Painting a Honda 500 Vintage Racer - Preserving Freddie Spencers signature

Ive been preparing an painting a Honda 500 Vintage Race bike for a buddy of mine.

He wanted it re painted in the exact same colours it was raced in by Brad Monk.

I had all the decals reproduced exactly (I have not put them on yet), even the tech inspection stickers and American Vintage Racing Association decals will go back on exactly as they were.

The big challenge was preserving Freddie Spencers signature on the tank, especially when all the paint was peeling off the panels like wall paper and parts of Freddie's signature had been washed off by fuel over the years.

Firstly, I did not want to try to "fix" any missing arts of Freddie signature that just makes it worth nothing. and second it took alot of work to make sure that part of the tank paint didn't peel off by hand like the rest of it.

I spent 10 hours in the booth today just doing paint. Still needs decals and it gets gold pinstripe where blue meets white. (not my favourite colours)

 

Here is how the old paint was peeling ....

 

That's very cool, Stray! Agree on leaving the signature alone. You know what they say...."It's only original once!"

FYI: I'm pursuing the purchase right now of an RC15 that was just re-painted. Pearl White. He was going to proceed with the original factory striping and then realized the fuel tank he had wouldn't fit, so gave up. The seller told me he painted for a living so if and when I get her (still up in the air) I will post a few pics. There's more to the story but I'll leave it for now.

 

Damn you Stray, why can't you live closer so you can paint some gear for me!! hahaha

 

That looks amazing straycat!

 

Cheers guys. Ill post a pic of the bodywork once its done, not sure if ill get a pic of the bike for a while, we will see.

Im trying to get my buddy to let me do a "Ultimate man cave " video of his place for my youtube channel. He has 80-100 bikes 10-15 cars

 

Makes me look down-right sensible. Thank you.

Would love to see some pics, bodywork and cave.

 

Yea, he's got it really bad. he makes me look sensible too

 

I am downsizing through the year so now I can live vicariously through you guys!!

 

me too, I need to move a few out, no room at the Inn

Likely on the block this year:

CBR125R
CBX750
CBR600F3
Buell XB9R
Bandit 1200S

 

I need to start moving in the other direction. Almost all of my VF700/750F stuff can go. I still want to build a VF750"R" that I have the parts for, but not the bike (frame) as the starting point I want. And two Honda TL250.

 

Let me be clear, im only selling to make room to buy more ....Im not well, not in recovery, im just finding alternative ways to feed the beast

 

Let me be clear too, I'm only selling to make room for the more I already bought / built, that I didn't make room for when I was already FUCKING FULL. I am not in recovery either. My thoughts are still way too devious for that to be true.

 

Let me be clear... I have no room in my garage but I'm ALWAYS looking for that bike I don't need. The "other direction" unfortunately has too many u turns!

 

And.....I'm out...

 

I have been jonesin to get back to the track, but my wife would prefer me to be on 4wheels if I am going to compete. So, I have my sweet collection of bikes that flipping has allowed me to buy, so now it is time to thin the heard and only keep and maintain the bikes I love. Oh and I forgot to mention I picked up my one and only Ducati.
Ended up being a nice pickup and I have wanted a Ducati since I was 18. So without further delay. I present my 2006 Ducati Sport1000. 2700 miles and I am the second owner.

 

VERY cool! Nice grab.

 

Congrats Brother!
Love the color!


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Since we're derailing Stray's thread (he'll get over it)... A couple weeks ago I picked up a bike that you may have raced against, Rogue. I saw it come up for sale on the wera 13x boards and had to buy it.

It's one of the Ed Key bikes. For those unfamiliar, Ed Key was pretty famous as being the winningest club racer in the US, and he lived in Wisconsin. He was obsessed with making bikes as absolutely light as possible. His famous SV superbike (287lb, ~100hp) was nicknamed Orgasmotron. Now, I don't know the full history of this bike I bought, but I know it was held by the lightweight lap record holder at Blackhawk Farms (not on this bike--he may have also owned the Orgasmotron after Ed passed away as well). But I had heard reference to the "Little Orgasmotron". And the bike stands that this bike came with have "Little O" stickers on them. This bike was sold in 2019 and bought by a guy that took it to a track day and had a lowside in 2020. Took some damage, and it hasn't run since then. I saw it come up for sale and thought... if for no reason else, I need to get this as a historical piece. Though I do have plans to try to race it in 2025. It's going to take me more than a year to even figure out all the insane shit that's been done to it. It's so light. 320lb makes it feel like a complete toy next to my "stock" SV650. If this thing crashes with any velocity I imagine it just disintegrates.

Carbon fiber body, carbon fiber tank, carbon fiber airbox hooked up to ram air inlets, FCR 41 flatslides, ZX7R fork internals, Yoyodene slipper, GSXR rear wheel, and a whooooooole ton of other stuff I'm going to need to figure out. And a lot of it I'm going to need to repair. This one is not over-bored and likely has 78-80hp to keep it legal for the 650cc superbike class.

Oh, and a total loss electrical system that I'm not thrilled about, hah. I see an Anderson Power Products plug to the starter that I assume hooks up to some quick disconnect and battery system. Haven't gotten that far yet.





If I ever do get this thing running again and learn how to ride it, I certainly won't be bringing a knife to a gunfight anymore to the ultralightweight superbike races in the ASRA series.