Metallic Stardust Silver

New to the site, did a search for this topic, but there doesn't seem to be any concrete info.

I want to bring my '78 kz650 c2 back to factory colour (or at least get it close). Has anyone taken a body part in to have metallic stardust silver matched? Can anyone provide formulation info I could take to a paint supplier to get close to this colour?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Welcome.

This post on Kawasaki.org : color for '78 Z1R and 650C2
Has some info, as he repainted his Z1R.

Post up some pix of your bikes.

oh mommy!:kiss: :kiss: :kiss: :kiss: :kiss: :laugh:

Just find a body part that was sheltered from the sun and take it to an automotive paint store and they can scan it and make the color. If yours isnt original paint maybe someone else will help you out. I doubt the paint store will give you the mix specs after scanning it if you dont buy the paint there

Thanks for all the suggestions. I had looked at the thread on kawasakimotorcycles.org, but it doesn't really offer a specific paint name or code.

I don't have a factory painted panel to take in, and there are none on ebay right now either.

Anyone out there who has done any painting with this colour?

My next step is to collect as many pics of this colour that I can find and take them to someone with a lot of colour mixing experience - they can probably get it close.

Where are you located. I could get real close out here in So Cal.
Mark

try these guys they say their Paints Are Made Using The Original OEM Motorcycle Color Codes.
They are not computer generated matched colors, or best "guesstimates".

www.motorcyclepaintsupply.com/

kano wrote:

try these guys they say their Paints Are Made Using The Original OEM Motorcycle Color Codes.
They are not computer generated matched colors, or best "guesstimates".

www.motorcyclepaintsupply.com/

Thanks! I checked out their site - they don't list this colour on the site, but have a few other vintage colours. I will email them...

rstnick wrote:

Welcome.

This post on Kawasaki.org : color for '78 Z1R and 650C2
Has some info, as he repainted his Z1R.

Post up some pix of your bikes.

Pics posted over here as requested!

This color is a funny one, I've got a 78 Z1R and I picked up a couple spare fairings on the cheap b/c their color was fubar-ed. In the town I lived in the town has a rep for this goofy car-show that basically triples the size of the town (during car-show week), and there are 3 body shop guys who have v/g reputations. Each of them had serious trouble matching the color; one said he didn't have time to get an exact match (seemed pissed), one gave me some gay excuse about several layers of paint and he hadn't seen such a thing on a factory paint before, and the last one said he didn't know why he couln't match it exactly. Each of them was close enough for my taste for a full re-paint...hell, nobody would have been able to tell; but sure enough, in the direct sun the paint was just baaaaaarely different. Oh, and I had (at that time) a brand new in the box (never seen sunlight) fairing to do the color match with.

That being said, not too much longer I was at a big motorcycle meeting in Cassoday, Kansas and saw a stocker that looked 'mint' in paint. Talked to that guy and he said he'd had it re-painted by some guy (and I forget, but it was like his nephew's best-friend's dad's bodyshop) way out in western Kansas; he thought it wasn't a big deal...we compared body parts with my new-on-bike fairing and his parts were an absolute match...bastard! Naturally he couldn't reproduce the painter's info, but took my card and promised that he would call...that was like 7 years ago...maybe he'll call.

Anyway, I KNOW the guys who couldn't match it had mad skills; and some ghost from BumFork Western Kansas did it by accident...who knows...

The Z1R color is real tough to match correctly in all light conditions. Silver blue metallic is always murder to match since it is mostly silver metallic with a little blue , green, black, white added. Chrysler lost millions of dollars on on do-overs on K cars back in the day, trying to do repairs. I had the PPG store computer match it and then I would spray it out, must have done this 10 times before it came out close. They would adjust the formula after looking at the spray outs and it would go from too green, to too silver, to too blue, to too silver, to too gray. Biggest problem I think is new paints use a pearl type metallic and in the late 70's Kawasaki used a plain metallic.

Thanks for the replies, all. For now, I will leave this bike the pearly white it was repainted, but since I don't have to "match" any existing body panels, I will keep a lookout for something close to eventually get it back to (near) factory colour.