Hello, As I'm relatively new to 80's Ducatis I sometimes struggle to find the correct information about my bike. I have a white 1982 Pantah 500Sl with red decals. I've been told this is a rare combination on a 500. However I'm quite sure my bike has been repainted somewhere in the past so I cannot tell if white was its original color. Can anyone explain how Ducati painted the Pantah's back in the day? What kind of paint did they use, how was the factory paint finish and where the paint and decals protected by a clearcoat? The paint finish on my bike is not great and the decals are also not perfectly applied and not covered by clear coat. When I compare this to my 906 and 851 the paint quality is downright poor. Those models had a very thick and well applied coat of paint and therefor you still see many of those bikes with perfect condition original paint.
According to Ian Fallon’s restoration book a few of the final 500 SLs were produced in white with red decals so it looks like yours is original.
Thank you for this information. However mine is a 1982 model. The table speaks of 1983 only for the white livery. And mine has a Paioli front fork so it remains uncertain if mine was repainted in its original hue or not. Any owners with a Pantah with original paint to confirm clearcoat was used over the decals or not?
My bike was originally ice blue but the guy i bought it from sprayed it a kind of yellow and green which looked really nice. After many years off the road and a total renovation mine is getting painted a smokey orange and I’ve ditched the fairing and original seat.
I repainted mine original blue metallic. Decals are available from several sources and I used 2K clear over the decals
