What Rattle Can Paint to use?

[plurpimpin]

When i bought my bike the previous owner had dumped it on both sides and trashed the fairings. My friend has a nice plastic welder so i'm going to repair the lower fairings and i just ordered a new upper cowl. There is a nasty dent in the tank that i am going to repair with lead.

My question is what are some HIGH QUALITY rattle can paints i can use to repaint the fairings and tank? I don't mind shelling out some money for a good paint. As a college student I just can't afford a compressor and spray gun.

I was looking at the color rite primer and paint in spray cans:
http://www.colorrite.com/product/suzuki-y7l-saturn-black-1728.cfm

and then using their 2 part Urethane clear coat kit:
http://www.colorrite.com/product/aerosol-kk7-urethane-high-gloss-clear-kit-1007.cfm

I was wondering if there are any other paint options that are less expensive but similar quality, the color rite paint is $30 per can. I do not need it to be color match since i'm doing the whole bike with my own design. I figure part of the high cost is since its factory color match which doesn't matter to me.

I already searched and couldn't find anything about actual paint selection, just technique and i don't really want to take it to maco or anything like that after doing the prep myself because i didn't just want a single color.

[gregvhen]

i used regular multi surface krylon gray primer and flat black paint.

[tt_four]

Rustoleum tends to be a little better than normal stuff, but any spray paint needs a ton of work to hold up. If you want spray paint better than that try going to sherwin williams and see if they have anything fancy in a can. In general spray paint isn't high quality, based on it's nature. Does your friends plastic welder use an air compressor? Ask him if he has a paint gun to go with it.

[gregvhen]

Sherwin sells Krylon, that where i got mine cause my friend works there.  It holds up pretty well and its flat which is worst for durability.  the shinyier the surface the more the durable it is. once you get your color 2 maybe 3 if you want coats of clear coat will be enough to protect the paint.

[plurpimpin]

Rustoleum tends to be a little better than normal stuff, but any spray paint needs a ton of work to hold up. If you want spray paint better than that try going to sherwin williams and see if they have anything fancy in a can. In general spray paint isn't high quality, based on it's nature. Does your friends plastic welder use an air compressor? Ask him if he has a paint gun to go with it.

nope i don't have access to a compressor. otherwise i'd go the paint gun route

[plurpimpin]

so nobody has any suggestions? i'm looking for something that will hold up better to fuel than rustoleum or krylon.

[NF11624]

Try talking to a local, independent place - preferably an auto finishing place).  They may be willing to loan you the gun (for a small fee) or you can 'buy' it and return it (thats what one auto paint shop recommended to me).  Plus they'll have paints there for automotive use - possibly including rattle cans.

[DoD#i]

so nobody has any suggestions? i'm looking for something that will hold up better to fuel than rustoleum or krylon.

Plenty of suggestions here, but what you want and what there is don't mesh well, or nobody has any experience with the stuff. Certainly never seen the color-rite stuff mentioned here in a year and a half or so.

My advice is to use a name-brand rattlecan (ie, krylon or rustoleum, not wal-mart house brand) or go look for in industrial supply and get industrial rustoleum - "hard hat" and then DON'T SPILL FUEL on it. When you screw up that last bit, do it over. When you've done that a few times, perhaps you will have managed to make contacts with a paint shop. It's actually not all that difficult to not spill fuel.

On the other hand, if the color-rite 2-part polyurethane clearcoat is fuel resistant, you could lay that over your rattlecan job and it's not really very expensive, as compared to re-doing several times or to having the job done professionally at full rate. While I'm sure they want you to do the whole job with their stuff, if you wait for the regular rattlecan stuff to be fully cured (2 weeks or so of hot and dry should do it), it should work.

If you are not an ass about it and are willing to wait for things to come in that work with your job, you can sometimes get things done rather inexpensively at an automotive paint shop - especially if you don't get all hyper on the precise shade of color. If you get it all masked up for the (say) blue parts, and let them hold onto the parts until they are spraying a blue car, they can cut you a deal on spraying your stuff and the car blue at the same time - if you are willing to use the same blue. If they need to spray a bit of blue, clean the gun, spray a bit of green, clean the gun, spray a bit of orange, clean the gun, sure, that costs you more. Once you get all your colors done, let them clearcoat it on the same terms, and you're good. You could offer to help around the place if that seemed like a thing the place needed, or you could make friends with a painter, or you could cut right to looking for a paying (bit don't expect too much at first) job with side benefits (access to equipment, and perhaps leftover paint as well). Could make you a good summer/weekend job, and with the way many fields are going, a good "summer job" in work not easily shipped to China can come in very handy...

Same line, different approach - you may be able to find a student job at your campus where the campus equipment gets painted. Or you might be able to enroll in an elective art class (or non-elective, if you are an art major) that gives you access to equipment, and make your bike your art project.

[BaltimoreGS]

Not sure about paint compatibility but building a bit on DoD's idea, what about rattle canning your colors and then getting a bodyshop to spray automotive grade clear over it?

-Jessie

[plurpimpin]

yeah i'll probably do something along those lines. i just thought someone might know some good paints since in every thread about painting people always say "be sure it's fuel proof" but i guess not.