1982 Yamaha XS400 Seca
- Thread starter hdscarbro
- Start date
CALfeRacer
Fat man on a little bike
Agreed, the black on the bottom makes the nifty seat-tail transition less noticeable. I think with how much work went in to making that such a clean and cool part of the bodywork, you should try to find a way to highlight it. I also think the tank creases around the knee dent and bottom would be cool opportunities to have your two-tone lines along. Stripe on top and two tone together would be a bit much, in my opinion.
I like it. Those are some tricky shapes to coordinate with paint - white really looks good in real life as part of a paint scheme with another color (I usually hate all white paint schemes, but some of my favorites are two tone with white an one of the "colors").
Personally, I am sort of saturated with many liveries I used to really, really like - the KR black speed blocks on yellow (cool pics XB!) and the baby blue and orange 917 Porsche used to be real favorites until I saw so many done. Not that the well done ones don't still look fantastic, just feels unfortunately repetitive. Just some unfortunate fallout from our interweb and the age of information I suppose.
Don't necessarily abandon the original idea though. Change the black to white there and that fancy bodywork reappears. I also thought that front fender might match a bit better with the nose and tail getting a slightly more angular trim to match the edginess of the rest of the bodywork. Paint on the wheels could also be a component, though in my experience, sometimes the trick is to use restraint in the aesthetic design. Looking forward to see what you end up with!
Personally, I am sort of saturated with many liveries I used to really, really like - the KR black speed blocks on yellow (cool pics XB!) and the baby blue and orange 917 Porsche used to be real favorites until I saw so many done. Not that the well done ones don't still look fantastic, just feels unfortunately repetitive. Just some unfortunate fallout from our interweb and the age of information I suppose.
Don't necessarily abandon the original idea though. Change the black to white there and that fancy bodywork reappears. I also thought that front fender might match a bit better with the nose and tail getting a slightly more angular trim to match the edginess of the rest of the bodywork. Paint on the wheels could also be a component, though in my experience, sometimes the trick is to use restraint in the aesthetic design. Looking forward to see what you end up with!
CALfeRacer
Fat man on a little bike
I really like that second one. Something like that is kinda what I thought would be cool when I looked at the knee dents.
hdscarbro
Active Member
xb33bsa said:
I looked ay quiet a few examples of Yamaha's "strobe stripe". I like the newer interpretations, with long slanted parallelograms in the stripe. I don't like the classic design as much with almost square rectangles or parallelograms.
I need to keep the design simple, so I have some hope of pulling off a decent home shop paint job. I can probably tape straight lines and follow a ridge, but anything much more is beyond me.
On a naked bike, this is one of the nicest I've found.
On a fairing, I like this one:
hdscarbro
Active Member
Here's a post about the frame painting jig that I purchased for this project. The frame in the photo is from another project. I have a growing backlog of paint jobs. It's been too cold here to paint.
hdscarbro
Active Member
My XS400 didn't have any paperwork when I bought it (for $75.00). In Massachusetts, you must provide a title or previous registration to get tags, title and registration. There are two techniques that are used in MA to get vehicles like this back on the road.
1) In NH an old vehicle can be registered with just a bill of sale and VIN verification form to a NH resident. Vehicles are sometimes "sold" to a NH resident just to get a registration and then "sold" back to the original out-of-state owner.
2) VT will register an old vehicle a non-resident. In exchange for a $49.00 registration fee and 6% sales tax of the sales price or NADA dealers price (whichever is higher), Vermont will provide registration and tags.
I sent my paperwork to VT for the XS400 and received my VT tags and registration a couple of days ago. It took about 2 weeks. This is the 2nd time I've used the "VT technique" to get a registration for a motorcycle.
Here's a long thread about this at advriders.com.
1) In NH an old vehicle can be registered with just a bill of sale and VIN verification form to a NH resident. Vehicles are sometimes "sold" to a NH resident just to get a registration and then "sold" back to the original out-of-state owner.
2) VT will register an old vehicle a non-resident. In exchange for a $49.00 registration fee and 6% sales tax of the sales price or NADA dealers price (whichever is higher), Vermont will provide registration and tags.
