The first time ever painting, I'm doing two tone white and blue. White being the base I sprayed it tonight. It looks good about 98.5 perfect
not bad for a first timer. I will wet sand tomorrow it should look about 99.5 perfect.  only a few spots that look like fish eye, but overall I'm happy.

Pics coming tomorrow.

Wait, you're wetsanding the basecoat?  Or did you mean base as in main color?

I'm not a pro but I've taken some classes and did a full strip and color-change on my car with PPG urethane.  I'm still debating whether to do anything to the gs.

Main color!

I applaud you. I don't have the nads to do this! 

Quote from: Nikolas on April 03, 2007, 10:31:18 PM
Wait, you're wetsanding the basecoat?  Or did you mean base as in main color?

I'm not a pro but I've taken some classes and did a full strip and color-change on my car with PPG urethane.  I'm still debating whether to do anything to the gs.

what you never heard of Lacquor....30 coats of hand rubbed Lacquor
also it doesn't hurt to wet sand before the clear

I have heard some different opinions on sanding:

1. Cutback the base coat/ don't sand the clear or

2. Don't cut back the base coat / sand the clear coats.

Anyone have any ideas, I'm just starting to repaint my GS. I have also received different opinions on painting the plastics. There is a specific topcoat for plastics which is flexible, the paint supplier recommended. I was just going to prime and paint the same as the tank. I have it with a classic car restorer, but he has no idea on M/C finishers, he is family so works for free.

think of it this way
the clear is the coat that is exposed to the sun and chemicals.....
I want that to be as thick/strong as possible

there are many ways to do this with the same end result

I got a friend who paints mini's with tractor supply valspar tractor paint(enamel)(16 buck a gal or so)  and they look great!

I'm using acrylic enamel because it's easy and cheap. With wet look hardiner it has a perfect shine as soon as you spray it. The parts looks like they never dried.  I dont have the experiance to spray higher quality paint just yet. If I had it to do over I would not have gotten the Met. Blue becuase I heard you can not wet sand it.

My brother used acrylic urethane on his Supra it came out with large orange peel. He paid about three times as much by volume for his paint. It a prettier paint but it does not show becuase he also has no experiance. His is also Metalic he said he was going to wet sand then clear, so I am interested  to see what it looks like.

My pic will come tonight I forgot to batteries for digital cam.

I can speak for rustoleum's stop rust brand and their latex plastic base paints. VERY NICE adhesion to ABS plastic (using thier primer) on the plastic...I put down two coats and proceded to test the plastic by bending it and to my amesment it didn't flake, chip or crack!!! Now I just wish I had used forest green instead of canary yellow....or midnight blue....or was it pearl white I wanted...darn their about $7.49 a quart...you'll need a quart...2 if you spill any + a quart of primer and a clear protectant

I have a good to fair amount of experience with my HVP gun (that's why I bought it to paint lots of projects I have going on) so if you end up with orange peal or a blotty coat you'll have to wet sand regardless and try again.....FYI for your friend you should get a coat hanger and wrap it around the nozzle and bend it just so that it pokes about 7" out and below your coverage fan....also keep it perpendicular to the surface-----TWO light coats are superior to a heavy coat....The darker the color the more a bad job will show....I hate glossy black......I just assumed tho that you thined the paint tho....Paint out of the can is to thick and clogs up the spray nozzle, which will give you an orange peal too....AND SPEND THE EXTRA $10 on a regulator put in at the base of the gun...My first time painting was horrible and the second and the third and forth and fith....I couldn't get the pressure right...The rubber hose would expand when the air compressor was running (had a 13' hose) Regulator fixed it

For clear coats I wet sand the first, then apply a second, then a third. Between the second and third I don't do any thing but let it dry. I always sand base coats so that the next layer has something to "stick" to....... After that final clear coat hardens (for like 2-3 days to COMPLETELY) then get out a quality wax product and elbow grease and put on a few coats of wax. If your doing a big surface invest in a buffer -yea power tools-

For real tho....Paint prep (primer) is what your end finish will look like. Be maticulous and scrape that top layer off (for frames) or sand down the plastics really really well, prime, sand, bondo, sand, prime until every little scratch is filled in.

Last little tid bit- This is a GREAT TIME (required in my book) to replace all the hardware.

sorry to make this post so long but I like painting (not paint-prep)

some pics...




This side of the swingarm was scraped up and had a sizeable dent in it.....poof-

honestly there's a bike there on the table some where...

I did a frame up on a Fizzer last summer
dang thing is still sitting in the basement
fixed it up for a friend to race...and he got pissed off and wants to sell it....I did labor for about damn free to get him a nice bike....so I lost all interest in fixing it....since I know I have about 8 hours of fixing the wiring harness to get it right....

I painted my bike over the winter with spray cans from autozone.  I don't have access to an HVLP gun or anything like that.  I think it turned out pretty decent, although it is not as shiny as I'd like and even a tiny drip of gas will eat the clear coat.  Does anyone know of a decent gas resistant clear that comes in an aerosol can?  I was thinking of nitrocellulose for guitar finishing, I guess they used to use it on cars in the 50's and 60's but they stopped because its bad for the environment.  But you can still get it for guitar finishing and it shouldn't take too much to do a motorcycle.  It is not cheap though.  Anyone have any other options?  I want the paint to look decent but I don't want to go too crazy spending money, because it is an '89 that I didn't pay that much for to begin with.  I'd like to keep it cheap.

Two tone white and blue should be pretty cool. Especially pearlized... yeah.

We must see it upon completion.

  -Anti 

big stickers will keep gas from eating up the clear coat

Quote from: Jace009gs on April 05, 2007, 05:14:00 PM
big stickers will keep gas from eating up the clear coat

AND MAKE IT FASTER!!!!!

i'M HEADED TO THE STORE IT BATTERIES. PICS COMING

The pic are here!!!











I am tring to get a solo look! what do you think?
The blue on the seat will extend onto the bike with the same line as the seat. the tank will hane blue in the knee cut outs.

looks Good Val,

ya still got the GS pogo shock?
I got a grungy kat 750 better than a GS shock for ya....

Cool!!!
Is it easy to put in. 

The quality of the paint job looks pretty good I must say. Now you just need a Colts logo and a pin stripe.

The Kat shock is very easy to install.

  -Anti 

Looks awesome, nice job.