In today’s installment, we are spraying on the silver base coat that gives the metallic look to the translucent candy red top coat. When you are using a tri coat system like this, the base coats need to have hardener added so that when you spray the red top coat it doesn’t crinkle and spider web the silver. I like to let every coat dry a couple of days before putting on the next coat to avoid any crinkling.
Since this was never intended to be a show quality restoration but rather a daily rider, we skipped a couple of steps that in retrospeect we probably should have done. On a bike this old with lacquer paint, it really is a good idea to totally strip the metal parts to get rid of all the old paint and corrosion. On old gas tanks, there is invariably some rust in the bottom form water collecting over the years. I really recommend getting at least your tank dipped. Here in Atlanta, there is a place called Unpaint that can dip pretty much anything including car shells (I saw an old Porsche 356 there one time). After that, you can braze any pinholes in the tank and use a sealer after that.
Honda SL 350 silver base coat
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