1966 XLCH paint

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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby spacecoast » Sun Jan 19, 2020 8:44 am

Thanks Mag-man, would it have been white with a specific color added afterwards? Color being black, green, red etc.. I would think from a production point that would be the case but logic doesn't always apply with Harley.
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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby raleypc » Sun Jan 19, 2020 10:04 am

In my experience in appears that the white panels, stripes, etc., were always added on top of the base color.
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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby spacecoast » Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:01 am

Thanks Raley. Now comes what paint?
I've read several posts with guy's saying they base/clear, here's a post on frames for instance. -

https://www.harleykmodel.com/phpBB3/vie ... aint#p6545

I don't think Harley did this, but I've been wrong before.

I hope I'm not hijacking your thread Otis, hoping the added info will help those in the future.
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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby Magneto Sportster » Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:49 am

I just confirmed with a friend who has an original paint 1959 XLCH (black/white) that the white panel is painted on top of the black, which is the main color. I have been collecting data on this from original paint bikes lately, and so far it confirms what Paul said above - the white panel is always painted on top of the main color.

As for type of paint, Harley used baking enamel. I don't think that even exists anymore. I have used base coat/ clear coat on bikes and it looks good, but not like they did when new in the 50s and 60s. They paint from the factory went on much, much thinner.
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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby spacecoast » Mon Jan 20, 2020 8:35 am

Thanks Mag, Paul.
Enamel was my guess.
As for the "baked" enamel, It's just the curing process as I understand it. If they didn't bake the enamel it would have taken half a year to cure fully. Till that enamel cures it's rather soft.
Can you imagine the touch ups that would have been necessary after shipping them uncured?

All great info gentlemen.
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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby wz507 » Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:25 am

Although the factory finish was baked enamel, for the obvious reason of obtaining a finished handleable part directly from the paint production line, HD also offered most of their colors in an air-dry enamel that was a highly-catalyzed fast-curing enamel for aftermarket and touch-up use.

Would be interesting to know which paint product was employed when applying the "blaze", "flash", "2nd color" or whatever we want to refer to it as, over the baked enamel base color. Was it also a baking enamel or was the 2nd color a quick curing air-dry paint applied to the masked tank, then racked and allowed to cure for a shift before it was ready to handle? If not, the masked tank and tape would have been run through the cure oven and I'm wondering if the masking procedure and products of that era (1950's) would have been up to the task of surviving the baking ovens and providing the clean edges we see in the final product?

There were obviously many paint-related technology changes occurring from the early '50's to the late '60's (decal stripes for the '68 XLs) so would be interesting to hear more from anyone with knowledge of the of the paint lines, processes and procedures employed at Harley over the K/XL production years up through 1969. Thank you.

Paint images courtesy of fiftysevenXL and Starcain

LR HD air-dry enamel.jpg
LR HD air-dry enamel.jpg (65.43 KiB) Viewed 8148 times
LR HD air-dry enamel cure time.jpg
LR HD air-dry enamel cure time.jpg (61.25 KiB) Viewed 8148 times
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Re: 1966 XLCH paint

Postby spacecoast » Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:22 am

"be interesting to know which paint product was employed when applying the "blaze", "flash", "2nd color" or whatever we want to refer to it as, over the baked enamel base color. Was it also a baking enamel or was the 2nd color a quick curing air-dry paint applied to the masked tank, then racked and allowed to cure for a shift before it was ready to handle? If not, the masked tank and tape would have been run through the cure oven and I'm wondering if the masking procedure and products of that era (1950's) would have been up to the task of surviving the baking ovens and providing the clean edges we see in the final product?"

All good questions. We need to consult with the "elders".
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