Ducati Red - Blending in Paint to repaired areas I have recently acquired a 1995 Ducati 600SS, to which I am indebted to the Ducati Forum member ‘Chris’ for pointing me in the direction of. The bike requires some repairs to the fairings that I was going to undertake myself and hopefully blend in the repaired areas rather than respray the whole side fairing panels (which would necessitate new decals); as I am working on a budget. I was therefore interested to know if anybody had attempted this before and had had any success. Alternatively, it maybe that what I am seeking to do is not practical and the advice from members would be to respray the whole panels. However,there would still be a need to match the colour as closely as possible as not all panels are affected. As far as colour goes I was going to follow the advice of forum member ‘Arquebus’ who has suggested that Hycote paint ‘Ford Radiant Red’ on top of a ‘Nissan Red 526’ works quite well. Look forward to your thoughts and comments and am indebted to those members who have so far helped me.
I have spoken to RS and then can supply paint to the correct shade (Anniversary Red). I would still be interested in hearing from anybody who has undertaken some fairing repairs and how they went about painting the panels, i.e. were they completely resprayed or were they blown in, and if so how well did they match?
it is possible with care lots of info on the web or a strategicaly placed pin stripe to hide the join regards Steve B
don't be put off trying - if you have the patience and the eye for it you can definitely obtain a passable result unless bike looks 'as new' in all other respects. Hardest job is getting the temperature right at the moment. The only thing you would want to avoid painting would be the tank due to the almost inevitable petrol spills. You can get petrol resistant lacquer but it doesn't work that well. If you look hard enough you might see varying shades of red on your fairings already. I have tried many different shades but Ford Radiant Red (as AL has suggested) is often the closest.
To blend in new colour properly is a skill of a pro painter. You should also bear in mind that the shade of red on your bike will now , not be the pantone reference of the factory, as sun and general oxidisation over the years will have changed the colour to an extent. I had my some of the panels on my 888 repainted last year. The paint shop have a snanning machine that perfectly matches the paint colour to what is on your bike. I am so pleased with the result on mine, as are everybody who has seen it. Understanding that you are on a budget, but if you want a job to feel proud of, it is the best way. If you require details on the guys who did mine, pm me.
my 888 is tricolore that red this red and that red LOL two of the shades were from the factory! Steve B
it all takes time if you rush it will look shite i would not try to blend with a spary can , i do mine with an airbrush and blend the paint , but saying that ford radiant red is a very good match , warm the can before spraying and lightly dust over the job before clear top coat
go to any paint suppliers and they will be able to get you the corerect paint mixed up - sikkens / glasurit / ppp all have the formulation on tap so to speak. they can either make you a can or a pot of colour. The colour is the cheap part, it's the laquer that's costly. Ducati colours achieve their vibrancy due to being a three stage process instead of two, as to say it actually starts with a white base coat, then the red, then the laquer. As a rule of thumb most paintshops work on the principle of two coats of each. You can buy softmask which is like a foam edged masking tape, it allows the paint to diffuse so doesn't create that sharp edge you normally get with spraying against tape. You can achieve the same by half folding some masking tape and allowing it to flap off the surface. You can also buy blending thinners, which are a mixture of laquer and thinner, and allows you to feather an edge a little bit more. It all depends what the extent of your damage is and where - if you're looking to respray a heavy curvature, say the underside or the indicator housing blister then happy days as the curve of the panel will allow you to blend off pretty easily, but if its the main centre patch then you might be better off just getting the whole thing done. Then all you need is some polishing compound to finish off depending on what level of finish you desire - you can get away with just going over the whole lot with 2000 wet and dry to knock back the orange peely gun finish and then compound to a lovely mirror finish. then you can wax and all that jazz. perhaps you could post a pic of the area then we can get a better idea of what you're trying to achieve
