Restoration Yamaha LS3 1972: May 2015

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.

Original pinstriping finish in the 70's

Pin striping the Yamaha LS3 fuel tank - first top line

Pin striping the Yamaha LS3 fuel tank - second top line

Pin striping the Yamaha LS3 fuel tank - half way

Side cover stickers decals Yamaha 100 LS3

Pinstriping all done - ready for some clear coat

Parts - parts - parts

Update 05-06-2015.

The tank and side cover after 3 clear coats after pinstriping.

Brilliant Red Candy plus 3 clear coats after pinstriping

Fuel tank Yamaha 1972 Brilliant Red Candy

Fuel tank and side covers Yamaha LS3 Brilliant Red Candy plus 3 clear coats after pinstriping

Fuel tank and side covers Yamaha 100 LS3 Brilliant Red Candy

Fuel tank and side covers Yamaha 1972 Brilliant Red Candy

Now the DIY nickel plating is getting better and the plated parts are getting bigger I had to find out what the thickness of the nickel plating would be after a certain time. According to many sources a thickness of 5 micron (0.005 mm) is the minimum to keep the plated part in a nice condition. To give you an idea about thickness; standard aluminium foil is ca. 16 micron (0.016 mm) thick.

Luckily there's a formula to calculate the thickness of the plating; it is based on Faraday's law

T = (I*t*A*10000)/(n*F*rho*S)

Is that all??... no worries mate :)

You don't have to understand how and why, just fill out the numbers for your plating recipe :)

A = atomic weight of the metal in grams per mole.
n = valence of the dissolved metal in solution in equivalents per mole.
F = Faraday's constant in coulombs per equivalent.
rho = density in grams per cubic centimeter.
S = surface area of the plated part in square centimeters.
I = current in coulombs per second.
t = time in seconds.
T = thickness in microns.
in the formula 10,000 is a multiplicative constant to convert centimeters to microns.

Uhh......, OK, most of the needed numbers can be looked up:

Periodic Table of Elements with Valence - Density (rho) - Atomic weight- (right click
on the table and open it in a new window to view it full size 100%)

Nickel with Valence - Density (rho) - Atomic weight

F = 96,485.309 coulombs/equivalent.

A = 58,69 grams per mole (for Nickel)

n = 2 (for Nickel)

rho = 8.908 g/cm3 (for Nickel)
I = depend on the power source you're using. In my case I use a phone charger with a max 350 mA output, and for bigger parts I'm gonna try out a computer adaptor with max 3.4 A output

t = for example 1 minute is 60 seconds, 1 hour is 3600 seconds

S = let's assume the object to be plated is 10 cm long and 10 cm wide => 10*10=100 cm2

If I leave the object for, lets say 2 hours (7200 seconds) in the electrolyte with the 350mA power source, we'll get the following thickness:

T = (0.350*7200*58.69*10000)/(2*96485.309*8.908*100)

T= 8.06 micron

If you wanna plate both sides, simply double the time.

So if I leave it for a bit over 2 hours in the solution it should be thick enough. But if you like to polish allot better go for 10-15 micron.

Another important thing:
To calculate the thickness, use the Current (I) you directly measure in the circuit between the pos (+) and Cathode!!! It will be different then what you read on the charger (which is the max current).

I still had to sand and plate the Yamaha tail light. It was in really bad shape as you can see on the pics.
After a couple of hours it was smooth enough (grit 2000). If you do a really good sanding job it should look almost the same as a plated part. The hardest part was the groove. I couldn't get it super smooth but the tail light is looking way better then before. Another "problem" was that it couldn't be totally dipped in acid because of the mirror bowl. Anyway... after using Faraday's law I choose for a bit over 3 hours plating with the 350 mA phone charger. That should be enough time to give it a thickness of around 15 um.