aerosol cans these days also...heres some paint supply shops near you.


Meza Body Shop Supplies
570 East La Cadena Drive H1
Riverside, CA, USA 92501 (951) 784-1700


Martin Auto Color Inc
8351 Rochester Ave Ste 108
Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA 91730 (626) 967-6990

Finishmaster Inc #218
390 South I Street
San Bernardino, CA, USA 92410 (909) 884-4831

McCray Enterprises
24268 5th Street
San Bernardino, CA, USA 92410 (909) 381-1964

Finishmaster Inc #217
4809 Holt Boulevard
Montclair, CA, USA 91763 (909) 624-1687

Finishmaster Inc #219
182 Granite Street Suite #105
Corona, CA, USA 92879 (951) 736-9740

I'd love to not have to rattle can my projects but I have no idea where to start on spraying a good paint...

Just like I said above they can put the quality automotive paints which are way more resilient than the paint you use in aerosol cans now.
Everything you do to prep your stuff for paint now is exactly the same with both processes except you are using 100 times better/stronger paint that can be wet sanded if you get orange peel or runs while painting...or you could even wet sand scratches out in a couple years when the paint gets abused.

good to know... I will have to do this on my next project, what about clear coating? I'd like to be able to clear coat the tanks so I don't have to worry about a little gas spill.


any recomendations?

Spray your base coat it doesnt have to be too thick just covering completly with no thin spots , try not to get runs in the base coat and do not worry about shine at all as thats what the clear is for .

Wait until the base coat is tacky (15 min or so) ...then apply your clear coat....dont worry about shine ,runs ,drips etc. in the clear coat (obviously you dont want to try for these) once the paint has dried (probably 1-2 days dont let it setup to long as it will be hard to wetsand) then take some 2000 grit wet sand paper and a rubber block and wetsand your paint in a criss cross manner (if it's a flat obect) or in a circular motion if its a round object until you remove the tops of the orange peel not going to far or you will reach the base coat after that is done all you need to do is buff out with rubbing compound and then follow with polish to bring the shine out and you are golden. If you do rub through the clear you can make sure all is wetsanded and apply another coat of clear and re-do the process.

Oh and getting gas on clear is going to be the same as getting gas on your base coat , with good paint it shouldnt cause the problem you are having since good paint is so much harder. clear will give you the deep look where a buffed out base coat only will give you the more solid looking color.

thanks Mark... I might have to step up my painting process.

If you want graphics it's a little different....base coat let completly dry wet sand lightly , tape out graphics with fine line, paint graphics remove fine line and let dry , wetsand edges of graphics to smooth edges where graphics meet base coat and clear coat as mentioned above...only reason I would use clear is if I was putting graphics into the mix.

Oh and BTW if you ever need paint masks (basically a reverse die-cut)I can cut out pretty much any graphics you can make on my vinyl cutter and then you have a premade graphic to stick on and paint instead of taping out by hand...just let me know.

thanks for all the info

Bugsy next time you do do some paint get me some graphics and I will make the masks , I have some extra material from my brothers plane I will hook you up...

thanks Mark, I'll keep you in mind for my next project 70

As a matter of fact I will cut paint masks for anybody that is painting their 70's free of charge....all I ask is a few bucks (it's about $7 a yard) for the paint mask material ....little way to give back to my fellow GDr's...as long as you supply the design I can do it....if it's something like flames, scallops stuff like that I have templates I can use.

I moved this to Tech articles , as there is some good painting info here.

THE PAINT NAME FOR THE HONDA RED IS CALLED................. PASSION RED