2017 Yamaha Touch Up Paint (3 OEM Colors)

The 2017 Yamaha Vibe

By 2017, Yamaha had fully embraced the "Dark Side of Japan" aesthetic, flooding the streets with the MT-series and keeping the cruiser crowd happy with the refined Bolt. It was a year of moody, sophisticated finishes. We've focused our collection on the true survivors of that season, like the deep, soulful Black Cherry and the gritty Sandstone Metallic. And, of course, there's Raven (DBC 906478)-the kind of black that looks like a midnight oil slick when it's clean but demands a dedicated relationship with a microfiber cloth.

Paint Health Check

Welcome to the Thin Paint Era. By 2017, the factory robots had mastered the art of "lean efficiency," which is a fancy way of saying they applied the absolute bare minimum of paint required to make the bike look good on a showroom floor. It looks sharp, but it's fragile. The clear coat on these 2017 models is often thinner than a politician's promise, making them incredibly prone to "Robot Efficiency" syndrome-where a single loose pebble on the freeway can punch right through to the primer. If you're seeing small, sharp-edged pits on the tank or the leading edges of your fairings, you're looking at standard factory-thin chipping.

Restoration Tip

Because 2017 factory paint is applied so thin, your biggest enemy is the "blob." When you're filling in those chips, don't try to fix it in one heavy-handed go. Build your layers slowly. Since the surrounding factory paint has no depth to hide your mistakes, you want to apply the paint in thin, patient passes, letting it flash off between applications. If you over-apply and try to sand it back, you'll burn through that paper-thin factory clear coat before you even realize it. Take your time, build the level up to match the surface, and give those robots a lesson in how paint coverage is actually supposed to look.