The matt black strip on my red Mk 1 tank is actually a plastic overlay. Had never noticed before. Was this part of the original design or was the original painted matt black?
the original was a ‘matt’ black painted panel.
Edit: I’ve heard some describe it as ‘satin’ black, but black anyway, and non-glossy.
No, it was paint.
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My Spada is of the same era and the matt black is painted, as is the pinstripe. The tank on mine is still on the original factory paint.
Also the black is unlaquered so wears away if you polish it too much. Mine is getting thin in parts.
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Thank you everyone for this. Confirms what I thought. I can feel a repeat coming on! Thanks again.
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If you do a fresh job and you’re wanting the ‘sympathetically maintained’ rather than the concours restoration effect then here’re a couple of thoughts.
I think the black might have started off as satin ( don’t know because i can’t remember what they were like in '78 ) but very quickly weathered to matt. Mine was matt by the time I got it in '91. As Don says, get the matt ( I had mine done matt for the pre-weathered look ) over the top of the lacquered red. It soon starts wearing thin at contact points, like where the seat touches, giving a proper period look.
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Oh, and the side panels. The pinstripe there is stick-on off a reel. It’s about 0.5mm thick so has a 3D effect. And in typical Luigi fashion, it didn’t go all the way to the edges of the panel.
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Although not Mk 1 specific, I recently acquired a 1980 Le Mans 2 that was totally original having spent over three decades in the corner of a workshop (barn) in a hot and dry climate. The bike was in white from the factory, and the top of the tank was sprayed black, but the pin striping on both the tank an side panels was a stick on strip, and clearly never painted, so some change in pin striping process around the end of the 70’s.
Attached shows tank in barn fresh condition, with remnants of stick on pin striping.
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That’s interesting. Thank you. I’m going to get it resprayed by a specialist paint specialist. All this feedback is very helpful.