I apologize if this is covered someplace, but I tried various searches and it did not find what I am looking for. I recently acquired a 1981 R100RT that is in need of some touch up to the cool red fading to black color scheme. I tried Color Rite and they don't go back to 1981 on their listings, and so far have not responded to my email requests for any info on the BMW paint code 509. I found a place in the UK that sell the paint, but the shipping is almost $60 to Texas, which the purchase of two small cans of paint, base coat and the top coat come to about $160. I refuse to pay that much for 2 cans of paint, so am asking if anyone on this forum has found a good source of paint for these older airheads. Thanks for any help.
Look up the Glasurit code, paint shops used to be able to mix paint based on that code. Any decent body shop supply house ought to supply the base coat, paint and clear coat. Lacking that, take the tank (or whatever) to the paint shop and let them mix and match. There is no absolute reason that it has to match the BMW paint code 101%. --Bill
Any decent paint store can take an electronic reading of your paint, plug it into their computer and it will spit out the exact formula to make a perfect match for what you have now which is likely to not be just what it was when new. This way you get today's match rather than 1975's match.
Any QUALITY paint shop that knows what they are doing, can match your paint. The Glasurit paint is still available, but super expensive. A good shop will have a machine that they can scan your paint in with and then match it up with a more modern paint. I have the same bike, and it is in need of new paint. I have to keep it a stock colour in order to keep my collector plates on it. I have talked to several paint shops and they all can match the colours and fogging, etc. even down to the painted gold pin striping. BUT, the cost, if I bring in all the bits, will be more than the bike is worth. The cheapest quote was over $4500. It is very labour intensive to do properly. Usual prep work, sanding etc., then primer, base coat, then build up the red to right thickness, then fog the black, then the gold pin striping, Then a good clear coat. All with some hand wet sanding in between. So, I am leaving it alone and telling people that it is the build up of the patina.
Yeah, the "smoke" color schemes are probably a bitch to touch up well as so many steps are involved. I doubt you'd end up with a good match in the end and even if you did it would fade differently from the rest of your paint over time. With the smoke paint jobs you're probably better off doing either all or nothing.
I love the look of my smoked paint, but as you said, it would be a royal bitch to match if only doing a portion of it. I have often thought of just repainting it all one colour, and not bothering with the collector's plate and the really cheap insurance. But then I go sit in the garage and think about it and end up just leaving it alone. I have found some nail polish that sort of matches (not if you look closer than 3 feet) which I touch up rock chips with. But if I ever win the lottery............
I have a 83 R100RS in Polaris Graphite or Silver Smoke as I call it. I went to Kragens and they have Dupli-Color for excact car color matching. I found a perfect match for my light silver color with Ford medium charcoal met and a very close match for the dark graphite color with GM storm grey met or Toyota phantom grey. Both colors are a little lighter but I'm thinking of darkening one of them to see if I can get a little closer. By themselves it does a really good job. Much better than seeing the white show from all the scratches. My poor bike has been thrown to the ground during 3 major earthquakes and the edges of my fairing showed it. You might luck out with the red color and I always wondered if the graphite color was the same for both bike color scheme. Good luck!!
Thanks to all for the info. I realize that a perfect match might not be possible, but if I can get close that has to be better than leaving the big chips, scratches and two long rubbed areas on the side of the tank from the inner fairing. I will be putting antique plates on the bike, which has nothing to do with original anything in Texas, only age of bike. So, if my touch up areas are a bit off, most people will not notice as they are looking at the bike in total.
