I posted this years ago on TOB, just needed to reference it and thought it would be handy info to have over here:

Quote from: me circa 2007I bought a red seat cowl off of fleaBay a few weeks ago to put on my 695 Dark. It was obviously going to need paint.

Dark owners looking for a 9/10 paint match for Dark paint, use Duplicolor Perfect Match BUN0090 - Universal Blk Metallic. The metallic isn't a perfect match (the flake is a little larger), but the seat cowl looks perfect to everyone other than the most critical person.

I used 600 grit sandpaper (dry) to knock the gloss off the red paint, hit it with Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter (use their Self-Etching Primer for metal), a few coats of sandable black primer, hit that with some high grit (wet), then finished it off with the BUN0090.

The sun exaggerates the color difference a bit, but the match is VERY close. Maybe not a solution for parts that are right next to a factory Dark part, but the only people that noticed on mine were people that I pointed it out to.

Duplicolor Cowl


Dark Tank - You can see, not a perfect match, but DAMN close.


A few shots of the bike from various angles...

Update: Valspar Satin Clear which is available at Lowe's is the PERFECT finish for Dark paint matching. It applies very easily and uniformly.




Side note - it's amazing to look at old pics of my bike. I barely recognize it.

nice...   as another reference, the harley davidson Black Denim spray cans is pretty good too.  It's expensive, but it's good paint.  I only know because my other bike is a harley in black denim and I've rattlecanned some stuff on it. 

That's pretty close. To the casual eye, one might not even notice the difference.

Yeah, it isn't perfect enough to paint a part that will be adjacent to a factory part, but for a $6 rattle can job, it works.

Great to know, was wanting to put a cowl on my Dark and wondering about some cheap alternatives for the paint.  Thanks!   

May have found the missing link... Valspar Satin Clear is drying with a similar gloss as Dark... pics once it cures.

Quote from: Artful on January 08, 2011, 12:39:31 PM
May have found the missing link... Valspar Satin Clear is drying with a similar gloss as Dark... pics once it cures.

Another good source for rattle cans are the automotive paint supply shop.  You can give them anything to match to and they put the actual automotive whatever brand you want in a spray can.  Cost a bit more but it is premium auto paint.  Or at least you can at my local shop.

Quote from: BoDiddley on January 08, 2011, 09:31:15 PM
Another good source for rattle cans are the automotive paint supply shop.  You can give them anything to match to and they put the actual automotive whatever brand you want in a spray can.  Cost a bit more but it is premium auto paint.  Or at least you can at my local shop.

Mmmm...  I'll have to check that out.

did it cure yet?  Waiting to see the final pics.  I have an original "dark" seat cowl, but my tank has been resprayed in the past by the prev. owner and its not quite the right shade.  Looks a little too glossy.   The dark paint seems a little more matte in sheen.  I might just send the tank and seat cowl to get repainted and maybe do a color change.

Honestly I'd call it a 98% match. It's slightly 'more dark' than Dark but the gloss is absolutely spot on. I had work done yesterday by a long-time Ducati tech and he thought it was factory paint.

I can't speak professionally about the quality of the Duplicolor paint, but the seat cowl was painted four years ago and it hadn't faded a bit and any scratches that were on it would have been on a factory paint job as well. The Valspar clear seems very hard and dries extremely uniformly.

Here is my windscreen painted with this process, which was the reason I had to look up the old thread to begin with. Hope it helps plenty of folks out.

Finally fixed my horribly faded SSR gas cap last night. It started anondized black, then in seven days faded to orange. Seven friggin days. SSR's response was "well, you could get it re-anonidzed somewhere locally". Awesome customer service guys, just awesome... yeesh.

So I painted it. This should give you an idea just how close a match this is. Painted the surround silver then shot it with the satin clear to match the gloss.

I'm so glad i found this thread, landed a cheap-o fiberglass cowl on ebay and figured i'd paint it to match my 620 Dark, did the BUN0090 thing (btw, don't remove the little white bit on the spray can nozzle thinking it's just a cap and spray without it, that makes a bloody mess).

Here's my cowl result, only did 2 coats (not counting wiping off the original runny mess and re-sanding down) and don't plan on clear coating since it'll get stickered soon enough after it gets a chance to cure (I figure a couple weeks?). It's way better than I ever expected I'd achieve 

Anyway as gratitude to OP I'll throw pics. Thanks again Artful!

No sweat, glad I could help 

Really have been looking for a spray paint that would be close to the real Dark and you guys found it. Now I just have to figure out how I can find a can in Finland.