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| PAINT &
GRAPHICS
To beautify or not to beautify-
Or..."But my bike only sold for $799.
brand new!" |
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| What a
dilemma for the Japanese production engineers; at production peaks, some
factories had to paint
6,000-10,000 sets of bodywork daily, and they had to look pretty! In the '70's, paint-spraying robots were brand new and with the
volumes the big 4 were building, it's a wonder the paint and chrome
wasn't a lot worse than it was. Think about it, unlike us, the Japanese
were never exposed to fancy paint jobs or chrome like we knew from our
hotrod car culture. They were experts at the mass production motorcycle
building process, but they were desperately trying to appeal to our
american sense of style and performance, at an oriental, market stealing
price point. If their strategy were to finish the bikes just a little
nicer, the added cost may have curbed demand, and they seldom risked their
market share for the sake of building something higher quality. It was
all about build more, and sell for less. On the average, Yamaha built
the popular RD350 at the rate of over 150 per day, and that was just one
of over 20 models! The bike sold to dealers for just over $700., after
being crated and shipped! Not a lot of room for fancy chrome and
paint. The paint was truly the most labor intensive part of the
manufacturing process. After body work was hand-prepped, they set it up
for the automated spraying robots to prime & paint the pieces. Often they had to be
retouched by hand, more than once. Then they had to hand-lay the
stripes, polish it, inspect it & install it. Sometimes it was thin
in spots with the white undercoat often peaking through, sometimes the
orange peel was so bad the surface felt like a tangerine. Quality
control standards were only as high as they had to be to maintain
production levels and ensure reasonable mechanical safety. The plan was
to flood our shores with quick, lightweight bikes that would be
exciting, reliable, but most importantly, cheap to buy & maintain.
It worked. They were less than 1/3 the price of the popular European
bikes, more reliable and just as quick, but they weren't nearly as well
finished. Compared to Triumph, Harley-Davidson, & BMW, Japanese
paint and chrome was of very low quality. Often the chrome grab rails of
the RD350 would develop a light coat of rust by the time the bike got off the
boat! How good could the Japanese bikes ever get the respect they
deserve with some of the stock finishes? They seldom did, and often,
still don't today! Just try it & you & your friends will see
what I mean. Give your pet Japanese bike the kind of paint and chrome
you would find on a Harley and you'll have a completely new perspective
and a new-found respect for your old steed. Mechanically, most Japanese
2-strokes are built like a swiss watch and are worthy of a makeover that
does all of that precision engineering the justice it deserves and yearns
for. |
 Beautiful,
PPG acrylic enamel with high quality vinyl graphics. This finish is a match of the factory OEM
color but with much more depth and lustre. Unlike factory finishes, all
parts are clear coated and color sanded giving a glassy smooth sheen
that appears wet. The factory designers never dreamed of paint like
this. |
 Painted by
one of the top sportbike painters in the world, Boris Landoff of
California Cycle Designs, this finish vastly exceeds factory quality.
Boris' other clients are also some of the some of the most discerning in
the world, including Team Yoshimura and Team Honda. |
 Show
quality bodywork that will increase the value of your bike instantly &
surpass it's original beauty. |
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All the popular colors from modern Yamaha R1
blue.... |
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To old-school favorites like competition yellow. |
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