Seeking Correct Black and gold Roadster paint work

Seeking factory correct black and gold 850 Roadster paint work. Not over restored. No clearcoat(from the factory,as far as I know) , using correct hand pinstriping with the correct gold color. Also with correct gold and black lined fuel tank decals. Is there any restorers in the states that can achieve that? Sorry about the wax build up on the edge of the original sticker

The stick on vinyl logos are pretty depressing but they are original.
I hate to put them on a new paint job despite the originality routine.
Painted on are so much nicer.
Ah well, original is only original once.

Onder said:

The stick on vinyl logos are pretty depressing but they are original.
I hate to put them on a new paint job despite the originality routine.
Painted on are so much nicer.
Ah well, original is only original once.

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I like my Nortons as well as my Interceptors as original as possible! Warts and all

I would like to find a painter that could reproduce the warts

Brent Budgor, on this forum. Look in the "For Sale" section...

I'll give him a call and see what he says. The photos on his website do not have the original decal shown. Beautiful work.

Called Brent , nice guy and will try to work with me on anything that I would like to achieve

He has done tanks for me, nice work. However, as far as I know , he doesnt do
hand pin stripes.
Now the real question is are the ones on the 850s done by hand or done by hand
with a mask of some kind? The ones on my side covers look hand done ie free hand.

The original pin stripes I have on my Roadster tank are hand painted free hand and vary in width as they progress.







Not sure you could get someone who prides his work to match that

yea, the factory hand pin stripes will be hard to replicate.

The slash or angle of the two pins meeting is correct.

I had my tanks and side covers painted by Russ Foy at http://www.customclassicpaintworks.com/. He is located in Washington State and has a great reputation. From what I've been told he doesn't hand stripe the tank himself but has guy that comes in and does all of the pin stripping for him. I'm pleased with the work that he has done for me and I'm kinda picky.

thanks, good to know, everyone please take a sec to participate in my poll at the beginning of the thread.

I voted "no" because I've never seen that black-bordered sticker before on anything. I have some gold-bordered black ones and I've seen those a few times.

I looked at old pictures of previous 73 850's that I have owned that still had the original paint when I bought them. None of them had the black trimmed Norton logo. Two of the bikes were metal flake blue and the third was a black Interstate. Not the exact color/model that you've inquired about but I can't see the factory having different logo decals. My current ride is also a 73 but had a repaint when I bought it so I haven't included it. Even my 73 750 had the borderless logo. I have to now change my vote from not sure to no.

Is the original sticker gold printed on a transparent vinyl backing?

you could ask your painter to do a straight black tank and source the stickers yourself. A custom coachlining guy should be able to sort the pinstripes.
Not sure if those exact stickers are still available; I believe the current A-N ones are gold vinyl, similar to kommando's but as usual, I'll stand to be corrected
I've peeled a few like those off original tanks before, but only saw one tank with stickers like yours. the were transparent and I assumed they were aftermarket - no reason... just assumed

B+Bogus said:

Is the original sticker gold printed on a transparent vinyl backing?

you could ask your painter to do a straight black tank and source the stickers yourself. A custom coachlining guy should be able to sort the pinstripes.
Not sure if those exact stickers are still available; I believe the current A-N ones are gold vinyl, similar to kommando's but as usual, I'll stand to be corrected
I've peeled a few like those off original tanks before, but only saw one tank with stickers like yours. the were transparent and I assumed they were aftermarket - no reason... just assumed

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It just might be, the edge appears to be black, but the black paint might be showing through the clear. I just sold another black Roadster with the exact same paint work, so two alike makes a consensus ? And I swear I saw a original black roadster at Barbers at Turn Six, this year with the same treatment , anyone know about that one?

My own experience with my '73 750 (MkV)is that it came with the black trimmed one-piece tank decal. The side covers were similarly black trimmed and one-piece. However, my side cover decals soon began to peel away. When I went to my dealer for new ones, I was told that only the new, improved die-cut decals were available. These were single color gold with no border. By now, the 850's were in the dealership (Competition Accessories in Xenia, Oh) and all of them had the die-cut logos. I purchased the solid gold side cover logos and they have been on for the last forty plus years. I finally located some old stock one piece ones, but have filed them away and never installed them.

The '73 850 brochure and the '73 750 brochure show only the die cut, single color logos. The last parts book to show the one-piece black trimmed logo is the 1972 book. However, the 1972 brochure shows the black trimmed gold logo on the blue tanks but a solid gold on the black tank (and solid black on the yellow).

I personally have never seen an 850 with anything but single color die-cut logos, I've never seen black trimmed on a black tank. This does not mean that there were never any that came that way, but if it did it is unusual.

jimbo said:

Seeking factory correct black and gold 850 Roadster paint work. Not over restored. No clearcoat(from the factory,as far as I know) , using correct hand pinstriping with the correct gold color. Also with correct gold and black lined fuel tank decals. Is there any restorers in the states that can achieve that? Sorry about the wax build up on the edge of the original stickerView attachment 3305

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The original gold with black surround decal like you are showing are pretty hard to find. Bob Raber in San Jose got several sets from a close shop in The middle eas. I got two sets from him about 15 years ago. Really thick and difficult to apply. The vinyl type are much nicer and easier to apply. I have seen vinyl gold with black surround. Keep looking.q

IMG_3339 by swooshdave, on Flickr

I left the link to Flickr as the original photo is much larger. This is an original paint 1973 Interstate.

swooshdave said:

IMG_3339 by swooshdave, on Flickr

I left the link to Flickr as the original photo is much larger. This is an original paint 1973 Interstate.

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sure does look like the two original ones I had and have