Standard lookalike vs custom paint
Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:24 pm
I have a very tatty VFR400RN Type 8, which might once have looked (exactly) like the paintjob shown in this pic:
Except my wheels are red - which I don't really like. The tank is dented and horribly hand-painted - which I really don't like. Pretty much every plastic panel is busted, though maybe just about salvageable with 100 hours of plastic welding, gluing, filling, sanding, etc.
I've wanted an NC30 for years and I'm getting impatient to ride it, so a Chinese fairing will be going on, but which one? I'm never expecting it to look genuine and I haven't found the fairing pattern it originally had, so why not go with something a bit less firmly rooted in 1991? These are my choices:
EITHER:
Try to get something like this one (sorry, I don't know who's it is or where I found it - probably somewhere on here):
Plain gloss black fairings with Dzus fasteners, leaving final wheel colour TBD? Maybe the red wheels would look better against black; maybe I'd have to refinish them later. Anyway, even if the finish on the Chinese fairings is generally fairly crappy, I'd hope plain colours would look OK, or at least be easy to bring up to standard with an extra coat of paint/lacquer/both. This is a complete guess though.
OR:
Find a nice tank from a paint scheme that came with red wheels then order the pattern fairing to match that; which should end up looking more like a standard bike which might be more "tasteful"? I wouldn't ever claim it was original, but maybe the period graphics are what best suits the period lines?
I'm handy enough to do a rebuild and I think tidying it up is worth spending a bit on; I just want to end up with a tidy looking bike without wasting too much.
Does anyone have any advice to offer?
Except my wheels are red - which I don't really like. The tank is dented and horribly hand-painted - which I really don't like. Pretty much every plastic panel is busted, though maybe just about salvageable with 100 hours of plastic welding, gluing, filling, sanding, etc.
I've wanted an NC30 for years and I'm getting impatient to ride it, so a Chinese fairing will be going on, but which one? I'm never expecting it to look genuine and I haven't found the fairing pattern it originally had, so why not go with something a bit less firmly rooted in 1991? These are my choices:
EITHER:
Try to get something like this one (sorry, I don't know who's it is or where I found it - probably somewhere on here):
Plain gloss black fairings with Dzus fasteners, leaving final wheel colour TBD? Maybe the red wheels would look better against black; maybe I'd have to refinish them later. Anyway, even if the finish on the Chinese fairings is generally fairly crappy, I'd hope plain colours would look OK, or at least be easy to bring up to standard with an extra coat of paint/lacquer/both. This is a complete guess though.
OR:
Find a nice tank from a paint scheme that came with red wheels then order the pattern fairing to match that; which should end up looking more like a standard bike which might be more "tasteful"? I wouldn't ever claim it was original, but maybe the period graphics are what best suits the period lines?
I'm handy enough to do a rebuild and I think tidying it up is worth spending a bit on; I just want to end up with a tidy looking bike without wasting too much.
Does anyone have any advice to offer?
