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Painting Question

gstom

New member
I have '88 K100LT (brown) that I want to visually update with a paint job this winter. I am thinking that a good color for an aging German road bike would be Ducati "dark" similar to this Ducati ST2.
I would appreciate any input from painters out there on the forum who may have a clue as to how to duplicate the Ducati "dark" paint. I was told that you could spray a standard Black paint, and the use a Matte finish for the clear coat to achieva reasonable approximation of the "dark" paint. Is this so?
 

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GSTom said:
I have '88 K100LT (brown) that I want to visually update with a paint job this winter. I am thinking that a good color for an aging German road bike would be Ducati "dark" similar to this Ducati ST2.
I would appreciate any input from painters out there on the forum who may have a clue as to how to duplicate the Ducati "dark" paint. I was told that you could spray a standard Black paint, and the use a Matte finish for the clear coat to achieva reasonable approximation of the "dark" paint. Is this so?
If you could "borrow" a piece of the duck, then a good paint shop should be able to "shoot" it with a gizmo that will tell you the formula to use to duplicate it.
Another option would be to get Ducati paint codes (or such) from the Italian stallion's mouth.
The best thing I can suggest is to go make friends with your local independent paint shop. I use two shops here in NY, one for vehicles I really want nice paint on and another which is more along the lines of point-shoot-sold. Paint is a finicky art, unless you don't mind making mistakes that might lead to more, much more work. Also, do a search on "paint" and glean what you will from previous threads. I'm feelin' a little deja vooish. Good luck!
:brow
 
Depends how good of a job your looking to do, I think the Dark is a semi-gloss black so you can ask if you can get a single stage semi-gloss black paint or go 3 stage and use a flattener for the clear coat. Or just go real cheap and use semi in a rattle can(spray can)
 
Most paint companies have a flattening paste additive or a specialty product that lowers the gloss of paint to a pre-determined level i.e. flat, satin, eggshell, semi-gloss, gloss. PPG for example has either a product called DCU2060 that is a pre-flexed and flattened clearcoat that can provide any level of gloss by blending in a conventional clearcoat according to ratio formulas. Also they make a Universal Flattening Agent that can be added to any of the topcoat products both single stage paints, or clearcoats.

The latter is the one that would prove to be the cheapest way to go as you can buy whichever of the clears you would want and then dial in the gloss in a very consistent appearance.
 
RiverRat280 said:
Or just go real cheap and use semi in a rattle can(spray can)

I may go this route. I don't want an expensive paint job or the paint will be worth more than the bike! :laugh
 
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