Well, I seem to be trying to do too many things in one go some days and must learn to relax and get to a slower pace and then get it all done. LOL!  Easy to say but they do say that integrity is the winning ingredient in the race for complacency , and to be honest, in my older age, I now seem to stop for a second and look back on things and try to dissect my days at the workshop and become more productive but in less hours, if that makes any sense, work smarter not harder my grumpy old man used to say.

So, I have been restoring an old 1976 CB750 Honda up in the barn, not to a show standard, just to be a nice clean daily rider, but sometimes things comes to a halt when I need to repaint the bodywork, but this time the formula works great and now have a superb Painter thn not only does a fantastic job, actually listens to what I want, then takes time to test colors and repaint if need be, until the job is how I want it to be.

Usually my artistic flair gets the better of me and I go into a winding road of turns, trying to get a super cool design that will wow many onlookers, but as this is for a bike that I really want to be head turning but in its stock factory livery, something that is super hard to do these days, but I am almost there with the bodywork for this Honda Four.

Now, I had a fella in Santa Ana that I have used many times in the past, and gave him my gas tank and covers, plus a few hundred bucks to help him with things and that was 6 months ago, he has buggered off and never responds to my plea, so Mister Police Officer will be collaring him soon with any luck.

I had to go on Ebay and pay an extortionate price for a fairly straight set of side covers and petrol tank off a K5/K6, it was labelled K5 but the Petcock was on the left side, making this a k6 model. Honda decided it was much safer to move the petcock to the left hand side of the motorcycle because that way if you run onto reserve whilst riding on the freeway etc, you do not have to take your hand off the throttle to turn the petcock onto the reserve position, thus being safer on the road and not slowing the bike down at all in that transition.

So, I asked my Painter if he could replicate the colors of Candy Antares Red, he said of course, then I enquired would it be necessary to purchase some reproduction decals, so he could add them then clear coat over the whole tank.  Of which he replied to me. “No, , as i can mask it and make the colors up in paint.  I was a little skeptical when he informed me that it wasn’t really a problem to attain the same effect with paint rather than a decal and he also said that the new decals will fade in time but the paint will hold true. So, I said I would trust him with that and said that as soon as the gas tank turns up from Ebay, I shall bring it over to him and see what he thinks about it.

My Painter has been spraying Motorcycles for many years and has high class clients, his time is not cheap but, he does amazing work and sometimes you just need to bite the proverbial bullet and go for it.

So, as you can see by the photo below, this was the fuel tank that I purchased off of Ebay, it does have a K5 note on it but it’s a K6 as you can tell by the petcock bung is on the left hand side, but i needed a tank that still had the old decals on the side so my Painter could measure them and reproduce them in paint, a tough task for many but not my guy.

It wasn’t perfect but it was a good candidate to the many I had seen on the net for sale, so this is what we started with,as you can see it is candy antares Red but it needs stripping completely so we can address any dings or scratches and then begin the preparation of this set up for my Big 4 Honda SOHC.

As you can see in the photo here, we have blocked the tank and made sure all is smooth and even, then Black base coat is added and it looks really good right now, the next job is to match the Gold for the design on the original decal, so this takes a little time to get right but with a lot of color test sprays we go it.

Aztec Gold is painted on the tank and this will really look nice when the clear is added later on in the process, but I am super happy with the progress and how clean everything is.

Here are the side covers, they were not in the best shape cosmetically but now bloc sanded and base coat added, these are almost ready to spray Gold, but they did need to be sanded quite a bit, and now looking good.

I am super glad the way that these came out and its all blended nicely, and when the Red is laid over these, they will give a fantastic Antares Red glow, something that I am looking forward too, this paint is top quality and will not fade in out Californian sunlight compared to many other brands I have tried over the 25 years.

I know that you will be thinking to yourself, this is too purple, but, this is not done yet and you will be super stoked at the look of this gas tank when its completed.

Just look at that, this is all paint and not decals, a lovely looking fuel tank for my K6 Honda CB750K model, this will be the Jewel on the crown when it’s all done and fitted.

The side covers came out really well and shall be fitting New Emblems to them later on in th week, but this is all worth the wait for me and super happy I went this route on the bodywork.

This still needs a buff but it looks fantastic in these new colors once more and once badges and lower tank trim are fitted it will look factory, I have always loved the K5 and K6 Antares Red.

So, there she is, stunning is all I can say, I have New Chrome Gas Cap and lock for it too, so this will be already to fit to my machine soon, and quite excited to get this on the bike, its the best parts when it all comes together as a cohesive piece.

All three sitting in the California Sun and I am taking it to my workshop where I shall put in the cupboard as I need to polish the valve cover this week, but then I can put this all on after.

This was a lot of work but completed in a timely manner, something that loads of painters I have used have always struggled with time management, but as he paints all the time for many Motorcycle and Custom cars, this was a fun job for him.

 

How much for a professional paint job like this?  Well, save your pennies as its $3500 but you can get a cheaper job and it wont last like this and I am more than happy with it, no runs, no curtains, no orange peel and, no decals to peel off.