Giant horse genetalia notwithstanding, I would have to agree that gold is ugly. I originally thought about going silver too, but original would be nice. The bike needs a paint job-the tank is brown and all scratched up, the sidecovers are black and one is scratched up (I had to scrounge these as the bike came with none). I was thinking of restoring the paint to 78' black and blue spec. cause I like the way they look. I am however broke. Perhaps I'll buy a second set later to do nice and I'll just fizz can these the best I can so I'm not riding a brown bike with gold emblems. Sorry Soichiro, It looks like Donald Trump came up with this color scheme.
Some suggestions:
I have used the hobbystore silver leaf and for plastic it works top notch (better than the plastic plating process). Are your 550 emblems plastic or metal (my cb750 ones are plastic). Got the whole kit for $5 to do silver, chome and gold at michaels. the also have a leaf that does antique bronze.
On my father's 1979 DOHC cb750F we decided to take a different route. We sandblasted the metal honda emblems, and then sprayed them with eastwoods rallye wheel paint dark charcoal. The effect was a flat metallic finish (we didn't use the suggested clear over it we liked the flat too much) with some nice texture. The bike is silver so these dark emblems (and gas cap) really stand out and give an edge to the look of the bike without looking sloppy. Eastwood also makes a sliver that would give a same effect thouhg I recomend using a semigloss over it and you will end up with a finish similar to the silver plastic in most new cars.
Go to the spray paint section of home depot. there you can get anything from antiqued sprays to hammered finishes and even crackle finishes.
remember texture can make a big difference in the look, for example a shiny all black bike would look sick with flat black (or charcoal) emblems. sublte color differences can also help (like black with navy blue emblmes or vice versa). As long as you are going to do custom paint really think it through, the best paint jobs are totally custom but professional enough to have someone say "is that the stock paint?".
