Paint Codes

Well,
Joe Seifert from Norton Motors once told me the original colours back in the seventies were made by Metalflake.
The original paint was rather a gelcoat on the glassfibre tanks and sidecovers of the early Commandos
https://www.metalflakecorp.com/metalflake-metalflake.html
There is no RAL Number or this paint as far as I know.
A friend of mine has a paintshop and painted my 1970 Commando in "Fireflake Royal Blue" with an old jar from Glasurit from the eigthies.
Unfortunatly I had a little crash and the tanks has a dent on the right side and ther is no more pint left.

So he showed me a paint chart from House of Kolors with several flake paints.





You can choose the size of the flakes.Small or medium is the best.
They are sprayed over a base coat and sealed with several coats of clear coat.
So a very labour intensive and costly paintjob.

Here you see my blue Commando ( painted) and a friend´s purple Commando with
original glassfibre tank and gelcoat. The flakes are barely seen from that distance, only when you get closer.





Good luck !
Uli
BTW: My friend is looking for a right hand side cover in Fireflake Roman Purple, gelcoated and not repainted...

Most automotive paint suppliers, not always the paint shops, now have the equipment to determine the make up layers of the coating and even the flake size. Just need to take them a piece that has not faded and that is big enough for them to sample on. Some can mix down to 0.1 Litre to get you a sample.

I have asked the company that made the fibreglass items in the day, but none of the staff there now have a clue or retained any notes.

I really like your bike rivera, aber dann bin ich voreingenommen.

My 70 had that colour. Loved it . Fireflake Roman Purple. In the sun it showed several colours of metallic flakes.

Madnorton:
Which firm did the tanks and panels back then?

DogT, picture was taken after my right exhaust pipe from my S-exhaust system broke.
So I had to go Roadster style for a while.
See other thread.

The House of Kolor Fireflake Royal Blue is a spot-on match for the '73-74 850, but I've seen earlier bikes which are a very slightly darker blue.
I did an 'S' for a friend and it matched a New Old Stock sidepanel he owns perfectly, so maybe the suppliers product varied sometimes?
The Specialist Paints Royal blue didn't look right to me, and I ended up stripping it back. Nice colour, but ...
The original is a fine flake (1/128", I think), and is easier to work with than the bigger stuff.
HoK don't seem to list a purple, although the Specialist Paints Purple looks good to my eye.

There are several photos in the gallery of folk who have Roman Purple, surely someone knows the code now used, the colour & supplier??

My neighbor is the body shop manager for a local car dealership. He offered to paint my 70 Roadster. Had a heck of a time getting the paint right and sent one of the side covers out with a rep from a paint supplier. They couldn't match it so he sent it to a supplier whom they had used before and they could and did do it. They told him that with the new technology they had all he has to do is take a picture and they can match it. Wow! I have attached a pdf file with the color code for this bike.
Here is a picture of my bike. Hope this helps. John in Texas

Many Thanks John, your a star
I'll send a PM..

Hi
Metalflake used to be in Eastwick Road Great Bookham off the old A25 in the 1970s. I went there a few times in the 1980s and probably still have a colour chart as per an earlier posting in this string somewhere in my garage. Search on Google shows they have moved to :
Metalflake House
Oakcroft Road
Chessington
Surrey
KT9 1RH
I think they still sell the flake as I bought some about a decade or so ago. Might be worth an email.

Shame they moved or I might be tempted to get on my bike and go to Bookham and ask them; Then pop in for a pint in the Anchor just down the road from their old address - happy days! Cannot recommend any pubs in Chessington as I used to avoid it due to the speed cameras

The main issue is getting the right coloured flakes, which isn't the same as colour matching regular paint where it can be tinted to get a match.
Apart from the red (and more rare blue) bikes where it was a candy colour over plain silver flake, the colour is in the flakes themselves, so the paint code system doesn't apply.

The Metalflake Company here in the UK doesn't seem to do much metal flake product looking at their website, which is a pity.
This is the only game in town as far as I can tell...
https://www.specialistpaints.com/co...of-metal-flake-size-small?variant=22491022343

John, is the paint code for the base color only ? What size of flakes did your painter use?

For us metric people. what is INC Part and CUM(??) Part

I have to assume a shop that offers a paint mixing service would know this, I'm afraid i don't exactly know, but would hazard a guess its something to do with quantity or weigh of each element.... I'm off to see a local PPG supplier next week so will attempt to find out when I ask can this be mixed

rivera said:

Well,
Joe Seifert from Norton Motors once told me the original colours back in the seventies were made by Metalflake.
The original paint was rather a gelcoat on the glassfibre tanks and sidecovers of the early Commandos
https://www.metalflakecorp.com/metalflake-metalflake.html
There is no RAL Number or this paint as far as I know.
A friend of mine has a paintshop and painted my 1970 Commando in "Fireflake Royal Blue" with an old jar from Glasurit from the eigthies.
Unfortunatly I had a little crash and the tanks has a dent on the right side and ther is no more pint left.

So he showed me a paint chart from House of Kolors with several flake paints.

You can choose the size of the flakes.Small or medium is the best.
They are sprayed over a base coat and sealed with several coats of clear coat.
So a very labour intensive and costly paintjob.

Here you see my blue Commando ( painted) and a friend´s purple Commando with
original glassfibre tank and gelcoat. The flakes are barely seen from that distance, only when you get closer.

Good luck !
Uli
BTW: My friend is looking for a right hand side cover in Fireflake Roman Purple, gelcoated and not repainted...

Click to expand...

Interesting topic. The current president of NENO knows the originator of metal flake. Used to paint professionally now runs graphic arts company and only paints for freinds nortons or other leisure. Gave our club a full blown tech seminar on metal flake and other custom painting techniques.
IIRC originally in lowell or lawrence Mass. Now only 8 miles away from where I live.
MetalFlake Corporation
PO Box 621
Rowley, MA 01969
Phone: 1.508.932.3339