Earlier this month, I finally embraced the newly-bachelorized life style...and dove back into a hobby that my ex-wife forced me to give up.  So I became the proud owner of a dirty, slightly beat up, dirt cheap, 2007 GS500F.  

Here's what it looked like the day I got it:
(Sorry, the only full shot I have of it on the dealer's lot is on my Facebook, and I can't get to it at work.  But this was later that night.)


That was on a Friday.  The next Sunday, I spent the afternoon cleaning it up, at which point I realized just had faded and peeling the decals were getting.  So it became this in preparation for painting:



The next step was to get her naked:



This is a rough mock-up (with my AWESOME MS Paint skillz, yo) of the goal...orange plastics, black tank:

Startin' to look good man...I would put together a build thread so that we can follow your progress...

Just a suggestion...

Later.

Quote from: madjak30 on March 09, 2011, 08:50:45 AM
I would put together a build thread so that we can follow your progress...

Noted, and edited.
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So then the painting commenced.  I did the tail section first, then the front cowling.  Unfortunately, I jacked up the clearcoat on the right rear section, so I had to dress it back down to parade rest and start from scratch.  The cowling, however, turned out pretty well.  There are, of course, some minor imperfections (runs, divots, etc), but overall I think it turned out pretty darn good for being a homebrew rattle can job:



...and then reinstalled it...



If all goes according to plan (aka...tornados don't destroy my garage today), I should be able to get the sides and the tail finished up and mounted tonight after work.  Then it'll be time to tackle the tank (the only part I'm nervous about).

I've also got some non-cosmetic stuff in the works, too.  Just ordered my Katana shock, going to be putting in a 17t sprocket...Sonic Springs...eventually new handlebars...just a bunch of little stuff here and there.

Nice color choice! What kind of spray paint/clearcoat did you use and how was it applied? I have an orange GS500E (originally orange, then rattle canned a different orange by previous owner). I wouldnt mind re-painting mine. Any advice is appreciated

Got the plastics finished up and reinstalled last night:



Tomorrow night: start stripping the tank. 

Wildarmz, it's just Krylon spray primer + Krylon "Pumpkin Orange" paint + some type of auto clearcoat I got at Autozone.  The tank's gonna be auto primer + Duplicolor matte black auto paint + auto clearcoat.

Looks great for spray out of a can, how many did you go through?

That does look great , Its amazing what can be done with spray paint . And the color is perfect . You gonna put a 01 on it and get the dixie trumpet horns , lol.

Trust me...it's not NEARLY as pretty in person (maybe I should make it an online dating profile).  There are quite a few dings and smudges and runs; I've still got a lot of touchup work to do.

I'm honestly starting to thing I bit off more than I could chew, and that I should've just left it the hell alone.  On the bright side, if I jack it up too badly, I'll just ditch the fairings and go naked.