Leave rusty or paint it?

[kensmurray]

My son wants me to paint the rusty headlight on my Jetflow. He thinks the brown rust dosen't go with the bike. The bike is ruff so I don't see a problem with the rusty light. Other than the springer nothing else on the frame has been repainted. If I do repaint the light it will be painted red like the tips of the forks. The light didn't originally come off a Jetflow so it has white paint showing through the rust instead of red paint, thats the only reason I would repaint since it wasn't originally red.
What do ya'll think? leave or paint :?:
Kenny

 

[62hotrod]

that's a toss, up it don't look bad now but if you do paint you can stress it a bit to blend in

 

[Mad Scientist]

Agreed. I think it would look cool with an aged red paint job.

 

[kensmurray]

what would be a good way to stress the new paint?

 

[the_undecider]

I say leave it. Real patina rocks and the rust matches the saddle.

 

[CRASH]

Leave it. I've seen guys stree/age paint with a blow torch and sand paper. But you'll never get that patina back if you don't like it.

 

[Houndog]

Paint it red then age it,only because I have a beehive for my JetFlow that needs painted, and I want to see how yours comes out and how you do it...

 

[mitchelangelo]

I would just knock off some of the heavy orange rust with some 000 or 0000 steel wool and let it ride. Will still show pitting and rust and match the patina of the bike better. Just a suggestion.

 

[dougfisk]

paint it - nothing to lose

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Personally I'd paint the housing black and age it to match the frame.

 

[ozzmonaut]

I'd paint it red right over the rust. Then wet sand it with very very fine paper. The red will be removed from the highest rust patches first, giving you a red light with rust coming through.

 

[Hay Burner]

Personally I'd paint the housing black and age it to match the frame.

This x2 or just leave it alone and paint the kid.

 

[Bikeguy7497]

I like it. If it ain't broke don't fix it

 

[Craiggo]

paint it - nothing to lose

...besides decades of real patina. You can't buy that off a shelf in a hardware store.

 

[iven]

paint it - nothing to lose

...besides decades of real patina. You can't buy that off a shelf in a hardware store.

but if you repaint it, you over the years make your own Patina and instead of riding around that ole sole bike, you now will have a story and memory of the scratches,goudges dents,dings and all other sorts of damage and rust will be from your bikes second or maybe third life that you now have accquired it in..

but then again all back to personal prefence.. i say paint.. not enough Patina to really loook great so do her up in a fantasy dress up in a new coat of paint :mrgreen:

 

[kensmurray]

ozzmonaut I took your idea, I skuffed the light with white scotchbrite, just enough for the paint to stick and panted it red. Then used white scotchbrite and NU-Finish Scratch Doctor and started rubbing until enough rust came to the surface for the look I wanted.
Thanks guys for all the replies.
Kenny

 

[Craiggo]

paint it - nothing to lose

...besides decades of real patina. You can't buy that off a shelf in a hardware store.

but if you repaint it, you over the years make your own Patina and instead of riding around that ole sole bike, you now will have a story and memory of the scratches,goudges dents,dings and all other sorts of damage and rust will be from your bikes second or maybe third life that you now have accquired it in..

but then again all back to personal prefence.. i say paint.. not enough Patina to really loook great so do her up in a fantasy dress up in a new coat of paint :mrgreen:

I guess all I was doing was trying to create controversy. I really like how it turned out though!

 

[kensmurray]

I didn't want to repaint, if it would have been red originally I would have never painted it. But I'm really pleased with the outcome.
Kenny

 

[outskirtscustoms]

looks great. I think i like the red better than black now that i see it on the bike.

 

[kensmurray]

Thanks, man. I picked up a horn a few days ago. Last night I wired the headlight into the tank, and mounted the working horn into the tank also. It's neat to have everything working like it did back in the day.
Kenny