diana blue

[TrexDucatis]

The blue metallic I had settled on is called ford hot rod blue by duplicolor. That's right a spray can. I carried my tank around to auto parts stores and paint shops until I found the closest match before stripping it. I did all the paint work by hand with spray cans and dubious amounts of time spent wet sanding. Etching primer, primer sealer in grays. A silver metallic base made all the angles/shadows even out. Then 3 coats of the blue. It's not candy or translucent color but I felt like the silver helped make color pop somehow. You can see in the picture ( taken with a crappy old digital camera in a dimly lit room)...that the flash really plays in the metallic accentuating the curves and lines. In average lighting the microflake seems to dissipate quite a bit, but pops up in direct sun. Gives a certain dynamic nature which I really like but I'm not sure how "correct" it is. Now that I have most of the original parts I'm more motivated to restore rather than customize. I'll have to respray the fenders and headlight regardless but it seems a shame to bury this blue in gloss black because rechroming the stripe is so daunting(shipping from Alaska to an unknown shop) and repainting it all over from scratch. The silver metallic "swoosh" would be far less expensive and risky to accomplish here at home. Lol. Eventually I hope to find a 350 complete and correct to make this a 65 Sebring one day and that's the scheme to be either way. I hope the duplicolor hotrod blue gives you another base to compare and decide.

[bodge]

resto or custom,your bike your choice!im going for a mk 111 look but it wont be a perfect reproduction by any means!.impressive finish for tins trex,not sure what you mean about the chroming, pretty sure monza wasnt a model wiyh the chrome tank panel if thats what you mean?

[TrexDucatis]

Yes my 65 monza had a chrome "swoosh" on the tank with a fine yellow pin stripe on the near navy blue fine metallic. I have seen the "cherry" red metallic tank option as well but not a black and silver combo unless it was a Sebring model. Very confusing this hunt due to little documentation, variations by import, and factory inconsistency.
The chrome panels on many import bikes of the 60s like Yamaha, BSA, Norton, and the shape of the monza, F3, and jelly mold tanks (especially the chrome accented elite) is what caught my eye and led to this path of ruin and obsession. If someone had told me directly that I would spend more than a decade collecting rusty junk on the internet, countless late nights searching, anxious days hoping I won the auction, years of research and practicing techniques, many weekends restoring piece by piece, development of patience on a mythological scale...only to create something I'd rather not ride and worth roughly half the investment....I probably would have spent the money and time on women and whiskey instead. Lol
Having done all this is something I'm prideful of though....and only makes me want to find a few more models for my collection to round out the investment.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

[quote= TrexDucatis ...
" You can see in the picture ( taken with a crappy old digital camera in a dimly lit room)... "

____ I've tried to help-out that dim/shadowy picture a conservative amount. - (see new pic)
I could try further lightening it up still more, if anyone would care to see the paint-colored surfaces adjusted even brighter (at the expense of all the already sufficiently bright areas becoming overly bright).



" In average lighting the microflake seems to dissipate quite a bit, but pops up in direct sun. "

____ So then how-about another pic.shot taken outside in the light of a sunshiny day ?



" Gives a certain dynamic nature which I really like
I'll have to respray the fenders and headlight regardless but it seems a shame to bury this blue in gloss black because rechroming the stripe is so daunting
and repainting it all over from scratch. "

____ I very much agree that what you now have really can't be much improved on, so please forget the unsensible notion of repainting over-again (to another less appealing scheme), as it would be far more than just a mere "shame" to waste your current very eye-appealing blue paint-work !! _ As it looks quite beautiful as is, and the black & chrome scheme would be relatively ugly !



" The silver metallic "swoosh" would be far less expensive and risky to accomplish here at home. "

____ Indeed certainly so, so then why-not first try adding your missing swoosh-stripe in silver-metallic to help satisfy your need for change, and find-out if you don't then see-to-reason that your currently inclined future redo-scheme plan is pretty-much unreasonable to actually go-through with !?




" my 65 monza had a chrome "swoosh" on the tank with a fine yellow pin stripe on the near navy blue fine metallic. "

____ I wouldn't say it was "near" real 'navy-blue' (which is very-dark, [almost black-looking from afar]), but-rather closer to it than other lighter shades of blue such as a deep 'sky-blue' (for instance).



" I probably would have spent the money and time on women and whiskey instead.
Having done all this is something I'm prideful of though.... "

____ Indeed so, and you actually have something great to show for your life's endeavor ! _ (Whereas that alternate life past-time would've likely only left you with regrets and little other than lots of near empty bottles laying all around.)


Duke-Cheers,
DCT-Bob

[bodge]

quick pick of frame in duc a22

20150704_174733.jpg

[TrexDucatis]

Looks great! Think you are right on for the Diana color. Mine is definitely a much darker shade like the 66 scrambler blue... I think. Lol
Can't wait to see the rest of your tins.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

[quote= TrexDucatis ...
" Mine is definitely a much darker shade "

____ It appears so,, however it's really not fair to directly*compare different color-shades under such distinctly different light-sources, (as varied light-spectrum ranges can possibly skew color-tint near as much as slightly-different color-tints may actually-vary under identical-lighting) !
(* As directly compare-displayed in the included combo-pic below.)



____ BTW, now that I've looked-over the fully brighten view of the ('customized' *) "Monza", it's frame appears to possibly rather be a Scrambler-frame.
(* Customized, in that it's tail-loop has been 'bobbed' away.)
If not really sure of which frame-model, then post another pic.shot which well shows what's left of the frame-section under the seat area.


Differentiating-Cheers,
DCT-Bob

[DewCatTea-Bob]

[quote= bodge ...
" quick pick of frame in duc a22 "

____ I thought that color was meant intended for your fuel-tank.
I-myself have never seen any Mark-III with a frame-color other than black. _ It ought-not make any concerning difference though, as the frame is a Monza-model.

20150704_174733.jpg

Duke-Cheers,
-Bob

[bodge]

im just going off one particular berliner ad/poster bob,may well be they never made/sold them like that but ive seen a few "restored" ones with that colour scheme,may just be harking back to the earlier factory bikes but i like the look

[bodge]

somwone mentioned awhile ago it looked like an early monza or diana frame,what differentiates the two? it doesnt make any differance as im not trying to make a mk 111 replica just generally that look ill be going for as i have that style of seat and no toolboxes