1984 OEM Paint schemes... anyone got some pics?

Here's the deal, y'all, I'm trying to get as many reference pictures as I can of the OEM paint job and decals for the red '84 VF500F to send with the bike when I'm ready to plonk down the money to get painted back the way it was. My ultimate goal with this is to make it as close to "showroom floor, 1984" as possible.

It would be immensely helpful if someone, anyone, could give me consistent pictures of an original R-124C-U paint job and decals.. complete with those lesser-known shots like head-on, back-end, tank without fairing, top-down of tank, etc. Were those decal stripes blue or black on the '84? I've seen it both ways, but I believe black is correct. What was The Wing like? The paint itself is not a problem, I'll be sourcing from Color Rite, it's the masking that I want to make sure is correct.

Yes, I am crazy.

 

I found the decal set for my 84 VF1000F here Arctic Cat, Honda, Kawasaki, Polaris, Suzuki, Yamaha Parts Dealer Muskegon, MI, they seemed reasonable, seeing as how I ordered the replacement lens to my gauges for $20 instead of new GAUGES for $700. They have the same interface as a couple other OEM sites, but seem to have far less "discontinued" items.

 

The problem I'm finding with the decal sets is that if you buy a set from an independent place they either give you red or blue, no black. I'm not averse to having my local shop cut me some decals like stock as it will be much cheaper than ordering OEM (srsly, 50$ for one side of the front cowling's plain decal? Come on, Honda...) , but if I do I want to make sure I give them as much reference material as I can.

 

I've yet to find a decal vendor that offers the tri-color Honda wing (both versions) for the '84 and '85 models.

If you find a source, please let us know!

 

How's this one, close? Spot-on?

Motorcycle decal sticker logo honda wing ebook bike b | eBay

I honestly don't know, I've only ever seen mid-res pictures. My own lost it's wings a long time ago.

 

There's also these guys, I've heard mixed reviews about their actual service, though:

High Quality 1984 Honda VF700F Interceptor Wings

That's for the 700F, but looks like the printing is right.

here's their page for VF Series:

http://www.honda-decals.com/default...at=1&--woSECTIONSdatarq=79&--SECTIONSword=ww1

 

I have the red,orange,white Honda wing that goes with the Candy Aleutian Blue with Fighting Red and Shasta White color scheme.



I believe a few owners here have 500s with your color scheme (Candy Alamoana Red with Black and Shasta White), so you should be able to get some clean high res photos for reference.

I can help with the scale, if needed. Here is a tracing I did for another owner awhile back:

 

Hey, thanks for that!

As far as scale, it looks like those 700F Wings I posted further up are just about right, looks like 1/4" off, but that would be good enough for gov't work.

It's infuriating- when the light hits the current paint just right I can see the outlines of the red/white and some of the decal work. The non-clear coated decals are still intact as well. I've had half a mind on more than one occasion to attack it with a sharpie and outline where the goodness is/was. I can't really strip it down without disturbing some tank dent filler and fairing cracks. It's not rattlecanned, either, so I doubt I'd be able to use anything like Easy Off to strip it back down even if I felt it was ok to try.

 

Alright, I've contacted several repro decal shops... hopefully at least one of them will be able to help me help them help us all. I'll keep you all posted.

 

While I'm waiting, IC, what do you make of this? They have the Blue/White set as well..

CBdecals.com - Reproduction Decal Kit Solutions for the old Big H Models

 

Great find! The set for the blue and white looks right. Will need to verify the red and white.

 

I'm thinking that if I don't hear anything from these repro guys... as long as I can get The Wings the black decals on the 84 can be fudged with some creative masking and painting. And I know my guy can reproduce the other stripes and decals, no biggie. Ain't nobody gonna know but you, me, the shop and the VF500F designers. :-D

Poor neglected 84, gots no love.

 

http://www.honda-decals.com/productgraphics/VF500F5col.gif

that set comes with tri colored wings .... It is where I ordered mine from.. hope you get the correct set first time . (i didn;t)

 

got my full set from a guy on E-Bay payied like 30.00 bucks. same as what cb decals has. I got the red set.

 

I considered painting and decal-ing to match the 85s, it would be much easier on me. But honestly.... I feel like what's the point of painting back to stock if you're not going to get the right set for your year's codes? May as well paint it yellow. :-D

 

To clarify, are you looking for the wing decal only, or the complete set?

 

I'm looking for the complete set, although as of last night I may have found a solution to some of the problem. It seems that the banana's yellow didn't get a coat of primer or anything. I'm going to try to get that paint off without damaging the OEM. Game changer, I'll see what I need after that.

 

Good deal.

On a side note, please keep in mind if ordering a complete set, that the 85's graphics (the side panel and tail) are slightly different compared the '84.

I haven't found a complete set for the '84, as of yet.

 

So here's what I've found- I made a 'test area' of one of the flat-facing bits of the front fairing (just under the grips), stripped that bit and found it has the blue '85 front, like this one:

http://images41.fotki.com/v1305/photos/4/40215/6384043/Picture013-vi.jpg

The original paint is not in bad condition, but it's not in great condition, either. It will be a lot- A LOT -of work to get that thick yellow off.

On a whim I also sanded a bit of the tank where the Wing should be and found white basecoat, then primer, then poorly stripped red '84 paint. No Wing. Damn. :-(


So now I'm at an impasse- I could:

1) continue to try scaring up decals, get my OEM paint matched and painted on top of the yellow.
2) strip the rest of the yellow off the rest of the fairing, although who knows what I'll find, and I'll still have to get the tank decal'd and painted stock. (I was kinda hoping that front fairing would have been the red/black so that I could realistically pursue this option)
or..
3) Do as I have done with it's little sister and make it my own. This would definitely be the cheaper and easier option. If I went this route I would still get the tri-color gray/black wings for the tank, V-Four and Interceptor decals, and I would likely get it all painted one color and later consider hand-painting the detail work. I would probably also match the OEM repro decals to the color that I'd pick.

My only complaint with option 3 is that my reasoning for doing this to the VTR was the OEM paint/decals were... uh... very.... hmm... I guess I have to use 'Gay' to best describe it. The VF's stock look is outstanding, I almost wanted to shed a tear when I saw that Fighting Red and Aleutian Blue under that yellow , and the Alamoana stripped so brutally from the tank.



If I do go for option 3, I would probably do a similar paint scheme as I did with the VTR- Black body, Duc silver detail.