I sent my paperwork to VT for the XS400 and received my VT tags and registration a couple of days ago. It took about 2 weeks. This is the 2nd time I've used the "VT technique" to get a registration for a motorcycle.
Here's a long thread about this at advriders.com.
hdscarbro
Active Member
Applied a couple of coats of white primer on the body parts to seal the fiberglass and to allow me to see areas that need more attention before paint. I used white primer because I am planning to do a black and yellow paint scheme. Yellow doesn't cover gray primer very well.
I had trouble locating white primer in quarts. The primer I'm using is this DTM Epoxy Primter kit from TCPGlobal.
I also squared up the tip and tail of the front fender slightly to hopefully make it complement the angular gas tank shape a little better.
I had trouble locating white primer in quarts. The primer I'm using is this DTM Epoxy Primter kit from TCPGlobal.
I also squared up the tip and tail of the front fender slightly to hopefully make it complement the angular gas tank shape a little better.
hdscarbro
Active Member
I’ve refined my earlier paint schemes a bit. Also, the renderings are better because I'm getting better at photo editing. Here are my best two so far. These were done before the body work was primed white. With a clean white canvas, It’ll be easier colorize from photos now.
Originally, I wanted what is dark gray on these bodywork images to be black. For some reason I wasn't able to get black without loosing all contour in the image. Might be able to do better starting with a consistent white background. After looking at it for a couple of days, gray is starting to look ok to me.
I think scheme A might look better with the seat tail treatment of scheme B. On B the yellow/black border on the tail should match the shape on the tank. Didn't realize how badly it was off until just now. Yamaha uses a white pin stripe on the RZ-350 where I have a yellow one. The white pin stripe is more reminiscent of the "strobe stripe".
What do you folks think about these designs? Suggestions?
A:
B:
Originally, I wanted what is dark gray on these bodywork images to be black. For some reason I wasn't able to get black without loosing all contour in the image. Might be able to do better starting with a consistent white background. After looking at it for a couple of days, gray is starting to look ok to me.
I think scheme A might look better with the seat tail treatment of scheme B. On B the yellow/black border on the tail should match the shape on the tank. Didn't realize how badly it was off until just now. Yamaha uses a white pin stripe on the RZ-350 where I have a yellow one. The white pin stripe is more reminiscent of the "strobe stripe".
What do you folks think about these designs? Suggestions?
A:
B:
CALfeRacer
Fat man on a little bike
I really like A. I feel like that line on the seat in B is a bit off since there isn't a body line it's hugging, like on the tank. I like the gray too, but if it were me I'd still do black.
RoyalRider
2010 Royal Enfield Bullet 500 - 1982 Honda CB125s
hdscarbro said:
If you ask me I'd say A looks really cool. I like how the tail is only grey on the top.
hdscarbro
Active Member
After all of the time playing with paint schemes that follow ridge lines, I've pretty much decided a simple racing stripe is what I'm gonna do. It's a classic design and probably one I won't screw up taping. 
Something close to this is what I'm planning.
I also thinking that I might add some lettering or a logo on the sides of the tail. Perhaps something business like (maybe just "XS400 DOHC") or something whimsical or silly.
Something close to this is what I'm planning.I also thinking that I might add some lettering or a logo on the sides of the tail. Perhaps something business like (maybe just "XS400 DOHC") or something whimsical or silly.
Yep. Racing stripe! Front fender looks killer. Incredible how the tiniest of subtle changes make all the difference. Your bike is getting refined enough to start looking like it was manufactured that way, so get prepared to be ignored by regular folk, and appreciated by the experienced!
hdscarbro
Active Member
Other projects have kept me from making any progress on the bike recently. Hope to get back to it soon. All of the fabrication is done. The bike is ready to be disassembled for cleaning and paint.
I picked up the upholstered seat today. Here are a few photos with the decals and stripe mockups in place. I'm still planning to do a black racing stripe bordered with white and black pin stripes.
I picked up the upholstered seat today. Here are a few photos with the decals and stripe mockups in place. I'm still planning to do a black racing stripe bordered with white and black pin stripes.
