Midnight Special "Black Chrome"

[Geezer]

Originally posted by Pat Kelly
Just plain glossy black on the tank, sidecovers, and fenders.

This jives with what I remember from working in a Yamaha dealership in the early 80's. The black specials had a clear coat with a little gold and a few red and blue flakes mixed in but the midnights were pure black.

I've never owned a midnight because the special riding position kills my back. I'm still planning on building a midnight standard XS11 that Yamaha should have made...

Tony

[Pat Kelly]

That's why I swapped the buchorns:


to superbike bars:

[dewibp]

Pat, what does your generator cover look like? Do you have/take a picture of it for me? I am still trying to decide if my brand spankin new cover is the right one or not. thanks in advance dew

[cajun31]

Pat,

That is a very clean 80 model. Kudos!

[Pat Kelly]

Scratched on the bottom frm a PO.

Thanks for the compliment. It looks much nicer in photos than IRL. That's why the 'frame-up' detailing is planned for (hopefully) this winter.

[cajun31]

Have you been able to locate the Nebula Gold paint? I found a source for the New Yamaha Black but never could find the gold. I went with a GM gold metalic paint that was very close. It was a base coat and I finished it with a clear coat. The finish was came out glossy but was actually better looking then the original. I would still lie to find the Nebula though just to bring it back to original. I too plan to bring mine back to the frame and work from the bottom up. No plans to rebuild the engine as mine only has 10000 original miles on it. For some reason I am never able to ride. I live seperated from by bikes. By choice and career. I only get to ride about 5 or six times a year.

[rustybones49801]

So, has anybody tried any of the high temp engine enamel for the header pipes? Or glossy stove black? anything would look better than the black rusty color I have now........

[dewibp]

Well a year has come and gone rebuilding the 80 MNS to a runnable condition. I am now to the point of doing the cosmetic things to make the gold trim look better. Last Friday I loaded up my grab bar, carb diaghram covers and gas tank lid and hauled them to Omaha to have them replated. In 3 weeks I will be able to tell you if it was worth $160 to have them copper plated and then coated with a clear cote substance. I thought the copper looked closer than the gold plating so that is what I went with. I will post before and after pictures when I get them back later this month. I willl also have the tank and side covers repainted with stock black (no gold flake) paint sometime this week.

[crazypainter]

I heard industrial was way backed up 3 week turn around isn't that bad. I need to ge some gold redone on my MNS so i'm interested to hear how it comes out as well

[HobbyMan]

Interesting.. On the subject of rechroming old exhausts, I just talked to a guy that said he does them all. He strips evetything down to the bare steel and polishes it. He does some kind of plate before the chrome goes on. THen he puts the chrome on and its done. He mainly does bumpers but he might do black chrome. He said that used pipes were fine. He either seals them up so that the carbon can't mix with the solution or he cleans them before he chromes them.

[mro]

He does some kind of plate before the chrome goes on.

Generally nickel before chrome.

Have looked into having a set of standard pipes re-chromed. Guy estimated 2 to $250.00


mro

[dewibp]

They also use copper as a base before adding the chrome.

[dewibp]

Well I just received my "brass plated" MNS parts back from the chrome shop. I decided at the last minute to go with brass as upposed to gold as it looked closer to what was original. Very pleased with the outcome and will post some before and after pictures this weekend. To keep the brass from tarnishing he sealed with a clear clear coat sealer. With the way the gas tank lid, carb covers and grab bar turned out I will be removing the top and bottom trim pieces off the carb inlet box to be done next.

[GtrMn]

Just found this post...did you ever take pictures? Would love to see the outcome.

[Hammerhead1st]

yeah come on, stop teasing!