FB yes it is possible do only paint part of the fender and have it blended in. But for something like you want to do your better off painting the whole fender. Thats the nice thing about keeping the stock paint. You get a custom looking color while the dependabilty that it will stand up over time. Should be no problem to match your stock paint FB.

Even if the color is a little off it would be hard to notice because of the distance from the gas tank and other tins. You may already have a difference between your hard bags and rear fender. No ones fault its just some parts get paint at differnt times during the build process. Sometimes surface differences and material will create tone differences. Look at urethene car bumpers comon problem on them. Happens even when your painting both items at the same time. The plastic bags and metal fenders may cause paint to lay on those two surfaces differently. Some metalic flake will reflect light different causing a noticable difference too.

If this was a car then blending in the color makes more sense. Its easier to notice a color difference whole the whole painted panel is next to another panel that wasn't repaired.

That Brandy wine on this trend was popular during the early 80s we done about 4 cars and several bikes, 2 cars we did the national show car circuit. I loved that color. we would ghost in stripes using different mica flakes. You wouldn't see the stripe until the red spot lights would shine on the surface. We did SS 454 emblems on a couple chevys that blew show goers minds back then.
That bike looks liked color-mania use a silver pearl in it.
We used gold mica back in the day. Guys would put red flood lights on it and the clear coat would magifie the gold tone though the brungy candy coats.

 

If you don't mind I'd like to explore this a little more and since you are a professional painter who obviously gets into the dynamics of it too, i would appreciate some info if you would:

I'm sure you've seen the FLD red, really nice color but that front fender is just so plain... so it got me to thinking. First thought was to do black panels on it all, two-tone with the red as the underlayer. Then I saw that gorgeous merlot and my next thought was to forget the black, do the same panels but use merlot as the top color and then accent the transition from the merlot to the red with gold pinstriping to separate them, obviously. I got a price of $1700 for the fenders and tank in that two-tone idea. Then I thought if I was just to chop off about 6-8" of the front fender and use a black cap that actually bolted through the end of the fender, it would finish it off and give it some strength back that I lose by chopping the fender. I think chopping it may be a problem because the edges of the stock fender are curled under so that tells me the curl is structural, do you agree? If I can chop it as per the above, I won't do the two-tone idea for a while.

What I meant by just touching it up was; if I get it cut properly, there will be minimal damage and if I find a bolt through cap, all I would need is touch-up paint on the edge to keep it all from rusting and the cap will cover the rest. Is this last idea doable or did you answer me in your last response? thanks for your time.

 

If it was me I would leave that nice bike alone. Anytime we add more paint to something the protental for problems further down the road increases.
by adding another color they will be adding at least 3 coats of color and four coats of clear on top of what you already have. It will be fine but if it was mine I wouldn't do it.

The curl in the fender is the way its stamped out in press. I doubt if its needed for structral strenght. Its made that way to give the stamped part a nice finished look to it rather than having a razor thin edge that will cut you when you wash the bike. I would only have your shop spot spray it in then to protect from rust.

Sounds like the red and black would be sharp seeing how you have black rims on the bike already. The merlot is reaally nice too. You can get an idea how that would look be checking out I think the Road King has your red with the merlot in a two-tone.

That red reminds me of 70s candy apple red, with those black rims it looks like a real hot-rod. I would enjoy that bike as it is. Wait about five years then repaint it.
No good reason to go looking to spend more money. But I know how we can't leave wll enough alone.
I just had my two year old bike with 3000 miles repainted. Said when I bought my bike I willl never own a black Harley. So I should talk about leaving well enough alone!
Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the reply Ken,
I have no desire to paint it anytime soon, that is something I will ultimately do and was sharing what I saw for the future of my bike.

The front fender, however, I really want to do somehow, someway and I hope to do it economically, like under $300. The $1700 paint job price tag put me out of the paint market as I could use that money more wisely somewhere else. Also I appreciate what you were saying about creating future problems by layering more paint and clear on there. When it comes time to do this total paint job, I guess I better plan on taking it down to nothing first and doing it right. Lotsa $$$ though, so it won't be soon.
Your posts were great and thanks again for taking all this time with me.