Paint...

I used RAL 5019 capri blue and RAL 1013 oyster white for my Navigator, but brush paint? Really?

It's your bike so paint your Navigator in the way you like. I have no experience whatsoever with brush painting CombiColour.

There is no question about it though as to which paint is superior; 2K etch primer and top coated with 2K base coat and lacquer - oven baked. That gets you a showroom finish far superior to anything ever produced by Norton. Too good or modern in fact for concours so the trick is to prime in 2K and finish coat in cellulose so you get that original 1950/60s finish if you want to go the concours route.

Spray painting a bike frame is very wasteful of paint as most of the paint gets blown away via the extractor. So allow about a litre of paint just to do the frame and fittings properly. RAL is the modern EU (originally German) paint coding and RAL numbers will never match the original 1960 Norton colours but again that is entirely your own choice.

Commercial paint shops will tell you that they are not legally supposed to use cellulose or 2K paints but are in fact allowed to do so when used on a historic vehicle. Even then they are not keen on the job because it causes too much trouble because they are geared to using modern water based materials but they still use 2K lacquer to finish. Any decent paint shop will have their own paint scheme and can mix paint to match a sample so matching in 2K is pretty simple if you have a good eye for colour.

Patrick.

i dont think theres anything wrong with brush painting something . at least you can touch it in. i brush painted my frame and mudguards with my B&Q paint ,well foam brushed it on actually. it hasnt turned out to bad. i wasnt looking for a professional job. just wanted to tidy it up . it will do for me

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Very nice work, Barry. Michelangelo I believe used a brush as well and he managed some very acceptable finishes.

In the car world over restoration is now common. At a recent classic vehicle show I saw the most superb rebuild of a 1930s Ford V8 pick-up. It had absolutely flawless lacquered metallic paintwork, superb spotless varnished woodwork on the body and immaculate chromed split alloy wheels as well as a spotless modern turbo diesel engine and six speed gearbox; the cab interior was fantastic in soft leather with a woodrim steering wheel, etc, etc. But was it a real classic ?? The original vehicle would have been a hand painted working commercial with an original side valve V8 engine and a crude non-syncromesh box - absolutely zero luxury -just basic functionality..

So only you can say what you personally want.

Good point Patrick. It can be good to see an immaculate paint job but in most cases, the original was never as good as the ones at classic bike shows, even when sat in the dealer's showroom.

To go off-piste if I may, the bike in Barry's shot has the hooter mounted beside the frame. My similar-aged ES2 has it just in front of the cylinder barrel. I suspect that neither was like that originally. Does anyone know where it was mounted on a 1957 ES2?

Chris, good to hear from you! Mr Bacon only mentions the horn in relation to the change to a swinging arm frame in 1953 where it was put behind the oil tank in the corner of the subframe. I donât know if it changed when the oil tank changed to the larger size.

dan

Previously patrick_mullen wrote:

Very nice work, Barry. Michelangelo I believe used a brush as well and he managed some very acceptable finishes.

In the car world over restoration is now common. At a recent classic vehicle show I saw the most superb rebuild of a 1930s Ford V8 pick-up. It had absolutely flawless lacquered metallic paintwork, superb spotless varnished woodwork on the body and immaculate chromed split alloy wheels as well as a spotless modern turbo diesel engine and six speed gearbox; the cab interior was fantastic in soft leather with a woodrim steering wheel, etc, etc. But was it a real classic ?? The original vehicle would have been a hand painted working commercial with an original side valve V8 engine and a crude non-syncromesh box - absolutely zero luxury -just basic functionality..

So only you can say what you personally want.

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thanks for that Patric, its not a very good photo but i think it shows the finnish ok. i painted the fork shrouds after fitting them they are in poor condition i painted those with a brush and the finnish was not as good as using the foam type brush as i did on the mudguards. it looks ok with minimum effect on the environment and my wallet, lol.

You can always wet flat them and polish them up again, veteran cars were hand painted with excellent finishes.

Previously Andrew Wibmer wrote:

Previously Barry Carson wrote:

i dont think theres anything wrong with brush painting something . at least you can touch it in. i brush painted my frame and mudguards with my B&Q paint ,well foam brushed it on actually. it hasnt turned out to bad. i wasnt looking for a professional job. just wanted to tidy it up . it will do for me

That mudguard looks very nice, have come across foam brushes and finishing roller, I think with a nice flowing paint, it should be possible to get a very tidy finish. Rather like the idea of diy. As you say, nice to be able to repair - rather put off 2k or stove finishes because of that, also celulose is so easily chipped. Buddy of mine swears by Hammerite, but only in black..

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Hi Andrew .i think everything i have sprayed using spray cans has always had something happen to it on refitment scrape or scratch wise so i thought i would give it a go and brush some on . the colour is a jet black and not a grey black as you get in some spray cans. its not a B&Q paint i just bought it from there.

mmm, then i thought what about if petrol spills on it. so i painted a piece of alloy let it dry and then placed it into a tray of petrol over night looked at it the next day and it made no imediate effect at all.

i would make a good sales person, lol

Previously Andrew Wibmer wrote:

Previously Barry Carson wrote:

Previously Andrew Wibmer wrote:

Previously Barry Carson wrote:

i dont think theres anything wrong with brush painting something . at least you can touch it in. i brush painted my frame and mudguards with my B&Q paint ,well foam brushed it on actually. it hasnt turned out to bad. i wasnt looking for a professional job. just wanted to tidy it up . it will do for me

That mudguard looks very nice, have come across foam brushes and finishing roller, I think with a nice flowing paint, it should be possible to get a very tidy finish. Rather like the idea of diy. As you say, nice to be able to repair - rather put off 2k or stove finishes because of that, also celulose is so easily chipped. Buddy of mine swears by Hammerite, but only in black..

...............................

Hi Andrew .i think everything i have sprayed using spray cans has always had something happen to it on refitment scrape or scratch wise so i thought i would give it a go and brush some on . the colour is a jet black and not a grey black as you get in some spray cans. its not a B&Q paint i just bought it from there.

mmm, then i thought what about if petrol spills on it. so i painted a piece of alloy let it dry and then placed it into a tray of petrol over night looked at it the next day and it made no imediate effect at all.

i would make a good sales person, lol

Thanks Barry,

interesting result you got with foam pad, was it a pad or roller. Read somewhere that very good results can come from foam roller. I think yachts are painted like that and can get excelent finish. I dont want glass smooth as I intend to use it, but neither do I want orange peal - overspray or brush marks - not too fussy am I?

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Hi Andrew. i used the foam pad on a stick type.thats the only way i can explain it. i dropped on the foam brush idea from a chap painting his canal boat. i asked how do you get a finnish like that with no brush marks . then he revealed the foam brushes. not saying its the way to go. but worth a try