Suggest a silver touch-up paint for XTR hub?
 

Hey folks. I've just found that the silver paint on the rear hub on my 3000 mile XTR is flaking. Unfortunately I'm 2 weeks out of warranty, and I don't see Yamaha doing anything about the hub when there would be extra costs associated with a spoked wheel. So, I'm looking for some silver touch-up paint. Does anyone have any experience with a good match? I'm guessing it'll need to be solvent based as it won't be lacquered. Most small touch-up pots these days are water-based and will not last. Anyone got any good ideas?

No paint yet. I went to a paint specialist and they basically warned that nothing was going to stick properly as the hub wasn't primed/prepped. So I went over to my Yamaha dealer and showed him the flaking. He confirmed that the Italian-made bikes are painted straight onto the cast metal, and that flaking happens. He then called Yamaha Warranty who said that with me being a 2nd owner, despite the bike having less than 3000 miles, they wouldn't be prepared to address cosmetic issues as they don't know how the 1st owner treated the bike.

So ... I'm going back to the paint shop tomorrow to get some paint, will spray it straight onto the metal as Yamaha did, and we'll see what happens. I'll try to post a pic or two, and if the match is OK, I'll post a colour reference too.

Perhaps a coat of etch primer first would help it to stick?

Yeah, that's a good idea. I think I'll give it a spray of paint and see how it goes. Plan B would be the primer.

Thinking about it, my favoured plan now would be to patch it and wait 12 months or so and then get the wheels rebuilt with stainless spokes, and get the hubs blasted and powder coated at that time.

Have to say, it's a bit of a negative on the bike and my first disappointment.

I have an XTX and it happened when I used tape to hold together the cush/hub during assembly - when I peeled off the tape, the silver paint went with it. Word of warning: the same silver paint is used on parts of the engine - at least on the left side - but instead of raw aluminium, it's the (slightly darker) paint used on the rest of the engine. I was able to blend it in, so it looked alright.
I use a barrier coat (silicone oil) to make the engine easier to clean. I tried WD40's silicone oil but quickly learned that it has citrus oil too - which stripped the lighter silver topcoat.

OK, I got some paint and the colour match is great. The only thing that wasn't spot on was that I guessed at matt, but at some angles it looks like a satin (if it's available) or maybe even a gloss would have been better.

Here's the stuff.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...0/IMAG0134.jpg

I think it was about �8.50 for the can. The supplier is on the label.

Too early to say whether it'll stay on through one wash without etch primer, but colour-wise I recommend it. I sprayed one patch the size of a halfpenny, and dabbed a few spots with a cotton bud. Both matched well enough to not be noticed if you didn't know they were there.