A common misconception exists concerning motor vehicle paint. It is widely held that the color codes found on the ID tags of countless car bodies since the 1930s can be taken to any auto paint jobber and that he can from that number mix a perfectly matching batch of paint. Unfortunately, it isn't usually that simple. In the first place, the paint which manufacturers spray on their vehicles is not available for retail sale. During manufacture, agents from Dupont and PPG come to the factory and take samples of finished bodies to analyze at their facilities. They then formulate replacement paint based on those samples. But this paint doesn't always match what the factory sprayed on the vehicle, for a number of reasons. As already emphasized, it isn't the same paint, for one thing. For another, manufacturers have more than one assembly plant in most cases, and samples are usually taken from just one run at one plant. Furthermore, all painted finishes begin degrading, color-wise (and candies such as Honda's 70s finishes the fastest), and this means that the samples taken by the paint jobbers vary considerably from the paint on our vehicles within just a few months. Add to this variables in application technique, humidity and material reduction (how and how much the paint is thinned), and the result is that color matching for repair and restorative purposes is more art than science.

The paint situation with Honda motorcycles is even more complicated. To begin with, as is the case with most motorcycles, after-the-sale paint availability has been spotty at best, with such availability having taken three different forms during the company's history. The first time, during the 60s, American Honda sold a small (about 3 oz.) can of Japanese-labeled touch-up paint; the same container came in the crate with 750s. This was the only time factory paint was available to the public. The second time Honda got involved with paint was during the 70s, when American Honda formally endorsed the product of an American aftermarket lubricants company called Lubritech, whose fork oil was specified by Ceriani in its early forks. Lubritech, much the way Dupont and PPG do today with cars, matched the factory paints for most manufacturers during that early (70s) period. The third time was in 1982, when Honda again, as in the 70s, took to selling paint themselves. This time however the paint was not its own, but the product of the Los Angeles-based paint jobber Original Brands (who simultaneously sold the same paint direct to the consumer). This paint was matched to Honda's then new automotive-type color code system. Within a very short time, Original Brands was sold to or became Color Rite, who currently maintains matching paint for most motorcycles, including Hondas, made from 1982 onward.