Tank Stripes Painted vs Decal

[EMS]

I always wanted to know, whether it would be better to have the pinstripes painted or apply decals

[daves79x]

Never saw that before Mike! Thanks so much for posting it.

Dave

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Thanks, Mike.
Although i do have one of those nos '80 tanks with the incorrect spacing.
I did read somewhere, it may have been here, that some of the late replacement tanks had come that way.

[EMS]

I believe that

[Jeff Bennetts]

I bought two of the incorrectly stripped tanks back in the mid 90’s, James Elliott brought six of them to one of the Mid-Ohio Vintage Days ICOA CBX Rallies. I bought two, Paul Jasovsky bought two and Ed Perkins bought one or two IIRC. All of them were in sealed Honda Boxes, I opened one box and we all inspected the tank before buying them, the foil seal on the tank filler was intact, there were no signs of a repaint the only anomaly was the stripes touching. It didn’t bother any of us and James sold all six of them that day.

I didn’t then and I don’t believe now that there was some kind of conspiracy that some individual out there procured six genuine Honda tank cartons and then repainted six tanks that were spotless inside and out just to make a couple hundred bucks, if that, it doesn’t make economic sense. Dave and Rick were at that rally, they had the same opportunity as I did to buy a tank.

Knowing James Elliott may shed some light on the subject, he had Honda dealer contacts in Canada, James could search the Canadian parts database and know when NLA and back ordered parts would become available. For long periods of time a part would come back as NLA through the Honda Parts system, then the next time you checked you could by multiples of said part, check again a month later and those same parts would be NLA again. James made a small cottage business by doing this!

I bought one CGR tank and one PS tank, I sold the CGR tank but I still have the PS tank, still in the box tucked away.

[wyly]

I came across what was claimed to be an un-restored Euro model Silver '79 like that. One of my CBX buddies and I both came to the conclusion the bike had been restored at some point there were too many other discrepancies. We concluded the tank was probably repainted as it was missing the rubber bumpers and the stripes were touching but if it's like what you have it may have been a replacement tank. The "Honda" plate on the tank was also missing the cross hatch pattern.

[EMS]

Sometimes you can never tell

[CBX-tras]

I came across what was claimed to be an un-restored Euro model Silver '79 like that. One of my CBX buddies and I both came to the conclusion the bike had been restored at some point there were too many other discrepancies. We concluded the tank was probably repainted as it was missing the rubber bumpers and the stripes were touching but if it's like what you have it may have been a replacement tank. The "Honda" plate on the tank was also missing the cross hatch pattern.

Just as the petcock doesn't come with a "service part" tank, the rubber bumpers and emblems don't either.
I too bought a CGR tank recently that had the stripes touching at the front. Apparently, this was only on replacement tanks, not on an original, newly delivered bike.

Frankly, I would prefer that the stripes touch, as if an actual pinstriper would have done it. Not just slap some tape stripes on.

Here's how Royal Enfield does it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsTIMxeO_ng

[wyly]

That would appear to confirm the bike I viewed was restored at some point, not with new paint but a replacement tank. Then the emblems, bumpers and stripe spacing becomes an issue for the concours guys, is it legit or not.

As far the stripe spacing, who made that decision to have the stripes touch, was it done at a different factory? Back in the day I'm sure they weren't thinking 40 years later this would be a topic of debate among vintage owners.

[Jeff Bennetts]

That would appear to confirm the bike I viewed was restored at some point, not with new paint but a replacement tank. Then the emblems, bumpers and stripe spacing becomes an issue for the concours guys, is it legit or not.

As far the stripe spacing, who made that decision to have the stripes touch, was it done at a different factory? Back in the day I'm sure they weren't thinking 40 years later this would be a topic of debate among vintage owners.

Emblems, bumpers(if they were still intact), fuel tap, cap and lock would have been swapped off the original tank, so a replacement tank doesn’t automatically disqualify the rest of the parts as original.

From what I was told, the later replacement tanks were outsourced. I have no facts to back that up with!

[wyly]

All true. But the stripe would still be a give away that the tank has been replaced.

Does any of it matter, maybe only to concours people, to me only as far as what the seller claims. If the seller was claiming it is as it left the factory floor with a price to match then it's a problem.

[CBX-tras]

"Correct"or not, I'd rather have a replacement tank where the stripes met than have an original rusted one with a questionable inner coating, any day.

[hondaman160mph]

"Correct"or not, I'd rather have a replacement tank where the stripes met than have an original rusted one with a questionable inner coating, any day.

I agree and "correct" or not I'd take pinstripes done by a
Pinstriper over a decal.

[EMS]

Have you ever had any pinstriper do a double pinstripe, like on the CBX, the size, like on the CBX, on any bike?

[hondaman160mph]

Monty Roach did a single line pinstripe around a scallop paint job I did on my cb450 and charged 75.00. I don't know what a double line pinstripe on
a CBX would cost but he would be happy to give you a quote. https://monteroach.com/