i got my bike used and the previous owner(s) messed up the fairings in a few different spots. does dulpicolor make a touchup paint that's similar to the metallic blue on the gs500f's? if you saw my front fairing you would understand why even a slightly mis-matched blue would look better than what it is now. i understand the stock paint is a 2-step process and botht he primer and the color coat are fairly expensive...

also

where would be my best bet to find a complete rear fairing thats already blue? i want to colormatch the rear fairing to the rest of the bike and was about to start thinking about painting it, but then i saw a gs500f with blue rear fairings...i believe it was an 05? ebay has nothing as far as that goes...

As for the rear fairing i believe you are referring to the tail plastics and they come up in the for sale section from time to time.

for touch up paint you can go to www.colorrite.com.  They are a little pricey but it should be a good match for the color and they sell the paint in different sizes depending on how much touch-up you need to do.

By far the simplest solution is to simply paint the whole bike whatever color you want, rather than fuss with matching a color, or buying parts to get a part that's a particular color when your parts are not also broken. It also helps to make the bike more unique, and does not leave the traces that touch-up painting usually does, if you do a proper job.

This option comes in two major price variants - if you want to spend serious money, serious paint shops will take it, and Kabez will be all happy with you. If you don't, rattlecan alley is open to all who dare, and a careful job can look quite good. A poor job by any means will always look bad. Somewhere in the middle is knowing a guy with some stuff, or who works at a paint shop, and getting it quasi-serious painted via the back door, rather than at retail rates. If you like a color they have some leftovers of, that can work very nicely.

Most of the current automotive paints are absurdly poisonous and a very bad idea to play with at home, lacking all the booth, ventilation, supplied air respirators, etc - not to mention being hundreds of dollars per gallon. No doubt that they are much more durable and fuel resistant than rattlecans - but they scrape off on pavement just the same, so investing a lot of money in a paintjob should be balanced against the likelihood that you'll be dropping the bike and scraping it up yourself.

Hi there,

I disagree with the last post.
My suggestion -- Go ahead and find some touch up paint and fix what you have. It won't be perfect, but it can be made to look better than it does right now.
The problems with repainting the whole bike -- it will reduce the resale value of your bike, especially since it is a newer model. Most people want stock paint and that adds to a bike's value. If it was a 1992 GS500 or older than a 1997 or so, I'd say, go ahead and paint to your heart's content. The bike values are lower anyway at this point and there's more leeway to find someone who will appreciate your changes at a lower price.
But a late model bike with a spray can paint job?
My first Q would be, was it in an accident and what are they trying to hide?
Just some thoughts from someone who has been riding and buying and selling motorcycles for 34 years.

Best wishes,
Trwhouse

No problem with disagreeing; Depends what you want to do with it. I've been at it for 20-odd years, but I've only bought 3 and sold one, so I don't operate under the assumption that I won't be keeping the thing, and I could care less about having the same paint and graphics as everything else that came off the line that year - though Trwhouse's  well preserved stock paintjob is certainly nice.

I guess you can evaluate your options depending on what you want to do with it (sell quick, keep) - MHO, an obvious touch up job indicates pretty much the same thing that a non-stock paintjob does - the bike has been down (and I'm always dubious when someone gets on the "it's never been down" sales pitch, which nearly always means there are scrapes on things like the forks that they forgot to fix I can find with very minor examination). A non-obvious touch up job is pretty much unobtainable (the dealer repair method is generally new plastics, $$$), so...

I started with a delightfully bad paintjob which I figure took at least $200 off the price of my bike. I was going to change it anyway, so I wasn't bothered a bit by it (aside from potential retinal damage from just looking at it...)

Well i doubt i'll ever sell the bike, I tend to hang on to things...when i do upgrade i plan on giving the bike to Ashley (girlfriend of 3 years, hopefully more).

The touchup paint on the front fairing would be temporary until i find a replacement one that's in better shape.

I'm also no stranger to painting plastics, i did a few custom parts for my car...

(at one point this was rough black plastic)







so if i had to rattlecan something i could manage it. However, once i saw that some bikes already have blue rear fairings, i decided to go that route since it will be a perfect match and i wont have to take the time to do the paintwork.

that being said, i love the factory blue and have no plans of going with a different color, i just want to replace the white rear piece with blue. i think the bike will look much better that way.

by the way that red tubing in the engine bay of my car is long gone.

I recently chipped my tank paint, under tank bag, so I googled "GS500 touch up paint" and in the 3rd or maybe 5th page full of links to company sites including Colorite I got a writeup some GS guy did, he was trying for perfection and felt that he got there. He restored to showroom.

Colorite primer, color coat and top coat, with waiting to dry between coats, and wet sanding and polishing top coat. He said it was $80 USD all in with the 3 paints and some 3m buff stuff kit, and wet paper. Maybe it was 2000 grit.

Colorite has listing for the GS500F by year and color.

It took him weeks, the waiting for correct drying took the time. I think he may be right about drying to get it really right. If I do it I will do what he did. Or not do it. Or at least touch some primer to my 1/4x1/8 inch chip. Mine is almost showroom otherwise so I might actually do it.  Good winter job.

Of the $80 about $60 relates to primer and top coat and supplies usable on other vehicle.  If you have more than one chip you are laughing.