Restoration Yamaha LS3 1972: Painting Yamaha Candy Brilliant Red

The original paint of this Yamaha LS3 is Candy Brilliant Red (Yamaha code 0063). But because it was all faded (the top of the tank was getting a bit silver) and rusty I decided to take it back to bare metal and repaint it in it's original colour. The problem with the older Yamaha colours is you cannot simply buy them, even if you have the original colour code. It's a big big secret...
And because it's a candy colour it's even harder to get an exact match. With the brilliant red candy colour you first have to spray the parts with a bright metallic silver. Then you mix a dye with clear coat and put several coats on top of the silver base. With every coat the colour will get a bit darker/deeper.
Spray painting candy colours is a real art and it's very hard to get a nice even coat. If you vary your moving speed or distance while spraying the coat won't be even and you'll get a patchy look. The only solution after a screw up is to bring it back to the primer (Yes, you also have to remove the silver base coat..) and start all over.
With the original paint the pin striping is done by painting the tank white, put on masking tape and then spray the silver and candy. The problem using this system with modern paints is you can get some silver edges/dots when removing the masking tape.

Before I removed all the old paint with paint stripper and a brass wire wheel on the grinder I took lots of pics and measurements of the pinstriping.
I also made a couple of paper templates to make live a bit easier later on :)

Measuring the original fuel tank pin striping

Making the pin striping templates

Making the pin striping templates Yamaha fuel tank

Making the pin striping templates - curves

Back to bare metal.

Using paintstripper to get rid of the old paint - very emotional moment :(

Result after chemical paint stripping - time for the grinder

Result after some grinding with a wire wheel Yamaha fuel tank

Result after some grinding with a brass wire wheel

I also removed the dull oil gauge glass. As I'm gonna buy a new clear one I simply drilled a small hole in the plastic, took a screwdriver and pried it out the oil tank.

Removing the oil gauge glass

Oww, before I took everything back to bare metal I needed to find the exact colour match. A couple of months ago I bought two NOS shockers in Sweden and they will be used as a colour reference when spraying the Brilliant Red Candy.
Anyway, I took the tank and shockers to my paint supplier and with the help of some colour samples we picked the best colour match.

Selection of the right candy dye

I went for the Custom Candy Blood Red dye from DNA. With this dye and a good spray technique it's possible to get an exact colour match. Luckily I've a friend who's a real candy artist.

Here are some pics of the whole painting process.

Fuel tank Yamaha LS3 - filler

Chain case Yamaha LS3 bright silver

Bright silver metallic base coat

Bright silver metallic candy base coat

Brilliant Red Candy - 3 coats - DNA Candy Blood Red

Brilliant Red Candy - after 3 coats. The first coat looked purple..

3 coats Brilliant Red Candy plus 3 clear coats

3 coats Brilliant Red Candy plus 3 clear coats Yamaha LS3 1972

Perfect colour match

Yes, I really love this candy colour! The next morning we rubbed it back for the decals and pin striping. I found 2 side cover decals on EBay, and for the pin striping I went to a Sign shop who were happy to cut the pinstripes with the right width from the best vinyl available. Best thing was it was really cheap too :)

I started with the lower straight pin striping part. Be careful not to stretch the vinyl and don't push it to hard on the paint unless you're sure it's in the right position. The glue form the vinyl will soften the paint and it's possible to pull the paint off the tank if you're not careful with it.

Pin striping the Yamaha LS3 fuel tank

Pin striping the Yamaha LS3 fuel tank - using a template for the curves

I found the top pin striping the hardest part, making the right curves and trying not to stretch the vinyl. There are some small imperfections but that will bring it closer to the original pin striping ;) . When I measured the original I found that the left and right side were a bit different, hand labour in the 70's has it's charm.