What was the name of the place that gave u a quote that said they could do it, if u remember?
Thanks
Adam

I've got one! Original Fireflake Royal Blue, never painted. I was never able to find a matching set of unpainted sidepanels in good condtiion though. A couple of times I saw a single sidepanel on ebay (they bring good money), but never a matched set.

There were actually two shades of blue metalflake bodywork: Royal Blue like my tank, and Sapphire Blue on the earlier models. Royal Blue is a little darker and was produced for the 1970 through 1972 model years. Sapphire Blue was 1969 only (according to Roy Bacon).

Yes, there seems to be a lot of uncertainly on metallic blue color Commandos. My buddy who has a one owner '69 'S' swears that blue was not offered in '69. The blue and red tanks on the '69 and '70 'S' had huge metalflake in them. Of course this was gelcoat and not paint. I bought a NOS 1971 Fireflake Royal Blue Fastback tail section from the NOC spares scheme in the early '80's that was much smaller flake. We would call it metallic as opposed to metalflake. You can see it even in the '71 brochure http://www.classicbike.biz/Norton/Brochures/1970/1971Commando.pdf. Quite different from the '69-'70 stuff.

Then I bought my 750 Roadster in 1973, again it's called Fireflake blue, but is a steel tank and the color is paint. This is definitely a metallic and appears to be over a black or dark base. (Still has tthe orginal paint)

A friend bought a '74 850 Roadster in blue and it was obviously over a lighter base and had no dark flecks in it as my set does.

My point is all these were listed as Fireflake Royal blue in the parts books, but look quite different. I've never found a reference to the Sapphire Blue other than in Bacon's book.

My point is all these were listed as Fireflake Royal blue in the parts books, but look quite different. I've never found a reference to the Sapphire Blue other than in Bacon's book.

The 1969 Brochure (The norton Experience - the four fold one with a red fastback on the cover) introduces the Commando 750 'S' type and say it comes in 'Fire Flake' Red or Sapphire Blue.

The '69/70 supplement Spares list for the '69 'S' in the '68 Spares book only lists "Red" and "Blue" for the panels and the tank. That's no help.

Dave
69S

From Jim Bush's extensive treatise on the 'S'

"•1969 S colours were fire flake red, solid sapphire blue and later in fire flake blue"

Can't say I have ever seen a solid blue fiberglass tank (save for the '72 Interstate tank)

Ron L wrote:Can't say I have ever seen a solid blue fiberglass tank (save for the '72 Interstate tank)

Same here, and those were dark blue (or at least the ones I've seen were).

Thanks for posting that brochure, Ron. The blue Fastback, at least in the photo, looks a little lighter than my tank and does not appear (in the photo) to have the large metal flake like mine. The other bike I mentioned was a 69 or 70, had its original blue metalflake gelcoat, and was definitely lighter than my tank. It could have faded from being parked outside for a couple of decades, but the color looked fairly uniform.

I actually bought my tank off ebay, so I don't know what year it really is. My bike's original bodywork was orange but had been repainted black (and was bubbling due to a crack in the tank).

Debby

Thats quite interesting Ron that u have an original steel tank that came out in the metallic blue colour, i only thought it was on the fibreglass tanks, good too know, i guess it doesnt really matter what one does as even from fatory there was some differences.

Thanks

Sorry about the two button hits, old age I think and no patience.
ADAM Seymour Motorcycles Bits and Pieces Ph 0242722193 Shop 3 Fourth Ave Unanderra . He said the type of fibre glass resin he used was ok with ethanol but I would coat it with one of the products available. Search back there has been a lot of info and advice on which type of tank coatings to use. The one I used has only been in the tank for about 12 months and is still ok but some have said that as it is a hard coating it will fail at some time in the future. Time will tell.
Ian

Thanks heaps Ian i will look into it, thanks for the address!

Metal flake colours were deffernately available in steel tank and side cover models, a freind i have ridden with since the 70's still has a steel tank combat in metal flake bronze.
Al

Here is a picture of the what I call Fireflake blue from my original Apr. '69 (registered in '70) 'S'. It is the area under the tophat shaped gaskets on the rear of the panels, so it should be undisturbed for 41 years until I pulled the gasket off and made a photo of it. As you can see, it has silver flakes, black flakes and a blue base. It's the old gel coat, I don't know how they did it, but when I sand off the gel coat, the black and blue is still there, the silver seems to disappear.



Dave
69S

Thanks Dave great Pic!

This is a photo of the steel tank from my '74. Sorry but my camera was not up to a closer shot without blurring. The paint is coming off the tank so I could actually send somebody a chip of it if it would be any help.



Russ

Not the best photo, but I think you can see it is a little darker than Russ's. If you see it up close, you can see the dark specks among the mettalic (mica) flecks.

I have never seen the dark flecks in '74 paint.

Great photos!!!