The correct colour wheels?? Help Please

[Red Steve]

As some of you may know I am currently having a Pantah 600 restored for me by John Mossey Restorations based in Hertfordshire.

After having had the bike for 10 weeks now, they are about to send all the relevant bits & pieces off to paint. I have some nice pictures of the tank etc all stripped and prepped ready for the man with the spray booth to go to work.

One small issue however needs to be resolved, and that's what colour the wheels need to be painted. In all the pictures I have the wheels are gold, however the restorer has said that the original bike had silver wheels.

As the bodywork is the pale silvery blue, the silver wheels would look better in my mind, however I want an original restoration, so if the wheels were originally painted gold, then they should be in gold this time around also.

I would appreciate any thoughts comments or advice as I want to get the colour right 1st time rather than some smart Alec in 6 months time when she's ready to roll, telling me "Nice bike mate but why did you paint the wheels the wrong colour!!"

Thanks guys I know I can count on you to point me in the right direction

[Iconic944ss]

nice pics here from a previous thread:

http://www.vintagebike.co.uk/Bike%20Directories/Ducati%20Bikes/Ducati%20Index.htm

Just had a look through Ian Falloon's restoration guide (isbn 0-7603-0697-4)

Seem the very first 500's were gold wheels with polished rims, going to full gold by 1981.

FPS & Oscam wheels are mentioned for 1983 but both in gold.

There is a ;istin gof colour schemes for different year models if you'd like me to type it up for you.

Good luck - Frank

[Nigel C]

You could always ask this lot they might something about ducatis :)

http://www.ducati.com/heritage/museo/introduzione.jhtml

[Red Steve]

Just sent the question to the factory. Didn't know they provided that service.

Cheers

[Henners]

Always found them extremely helpful as is DUK Steve - Good Luck with the restoration.

[KeefyB]

Seem the very first 500's were gold wheels with polished rims, going to full gold by 1981.

FPS & Oscam wheels are mentioned for 1983 but both in gold.

Frank is correct.
It was only the TL version that had silver wheels.(Oh yeah and the Cagiva Allazzurra.)

[Red Steve]

Appreciate help on this. Everything thats been said backs up all my research, but just wanted to make sure. I will wait to see what the factory say as I've given them the frame & engine numbers.

Have a lot of before and now "during" restoration pictures. Having trouble putting them on a thread as keep being told they are too large. If anyone can give me an idiots guide on how to attach I will put a few of the more interesting ones on.

[Iconic944ss]

Nice to get something right for a change ;)

We love pics; especially a Duke being made glorious once more.

As for sending them here - one way is to use the image resizer and follow the requirements here:

http://www.ducatisportingclub.com/faq.php?faq=galleryhead#faq_new_faq_item42

(Seems the max size is actually 146.5Kb and 800 x 600 pixels)

A better way is to sign up for a website where you can store images and link them to a post.

One provider is imageshack:

http://imageshack.us/

another I like is Esnips:

http://www.esnips.com/signin/index.jsp

Both of these have variation of image resizer within up obviously send a smaller file to them in the first place is faster.

Once you know the link URL of your image just enclose it in the code within the square brackets as shown below:

http://www.esnips.com/imageable/medium/afa9eb5d-a0d7-48a3-abad-f2b92f8d51be(etc) (http://www.esnips.com/imageable/medium/afa9eb5d-a0d7-48a3-abad-f2b92f8d51be)

will result in a brace of 888's being shown:

http://www.esnips.com/imageable/medium/afa9eb5d-a0d7-48a3-abad-f2b92f8d51be

Good luck - Frank