interstate tank pin stripes (2011)

does anyone know the correct widths and spacing of the black and red pinstripes on the mk3 commando silver interstate tank

Search the site, there was a thread on this sometime back. Hope that helps.
Mick

Cameron,
I'll do a search as well because I am going to be doing this myself pretty soon. If you end up finding anything could you post it here or PM me? I'd love to know the info myself.

To me it looks hand painted for sure, and I'll take a closer look at my tank and see if I can find exact measurements. It might be a few days though...

Thanks,
Matt

hi matt,
i have e mailed classic bike guide magazine for help,
they are going to print my inquiry in their letters sectoin
in their nxt issue which is out at end of august, if i find
out measurements befor that i will post it here,
thanks
cammy.

I just got around to measuring mine. It looks like the pinstripe is 1cm or about 3/8" from the edge of the tank.


the tape is used to show where the edge of the tank is




I also looked at the decals. They seem to be centered vertically and horizontally, with the middle of the decal lined up with the middle of the gas cap hole.

Matt

that's odd.
I have a double gold pinstripe on the black tank on my MKIII.

That's a fiberglass tank....see the upper mold parting line down the center.
Fiberglass is usually a 72...therefore a 750 which had a single line and 850's had 2.
sorry I don't have the measurements nearby.

dynodave said:

That's a fiberglass tank....see the upper mold parting line down the center.
Fiberglass is usually a 72...therefore a 750 which had a single line and 850's had 2.
sorry I don't have the measurements nearby.

Click to expand...

BINGO. A '72 fg interstate tank. Sorry my measurements didn't help - I forgot about the double pinstripe ones.

Matt

I don't have the tank handy either, it's 10 miles up the road, I won't see it until tonight ET.
I can measure and post but remember the OP wanted striping dimensions for a silver MKIII Interstate. Mine is gold stripes on black so maybe the same but not same same, so in the interest of not misinforming I won't post unless told they are identical.

Hi Cameron,
I don't claim to be the last word on these, but I have restored a number of Interstate tanks, including Jerry Doe's. It is my understanding that the factory back in the day used a hand painted stripe. And while I use painted stripes as well, they are sprayed on under clear. If you lined up 10 original paint Norton Interstate or Roadster tanks and measured them, chances are you might have 10 different measurements, albeit slight variations. When I lay out my stripes, I do not measure, but rather all stencils are hand-laid by eye. The end result is, like Norton, each bike I do is slightly different. I prefer this to an actual stencil that makes every one exactly the same. So in the case of a black and gold Interstate, after all prep is done, I spray the areas where the stripes and lettering will be in gold basecoat first, let dry, then I apply the Norton decals and lay out my tape stripes by hand/eye and then spray entire part in black basecoat. Once dry, I carefully remove the decals and stripes to reveal the previously painted gold. Then it all gets clearcoated, wetsanded and buffed. So everything is paint on paint. Send me your e-mail and I can send you some pics of an Interstate tank with this process. As for dimensions, I use 1/8" tape for my stripe stencil, with an 1/8" gap between them and about 1/4" - 3/8" space to the edge of the tank. Each of the 2 stripes is laid individually to mimic the original look somewhat. When I did Jerry's tank several years back, we went with a double 1/8" and 1/4" stripe as that is what he wanted. In looking a factory brochures though the double 1/8" stripe seems to replicate the look pretty well. If you want to to be 100% authentic, then a hand painted stripe on top of the paint as the factory did it would be "correct."
Brent Budgor
The Vintage Vendor
www.vintage-vendor.com
e-mail - brent@vintage-vendor.com

The '73 brochure on my wall looks like 1/8" stripes spaced about 1/16" apart. If I was painting one that's what I'd use. I'd lay it out with fineline tape and airbrush the stripes. But that's me...

The 72 that I painted has a 1/4 inch stripe. I think if you took a 1/16" strip out of the middle of that it'd be real close to the later Interstate scheme.

This is a tank that was taken off a new 850 in a showroom - it didn't hold fuel, and if you look closely the paint is all bubbled. What was that about quality control back then...

This silver Mk3 on evilbay has a repainted tank, but shows a wider black stripe and very fine red stripe. Hopethishelps.

HI, i have had a couple of answers as to widths of black and res stripes on
mk3 silver interstate tank, here are suggestions:,
4mm black, 4mm gap, 3mm red.
9mm black, 3mmgap, 3mm red.
if i remember correctly i dont think black stripe was as wide as 9mm on the commando,
anyone else have any idea ?
cheers,
cammy.

cameron forbes said:

9mm black, 3mmgap, 3mm red.

Click to expand...

That seems to be approximately correct for the silver Interstate 850 Mk3, as the stripes were done by hand there's bound to be some minor variations.
http://www.classicbike.biz/Triumph/Broc ... riumph.pdf

I realize roadster tanks are not realy part of this conversation, but my 850 clearly had A.) hand painted stripes and B.) they were masked with tape before painting.

You could see the brush strokes and you could find spots where the tape had overlapped leaving a shallow "V" shape on the edge. It was also apparent where the lines intersected going two into one.

Russ

Hey Cameron,
There is nothing to painting pin stripes, you can do it.....
Go to "search"... type in .....
"How to paint stripes on a Royal Enfield tank."
Observe, nothing to it...... SIMPLE REALLY.
AC.

HI,
AT LAST HAVE FOUND CORRECT WIDTHS FOR SILVER INTERSTATE TANK STRIPES, THEY ARE
: BLACK OUTER STRIPE 8MM,
GAP BETWEEN BLACK AND RED 4MM,
RED INNER STRIPE 3MM,
THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED WITH THO INFO.

anybody have a photo of black/red stripe with a tape measure recording the dimensions?
Thank you.