Bridgestone Motorcycle Parts Discussion Board
Bridgestone Tech Talk => 350 Talk => Topic started by: SR175 Racer on January 30, 2010, 08:06:36 PM
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Thinking about painting my 350GTR. Could anybody tell me the modern paint codes that would match up?
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Sorry, can't help directly with your question as I've not yet been down that road. However, I assume you are asking as you're looking to do the paintwork yourself? If you still have a good sample of the original red, e.g. underneath the petrol or oil tank, why not try a local paint suppliers, or if you don't mind looking further afield, you could try RS Paints over here in the UK www.motorbikepaint.co.uk (http://www.motorbikepaint.co.uk)
Steve
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I painted mine with the GM Code: 68, Dupont Code: B8947 recommended on Scott's site and found the metallic content was too heavy with particles that were too coarse, at least the way my paint supplier mixed it.
Here's what Nick Holt had to say on the Yahoo Bridgestone group about 3 years ago:
Here's my trial and error experience with the red: I've had two bikes
painted in the Candy Apple Red. I don't think there's just one answer but
here's my story.
I think Bridgestone used a then state of the art three-step process where:
Step One - an underbase coat that looks like a champagne color with very
fine metallic content
Step Two - a multi-coat spray out with candy apple red
Step Three - a clear coat
I think these were baked on for durability.
I'll give you the specs on the paint job on the Sport 100, but I refined
this for a 350. I've taken both of these to rallies so several readers have
seen them.
Keep in mind there are lots of paint companies that make similar colors.
There's a paint company that makes custom hot rod paints of high quality
called Kosmolski's House of Kolor. You can find them on the internet, most
paint shops will be familiar with these paints, and the Eastwood catalog is
carrying these now, including the paint chip book. I used the House of
Kolor paints.
Step One - I used a metallic silver, code FBC-02. The "FBC" means fine
base coat. They also make a medium silver metallic but I thought the
metallic grains in the fine coat version matched up better.
At a rally, the 100 was parked next to an original TMX so I could compare
the paint shades. They were extremely close and hard to tell apart really.
But on the repainted 100, there was a very slight bluish tinge to my eye
that I thought was due to the silver underbase, compared to Bridgestone's
champagne base. So, for the 350 I picked a metallic champagne underbase. I
don't have the code for this but there's a hundred or more slightly
different shades of champagne. You can often see this shade on the inside
of an old sidecover. Take that and compare shades in the sunlight and pick
one that's close.
I have an NOS tool case cover for a 175 that's never seen the sunlight. I
used this piece as the guide for the red and with the 100, comparing the
shade in direct sun, it was extremely close.
Step Two - a spray out with candy apple red. House of kolor code is
UK-11. They call it Apple Red. The paint shop had some "spray outs" on
cardboard showing the appearance of three sprays (coats), four sprays, five
sprays, etc., from where they had recently painted a Corvette. On the 100,
we ended up using six coats of the apple red. Each coat adds a little color
and depth and darkness of the red. Even though it looks good, I ended up
thinking it was a little deeper than the original. For the 350, I had them
use five sprays instead of six. By the way, the apple red base was not
available in a lacquer right at the time the shop was ordering the paint so
they bought an acrylic. I couldn't tell the difference and it is a little
tougher. This was right I think after seeing the results. Ideally, you
would have have the paint shop do a series of spray outs so you could make a
choice. The equipment and other factors they use may make a difference.
Step Three - a clear coat. This is standard stuff for a paint shop.
All of this was baked on.