What to look out for

WHO DID IT? Dream Machine are well up there in the top of the list of firms that repaint motorcycles. Over the years there’s been no end of contenders, with firms like Mirage, Kinetic Art, Esoteric and KAS Racepaint being no strangers to topping off a fancy special with eye-catching paint back in the day. Good paint also costs big money, and you get what you pay for.

WHAT’S UNDER THE PAINT? It would be a waste to put an expensive paint job on to cheapo fibreglass fairing panels. Even worse, imagine respraying a tank which isn’t fuel tight due to rot. Always look beyond the posh paint. IS IT KOSHER? Many bikes are resprayed because they’ve been involved in an accident. Until the insurance industry upped its game and started making it easier to check via HPI, if a bike had been up a tree before a respray, you had no real clues. Many 1970s, 1980s and 1990s bikes will have been rebuilt from wrecks that were crashed. So, always check why the bike is sporting a fresh coat of paint and/or frame protectors.

FANCY A CHINESE? Pre-painted body kits from the Far East are growing in popularity, fuelled by an improvement in quality over recent years. There’s a massive range on the internet, mostly for 1990s race-replica machines. For less than the price of a professional respray you get a full set of clothes for your CBR-GSX-R, ZXR, etc. Many even include a plastic tank cover to finish the transformation. Despite the progress in quality, they will not be up to Japanese production techniques, but thanks to price and variety, they are a serious option.