Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

Hi Guys,
Was wondering if anyone can help me out? I want to repaint my 1974 MT250 fuel tank but have no original orange paint on the tank to use as a reference. I have been unable to find out a colour code for Honda Daytona Orange and as the MT was not available over here in the UK, I don't know how else to find out the correct colour (or something very close).
This is where one of you fellow Elsinore enthusiasts can make my day!
As I said, something very close would be fine - there are so many different oranges out there and not having any original orange paint to use as a guide, I'm totally in the dark.

I'd be so grateful for help on this one.

Thanks, Grae

Check out this place:

http://www.marblesmotors.com/partsforsalePaint.htm

They have a repainted MT250 about 2/3 of the way down this page:

http://www.marblesmotors.com/CustomPaint.htm

It seems they don't ship paint overseas, but maybe you'd like to send them your tank for repainting or they could help in some other way. Judging from the pictures, I can't imagine anyone doing a better job.

Ray

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'74 CR125M (175cc), '75 MR175, '82 RM250Z, '08 YZ250F, '14 Zero FX electric, '14 Zero MX electric, '18 Alta MXR electric

Thanks Ray, very nice indeed!

Unfortunately that sort of price is out of my league as I'm not working at the moment and I'm trying to do this bike on a small budget.
I was hoping to repaint the old girl myself in as close to original colours as I can get from the local automotive paint supplier.
He can match samples and reproduce colours using paint codes or by telling him a make, model, original paint colour name and the year, so I was hoping someone might be able to give me an automotive colour code or details of a car? - not that I'm being ungrateful Ray, that was great info! Thank you.

Not having any original Daytona Orange to match makes it really hard for me to find the correct or a very similar colour, but I'd like to get the colours close if I can. I like the Dodge Charger V2 Hemi Orange from the early seventies but from pictures I've seen on the internet of MT250's, it's too intense. What do you think? Problem with pictures on the net is they look different screen to screen.
I have the original satin silver paint on the rear mudguard which I can get colour matched and I think I shall probably use it for the tank too as it looks pretty identical to me from the pictures, plus money's tight at the moment.

Is it correct that the mudguards, side cover, headlamp shell and tank are all a satin finish except the Daytona Orange and Black stripes down the tank?

Thanks for any more leads or advice,

Grae

Grae,

Why not shoot this guy an E-mail? He can surely tell you more about MT250 paint specifics than I ever could, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was willing to send you a Daytona Orange paint sample and possibly a bunch more info. Here's the 'Contact' section of his Web site:

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Contact Me
The best way to contact me is via e-mail. I am in the Dallas Texas area. Please be sure that when you send me an e-mail that you use something in the address line that I will recognize. Like you, I get tons of unsolicited advertising e-mail and I do not open mail unless it is something that I recognize. If you use the link below, it will automatically fill in "Marbles Motors Website" in the address line. Thanks for your understanding

My e-mail address is: marblesmotors@gmail.com

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Once you have a sample, it should be no problem to shop it around the auto paint places and come up with a match. I don't know if you're familiar with Preval sprayers, but they basically allow you to apply any liquid paint from a spray-can type applicator:

http://www.preval.co.uk/Preval+Sprayer/3/

I've only seen one MT250 up close, and I believe the paint is all gloss except for the orange tank stripe, which is semi-gloss (exactly like the paint job in the link I posted earlier). This is the same as the early CR125M and CR250M, except they use semi-gloss Expert Green instead of R18 Daytona Orange (NH42M Custom Silver Metallic is used on all of them, I believe).

Ray

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'74 CR125M (175cc), '75 MR175, '82 RM250Z, '08 YZ250F, '14 Zero FX electric, '14 Zero MX electric, '18 Alta MXR electric

You are right Ray, I think I will be cheeky and ask for a colour swatch. If I don't ask, I won't get, eh?!

I have a small DeVilbis airbrush which I was going to use but those Preval spray heads are quite good - my friend has one which he used to colour code the bumpers and mirrors of his VW Transporter. They turned out a treat!

I'll contact the guy and see what he says and I'll let you know the outcome.

Cheers,

Grae

interesting reading for Honda paint...

http://www.motorcycleproject.com/motorc ... otes1.html

Thanks dsi, that was interesting. Explains alot.

Well further to my quest for finding out what colour Daytona Orange is, I contacted Randy Marble at Marblesmotors. He was very informative and although he cannot by law ship me any paint to the UK, he has given me a good idea to what the colour should look like. It is actually more of a red than orange. He has sent me a picture which he said looks very very close to the actual colour and also offered to ship me out an MR50 fender that is Daytona Orange so I can colour match it! What a top fella!

Based on this new information, I have found an automotive colour that seems very close to the colour in the picture that Randy sent me, so for the time being, until I do a proper full restoration, I am going to use that colour. If anyone is interested, it is called 'Vermillion' and was a standard colour on the MGB and Triumph Spitfire of the mid 70's. Dupont code: 45471 Ditzler/PPG code: 60932

I know this isn't an exact match, but if you just want something reasonably close, it's not bad.

For all the US readers, contact Randy Marble at: marblesmotors@gmail.com who has the exact colour and is a really helpful guy. Thanks for putting me in touch Ray! Thanks also to everyone who contributed to this post!

Cheers,
Grae

I have dealt with Randy a few times while restoring a '74 XL 70 and he is indeed a top-notch guy (who also does beautiful work !!). Good luck!!
-Mitch