Ysf colour match
 

Hello all, I could do with some guidance on matching the paint colour on my K9 SV650 sport. Had a low side on some ice last Monday and managed to scrape the left hand fairing. I am trying to have the panel resprayed but I know from a previous respray that the colour matching is a sod. The colour code is YSF, Triton blue, but the body shop are having difficulties in getting an exact match. Is there a reason for this issue that any one can shed any light on. Cheers

Re: Ysf colour match
 

Sorry to here about your off, hope you're all ok.

I used to be a sprayer in a Merc bodyshop during my early 20's. Horrible dusty job.

Are they having to spray colour on the whole panel, or are the scratches at the bottom with room to blend up?

If they are colouring the whole thing you will never get it to match exactly, some colours due to the pearl paint content can be tricky to get just right. They look different once the paint has laid.

If there is room to blend you can normally hand tint the paint once mixed from the factory spec for the colour ( probably about 6 - 10 colours used to get the blue you see), but again getting it spot on doesn't always happen, it depends on how good the matcher is.

Hence when a car is fixed and you need to replace the front door, you would always spray the wing and rear door to blend the colour change out.

My K6 had lower fairings fitted by the previous owner, in certain lights it is off colour too, would have been a good idea to get the front fairing blended at the same time, by just blending the colour where they both meet. But that costs more money.

Re: Ysf colour match
 

I was looking to have both lowers painted. The left lower has some scratches, nothing that bad, but I would prefer to have the bike looking its best. The right lower was resprayed about a year ago after a silly low side (my fault) and never matched the bike as good as I wanted. I thought it would be better to have both lowers sprayed but the body shop is finding it very difficult to get a perfect match. It sounds like I might have to by new lowers from Suzuki and sell these on ebay. ref the off: I am fine broken clutch lever, gear lever, indicator, bar end and ripped jacket. Gives me an excuse to make some upgrades.

Re: Ysf colour match
 

That sound expensive, new lowers from Suzuki.
Plus there is always a chance they wouldn't match too.

For the same reason the garage is struggling.

Don't know if i'm going to into it too much but, i'll try to explain.

A body shop will have a automated rack system to stir about 40 odd different colours, each and every paint code has mutliple colours used to get the right colour.

When I was doing it every brand of car had several mircofish slides of colours and codes. There are thousands of colours out there.

Each "colour" will use around say 10 colours. To mix the colour you want you weight out the correct amount of each colour into a pot and stir.

Basically each time a batch of paint is mixed it differs slightly from the last. As the weighting is never 100% exact. Hence being good at hand tinting, somthing that took me years to get to grips with.

To just buy new ones may not help.

Re: Ysf colour match
 

I think you are right. Just visited the body shop and looked at the sample swatches he has sprayed up. The match is not bad but he thinks with a little experimentation he can get an even better mix. I have decided to leave the job with him and trust his judgement.

Re: Ysf colour match
 

The reason they are having so much trouble is because the original paint is a two layer candy. You have to spray the whole piece just to get an even tone. Otherwise you can end up with darker areas where it overlaps. Another problem is the silver content in the base layer. I've tried the cheaper and more expensive paints and both of them look like they have too much silver in them when fresh.

I finally told the painters to leave it and put the bike back together. Over time, either I stopped noticing or the candy coat darkened, but it no longer looks wrong. In the end, it really is best to spray the whole body as a unit. Too bad for the white stripe though, it hugely complicates things for the tank.

Re: Ysf colour match
 

I am just going to have to accept that the lowers will not be a perfect match to the rest of the bike. I do not want to spray the rest of the body when it is not cosmetically necessary and as you say the white stripe would be a complication. I am confident that the spray shop will get a reasonable match.

Re: Ysf colour match
 

Fortunately, the white stripe is only painted under the clear coat of the tank. Everywhere else it's stickers. Easiest place I've found to get the part numbers is cheapcycleparts.com. I don't know if they ship outside the States though.