Painting

First, I need to find the right color. I take a part that has come painted in an olive, military green to my local DuPont dealer who scans it to get the composition of the colors.

I hate painting - you need to set aside vast blocks of time. Once you put on the primer, you cannot go away and finish the job over the next weekend. Juggling the schedules of The Wife, three kids and the drying time of DuPont is far beyond my skills.

So, I start by hanging the frame from a ceiling hook in a little alcove I have made at the end of the basement. I then clean it carefully with DuPont Final Klean 3901S and wipe down with a static control wipe. I put on my mask, turn my vent fans on and then spray a DuPont Fill'N Sand 131S acrylic primer-surfacer which is a fast drying, thick primer that fills in any pits on the surface mixed 1:1 with a DuPont V-3665S thinner. I have no idea if these are the optimum paints for such a project but these were recommended to me by the very helpful DuPont dealer. I wait for it to "flash dry" which takes about 10 minutes and then I repeat with another coat. After about 30 minutes, I sand it with 400 grit dry paper. I repeat this for all the parts.

Now, onto the fun color stuff. I use DuPont Chromabase for the base color coat. This is mixed with a DuPont Basemaker 7175S - Mid Temperature Activator-Reducer in a 1:1 mix ratio. Since the pot life is only 8 hours I am very careful to mix small quantities as this stuff is a pain to clean and quite expensive. I apply the first coat and it comes out nice and wet in a "original looking" olive green. I want 10 minutes for the first coat to flash dry and then apply the second. It is very tricky in my small booth to maneuver the frame so that I get to every nook and cranny while keeping the gun around 10 inches away to prevent paint puddling.

The problem here is that the clear coat has to go on within 24 hours and so I need to clean my paint gun after I finish a group of parts so that I can spray the clear coat. Once the frame is done I clean out everything and then after waiting around 30 minutes or so, start the clear coat. The instructions say that the base coat should not be sanded but there are some drips (!) and I sand them down. Let's see what happens...

I clean the frame with a tack cloth to remove any dust and start on the clear coat. I mix 4 parts of DuPont ChromaClear HC 7600S clear coat with 1 part of ChromaClear HC7603S Low Temp Activator-Reducer (the temperature in my booth is around 60deg, for 70deg they recommend 7605 Medium temperature activator). Spraying this is very tricky as the paint comes out very wet and if I linger over an area for more than 5 seconds, the paint builds up in ripples. I need to keep the gun moving. After one coat I wait 5 minutes for it to flash dry and then apply the second. Because of some ripples, I recoat it again after letting it dry an hour since the pot life is only 2 hours (at 70 deg).

After waiting 1.5 hours I sand it down with 1200 grit paper. If you are wet sanding the tank remember to dry out the inside with a hair dryer or the condensation from the water can lead to rust. This painful process is now repeated for all the parts including the wheel rims. What takes me 10 minutes to write on the blog actually takes over 15 days spread over many weekends.

Actually, prior to putting on the clear coat I added pin stripes to the mudguards and the leg shields. I just used tape as I was not confident in painting stripes neatly and did not want to ruin the paint. I did this before clearcoating because I wanted the tape to be covered by the clear coat. For the mudguards, I bought 1/8in. bright yellow and tomato red stripes made by Prostripe from my local auto supplier. They went on easily and even the bends around the edges of the mudguards and leg shields were not a problem. The picture of the front mudguard and the top bends around the leg shield show the tape.

For the tank I got a little more ambitious and decided that I would hand paint the stripes. I bought a collection of paint striping brushes but it was a complete disaster. I then discovered The Striper by Finesse Pinstriping Inc. It is basically a stencil tape in various widths that you stick to the tank and then you paint with a artist's brush inside the tape. It is very flexible and can even do tapers. Paint striping for the masses! You can even order some of the more common colors but any paint or brush can be used. While purists quibble with the use of tape, The Striper allows for authentic pin striping. A coat of clear coat on top of the stripes on the tank finishes the whole job. The last task is adding the Moto Guzzi logo transfers that I bought from Paul Montgomery of Moto Guzzino. I clean the tank sides with soapy water to remove any oil, wash it down with water and making sure the two eagles are both pointing forward, slowly slide them onto the wet surface and position them correctly. Remove the backing and with a soft paper towel press them into the tank making sure there are no wrinkles. Done!

One last "cheat": Since many parts got nicked in the assembly process I needed to touch up the bike after assembly was done. I was too lazy to buy a new batch of paint, mix and spray it. Instead, I shipped a color sample (a metal plate I had spray painted while painting the frame) to Custom Finishes, Inc. at 5021 Highway 14 South, Brighton, TN 38011 (phone:901-476-5846,901-476-5848) and they mixed three spray cans of the olive-green paint for a total cost including shipping of around $100. I then just sprayed the nicks and polished them up. Quick and easy!

For the record the official colors are as follows as translated by Patrick Hayes from the specs shown in the first blog entry.

Super Alce (Army version) 1946-1951

Overall color: Khaki-Olive (Military green)
Fuel tank: with chromed sections, Eagle with Moto Guzzi and pinstripes in gold, black, and red.
Fenders: Eagle with Moto Guzzi and pinstripes in gold and black.
Leg Shiels: with pinstripes in gold and black.
Toolboxes: with pinstripes in gold and black.
Exhaust pipe and muffler: chromed
Rims: chromed

Super Alce 1952-1956

Overall color: Khaki-Olive (Military green)
Fuel tank: Khaki-Olive, Eagle with Moto Guzzi in gold with no pinstripes.
Fenders: Eagle with Moto Guzzi in red and pinstripes in gold and black.
Toolboxes: with pinstripes in gold and black.
Exhaust pipe and muffler: black
Rims: painted in khaki-olive
In 1955, the double muffler gave way to a more conventional single muffler.

There is a third version for the Traffic Police -"Il Carabinieri"
I do not have the official factory specs. However, I have a copy of an article from the May 2005 issue of Moto Ciclismo d'Epoca by Vittorio Crippa with color photos of a Carabinieri version. It seems to be like the army version except that the pin striping is gold and red without any black. While the color for the army verison in Mario Colombo's book is specified as dark olive-green, the color for the Carabinieri verions is light olive-green, a color that incidentally was common on a number of Lambrettas of that period. Any help here is appreciated.