1978 Honda-Motorcycle Touch Up Paint (1 OEM Colors)

The 1978 Honda-Motorcycle Vibe

Welcome to 1978, the year the CB750 was the undisputed king of the sidewalk and the first-generation Gold Wing GL1000 was rewriting what a touring bike could be. It was an era of heavy chrome, analog throttles, and a "go anywhere" attitude. While the rest of the world was getting lost in a sea of harvest gold and burnt orange, we've tracked down the real survivor from this year: Black. Back then, if you weren't rocking a candy-flake finish that cost more than the bike itself, you went with the high-gloss black-the only color that ever really mattered for a street-tough Honda.

Paint Health Check

Your 1978 Honda belongs to the Single Stage Era. This means there isn't a clear coat protecting that pigment; the color and the shine are mixed into one heavy-duty layer of acrylic enamel or lacquer. The good news? You'll never have to deal with that ugly peeling or "delamination" seen on bikes from the '90s. The bad news? Oxidation. If your bike has been sitting out, that deep black has likely turned into a chalky, matte grey. This paint is alive, and it breathes-meaning the sun literally bakes the oils out of the finish until it looks more like a chalkboard than a motorcycle tank.

Restoration Tip

Because this is single-stage paint, you can actually "shave" off the dead layers to find the glory underneath. Use a medium-cut rubbing compound to strip away the white oxidation, but be careful on the tank's edges-that factory paint is thick, but forty years of polishing can make it thin. Once you get that mirror-black reflection back, here is the golden rule for 1978: It needs wax or it dies. Without a modern solvent-based wax or sealant to replace those lost oils, the air will turn it chalky again before the next season starts. Feed the paint, and it'll keep looking like it just rolled out of the showroom.