Help Deciding on paint color KZ650B1 1977

650ed wrote: According to the old paint charts, Candy Emerald Green had a "light gray metallic" base coat; emerald green candy second coat; and clear final coat.





Hey Ed,
From what I have found, Lubri-Tech colors were not great matches for the factory colors sometimes. The base colors they listed were different from what Kawasaki actually used on quite a few different models. Lubri-Tech became Color-Rite at some point. Ralph

PaintWorkz wrote:

redhawk4 wrote:

PaintWorkz wrote: This is always my standard reply......paint it the original color. Also when Kawasaki calls out the paint as a Candy color, you cannot get a correct match painting it a computer matched car color.

I've actually found that if I clean up the bottom of the tank, there is still some decent original green to be seen as they didn't paint the underside, so I think we will do our best to match that. I think computer paint matching, as such, can't work with a candy paint because of the fact it's a translucent? finish over the silver below so is not an actual color like getting the paint on the wall of your house matched.

You are correct .....the Candy green top coat is translucent, but the base coat below it might not be silver. Best to lightly wet sand a small area on the bottom of the tank down thru the candy to see what you find. The 78 KZ1000 Candy green uses a Champaign Metallic color base, the 75 Z1 900 Candy blue uses a Purple Metallic base and the Candy red uses a Green Metallic base.

They didn't remove the paint on the top of the tank when they repainted, so your suggestion goes along with an idea I'd been considering that was to sand the tank carefully with wet and dry in a couple of places to see what layers of colors were used in the original paint, this won't hurt anything because the tank will ultimately be stripped to bare metal before painting. Did they do all the layers on the underside? the paint always looks a little different on the majority of the underside to me.

Yes you are better off wet sanding on the top side. The underside did not get as much paint as the top.

PaintWorkz wrote: Yes you are better off wet sanding on the top side. The underside did not get as much paint as the top.

That was my plan to sand the top in a few places to find the underlying colors and then not strip the underside so I'd have a match for the desired finish. It does look like the underside only got a thin layer over most of it, but a few areas near the edges/ seams do look like the proper original color and finish.

DK900 wrote: Can't wait to see the pics of the KZ1000.
I'm also trying to decide...
www.kzrider.com/forum/6-paint-a-bodywork...to-a-different-color

Well here's a poor picture of my finished paintwork, unfortunately the snow keeps falling so no opportunity for an outdoors shot with better lighting to show off the black paint or a better backdrop than my chaotic garage.

It doesn't really do it justice, but . . .

Very nice! Ed

Looks REALY nice, but give us some better pics.,
Pete

pete greek1 wrote: Looks REALY nice, but give us some better pics.,
Pete

We still had the remains of a foot of snow at my house before getting 6" on Saturday and another 6" so far today and it's still snowing, so there's no possibility of even rolling her out on to the driveway, but I promise some better pictures and ones taken from different angles as soon as is possible.

I'm really pleased with the look of this one, I like the almost stock look combined with the custom bit's I've done, which have given me what I really wanted in a KZ1000. Now I need to do a similar feat for my 650, I wish I could see a Green one in the flesh before biting the bullet, the 1000 has exceeded my expectations, I'd hate to be disappointed with the outcome.

To give an idea of how nice the finish of the black came out - still snowing and 25 degrees so it may be July before I can get a decent picture

July! You poor guy.
Steve

swest wrote: July! You poor guy.
Steve

That may be quite an exaggeration , normally by the end of February when the sun gets out we start seeing 60 plus degrees which gets things melting, but the way this winters been so far who knows, I've seen it where we don't really see much warm weather until mid June. Either way at the moment there's a lot of snow to melt. Being serious I'm hoping by March we might get something that works for an odd ride and some outdoor photos, but who knows. I live on a hill and yesterday a 4x4 pickup towing a horse trailer came to a halt by my house and had some pucker up moments as it all began sliding backwards on the ice.

How hot are your summers?
Steve