Van Halen GS assembled (Paint Project)

[BaltimoreGS]

I've always liked the look of Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein guitar so I used it as the basis of my latest paint project.  Over all I am very happy with the results.  We had trouble getting the gun dialed in this time and ended up running the air pressure too high which led to some orange peel. Such is life...  I'm kinda sorry that these parts are going on a bike I rarely use.  It will probably be a few weeks before I get around to swapping these parts on the bike.  Lessons learned from this go round:  Start early enough and you don't have to paint after dark.  If painting at night, turn off the lights when not needed so the bugs stay away.  And have a pair of tweezers in case one of those bugs decide to give your clear coat a close up inspection  

-Jessie


The guitar I was trying to mimic



Originally I was going to repaint the tank and plastics from a '92 GS but Victor (ver4) liked the way they looked so he traded me for his tank and plastics.  They were faded red with pink graphics but were all pretty straight.  With some minimal prep work they were ready to paint. I scuffed up the original paint with 320 grit dry paper.  The graphics on the tank were taken to bare metal with an air sander and then built back to level with high build primer.  There were some spots that required some glazing putty.  After sanding the putty, those spots were primed too.  Then everything was wet sanded smooth with 600 grit paper.  After that it was time to hang everything up and wipe it with a tack rag to remove dust/debris.



Then it was time for the white paint.  We used Barret Jackson Snow White from Sherwin Williams.  It took 3 coats to cover.  If you ever intend to paint something white you should use a white (or light) primer first. Since I will be painting over most of this white paint it didn't matter for this project




Then the parts were taped up with different widths of masking and fine line tape





Eddie is getting ready to paint his bike so he came over to watch this project. I think he approves of what we've done so far  



I wanted the front fender to be a solid color so it was brought into the mix at this point.  It took 4 coats of paint to cover completely.  Since it was not painted white first it ended up a slightly darker shade of red than the rest of the parts



Once everything was taped up it was time to spray it all again.  The second color is Red Hot Chili Pepper also from Sherwin Williams.  It took 3 coats to cover too (except the front fender).  Hopefully Eddie does better at painting his bike than he did at taking the following pictures...



Once the red paint had flashed the tape was carefully removed




Next the parts were clear coated with Sherwin Williams clear.  Those pics were also blurry so we'll skip to the finished pieces

[ohgood]

nice ! saw something similar with newsprint embedded (i guess) in the stripes. will you paint the top triples and forks /frame /swarm also ?

finished bike pics !!!

[BaltimoreGS]

The rest of the bike will be a let down     It's going on my '89 beater

-Jessie

[PachmanP]

Definitely looks red now in the better light...

[gregvhen]

wheres the black stripes?

[BaltimoreGS]

The black stripes on his guitar is just electrical tape, looks too ugly on a motorcycle. 

-Jessie

[plurpimpin]

that turned out awesome

[BaltimoreGS]

Thanks, how's your paint project coming?

-Jessie

[badguy]

bad ass   One of these days I'm gonna paint my bike(s)...probably after I build/buy a shed/garage. 

This post is kinda like a build your own story type deal

[Jared]

Heh.... I have a factory upper  already painted like that Man...(  has a crack in it...). Hell you probably saw it here in my garage when you were here awhile back.

Forget electrical tape... get some adhesive pin striping stuff.

Van Halen.....that CD is playing in my drive as I type this...(Van Halen- Van Halen... Running with the devil...Eruption etc etc...).

[Focer]

I dig it

[BaltimoreGS]

Heh.... I have a factory upper  already painted like that Man...(  has a crack in it...). Hell you probably saw it here in my garage when you were here awhile back.

Forget electrical tape... get some adhesive pin striping stuff.

Van Halen.....that CD is playing in my drive as I type this...(Van Halen- Van Halen... Running with the devil...Eruption etc etc...).

Hey, hey; Jared lives!  I knew you had good taste   

-Jessie

[kyle_99_gtp]

Looks sweet man, very creative paintjob.

[plurpimpin]

Thanks, how's your paint project coming?

-Jessie

its going really well, just taking longer than expected. i'm charging up the camera right now so i'll put some pics up later tonite

[xanthras]

looks geat. get those parts back on the bike already so you can post a pic!

[BaltimoreGS]

Thanks for the compliments guys.  I should have the parts on the bike in the coming weeks.  Right now I have a trashed tank and plastics on it so Kay can practice low speed maneuvers.  I should probably take this chance to brush up on my skills too...   

-Jessie

[bombjack]

Very nice! Well done.
Looking forward to the pictures of the finished bike

[BaltimoreGS]

Finally got around to wet sanding and buffing out these parts and assembling them on my old '89 GS.  As usual, I didn't remember to take before pics.  A friend of mine wrecked it when I first bought it and it has been cosmetically challenged ever since.  I threw on an F4i taillight I had hanging around the garage from Pig's stunt bike.  Overall I'm happy with the face lift to my beater bike    In hind site I should have painted the grab bar.  I may throw on a Yoshimura exhaust, the one on there now is looking kinda ratty.

-Jessie


Assembled





Close up of the taillight.  It doesn't follow the lines of the GS tail section but it does help modernize the look of the rear.




And for those that don't look in the Odds and Ends section, here's Kay's Shadow paint project

[badguy]

That's pretty sweet

[nhanxsolo]

looks awesome man.  you should consider painting the front piece too!