Anyone got annuity's on doing it easy and efficient.
I have  Bucket coming in the mail tat is a little rusty...not to bad, but its obviously silver and I want to paint it black...perhaps gloss, but just checking if anyone has been down this road and can give me any tips, or just tips in general, so i can do it cheap as possible with quality....dont want to over buy stuff to do it, just want to keep it simple and clean

scape off the rust best you can. fill in the rust spots with bondo so its smooth. sand bondo with like 400 grit assuming the pitting isn't terrible and not much was applied over a large surface.

let bondo cure.

WASH PART IN SOAP. any soap works, I use dawn dishsoap. at this point, its CLEAN GLOVES ONLY situation. no bare hands. you'll read in a second.

let it dry outside in the sun for an hour or so, to warm the part to get all the water that might be soaked up into the bondo. a box fan helps.

NOW. with NEW gloves, use alcohol to clean it again, give it a good rub down with a lint free cloth/paper towel. let it evaporate, shouldn't take as long as the water.

Why all the cleaning?? because you're gonna buy the rattle can self etching primer! its a funky green color. spray the first coat lightly, should see about 40% of the parts original colors underneath. then after about 10 minutes spray it again with a heavier coat. let that dry and cure. DO NOT SPRAY THE STUFF IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT. doesn't cure right for some reason.

Now, its up to you at this point, you can buy a sand-able primer to smooth out any imperfections that you may notice after you got one solid color over the part. I normally do it because I already have spray cans half used/what ever is on hand.

Now for the color coat. USE MATTE color. You want gloss? okay, I get that, but USE a matte color, it dries faster and cures better then the gloss in a can stuff... you can still have a glossy finish though!

Now, for the gloss its really a personal choice. you can go with a cheaper UV rated acrylic clear gloss, I like krylons. because its flexible and also cures quicker then the enamel stuff as long as its sprayed in light even coats. or you can go with the two part gloss clear coat in a can, its a little more pricey but the cure time is about 2 days, compared to a week for the acrylic, and compared to a month or two for the enamel.. its really the best choice for durability, and since its on a headlight housing, you might want that!

this is not exactly the most detailed write up, and I skipped sanding and buffing. but generally I've noticed that rattle can matte colors don't orange peel like gloss colors. so color sanding isn't really needed... but if you want a pro-grade looking color underneath your expensive 2k clear. color sand from 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500. then clear coat over that.

Wow! Thank you for that.
You probably convinced me to go with matte, or just resell the bucket buy an already black universal plastic bucket and drill it to fit...lol.....jk....

Does the bucket get HOT? is that a concern for paint, or does the heat not go in that direction, plus ad in wind cooling etc...

Quote from: JM500 on October 27, 2014, 06:55:13 PM
Wow! Thank you for that.
You probably convinced me to go with matte, or just resell the bucket buy an already black universal plastic bucket and drill it to fit...lol.....jk....

Does the bucket get HOT? is that a concern for paint, or does the heat not go in that direction, plus ad in wind cooling etc...

I have a headlight and bucket off a Suzuki GS450, and the bucket is plastic. doesn't ever get hot. even in 100 degree idle traffic. now the bike on another hand..... best to shut it off if you're gonna be there for an hour or two... 

oh and don't be afraid of rattlecans and their output quality's.. I used 3 different brands to colormatch chevy's red..


its not rocket science. it just takes practice.

If it doesn't get heat I might just plastidip it for now. I will be plastidiping my tank and a new set of tail plastics, so my bike looks ok while I decide on how to get a more permanent paint job.

Quote from: JM500 on October 27, 2014, 07:48:34 PM
If it doesn't get heat I might just plastidip it for now. I will be plastidiping my tank and a new set of tail plastics, so my bike looks ok while I decide on how to get a more permanent paint job.

plastidip works I suppose! and the only heat it gets is from the sunlight. so it should be fine.

I have the black and their satinizer so I will post results when she is complete. I may have an OEM light to to sell afterwards as I plan on replacing it with a different aftermarket one. So either here or fleabay will get that.