DIY Painting Tips

[scott_araujo]

Looks good and just like mine with the same paints, just a little more sheen and shine in the sunlight than the stock Dark color.  Careful filling up, I don't think these paints are very resistant to gasoline.

Scott

[Meerkat]

Nabbed a windscreen and fairing from an S2R off here (thanks, corey) and am looking to slap it on my bike with a little modification. The fairing has a gloss factory finish now and my 620 is Dark. I'd like to knock the gloss finish off and rattle can a clear matte finish to have it blend a little better. So after 30+ pages of tips, here's my plan...

Careful 400 just to knock off the gloss finish. A good cleaning and allow to dry followed by 3 or 4 coats of matte clear with drying time between coats. Any suggestions for improvement?

I figure worst case scenario, I end up sending it off for a professional black matte treatment but I kind of like the tangerine if I can get the finish to match a little better. Of course that may change when it's actually on the bike and out of the garage.

[mojo]

400 grit might be a little coarse to clear over.  It's fine if you are priming over it, but I'd do my final sanding with 600 grit if you are just clearing over the black.  And be careful not to sand through the black basecoat otherwise you will be redoing that too.  If you see ANY black on the sandpaper, stop sanding.

[scott_araujo]

FYI, the Dark black has lots of little metal flecks in it.  If the gloss black doesn't it may not match after the flat clear.

DupliColor T090 Truck & SUV Universal Black followed by Krylon flat clear is a pretty good match and has held up well on my front fender over a season.  These paints are easy to find and inexpensive.  Try it on a piece of scrap first and see what you think.  Or maybe just a light dusting of silver over the sanded black and then a flat clear.  I think someone did sliver dusting over black a few pages back in this thread and it looked pretty good.

Scott

[Meerkat]

Some might call me crazy...the fairing is off a tangerine S2R, so it's gonna stick out like sore thumb. I like the tangerine, but the finishes look bad together. Hell, it may all look bad together when I get it done but as you said the Krylon flat clear is cheap so I thought I'd give it a try.

[DarkMonster620]

Hey Nate,

Congrats before everything else.

Now to bussiness, I've got a CF rear fender, as you might know, here in the tropics the Sun is relentless on any type of finish.

Can you recommend any UV clear for it? The guys at the paint shop wont touch it unless I give them precise instructions; CF down here is very very exotic...

Tks and enjoy the new stage in life...

[ducpainter]

Hey Nate,

Congrats before everything else.

Now to bussiness, I've got a CF rear fender, as you might know, here in the tropics the Sun is relentless on any type of finish.

Can you recommend any UV clear for it? The guys at the paint shop wont touch it unless I give them precise instructions; CF down here is very very exotic...

Tks and enjoy the new stage in life...

Tell them to sand it with 600 wet and clear with the highest quality clear they can buy.

You will all of a sudden see millions of pinholes.

The next step is what gets time consuming...

you have to fill every one with a brush after re-sanding.

Then you sand flat and re-clear.

Or you can buy a new one and have it cleared before you install it.

The new part will have fewer pinholes because the epoxy resin hasn't degraded yet.

[mojo]

You will all of a sudden see millions of pinholes.

The next step is what gets time consuming...

you have to fill every one with a brush after re-sanding.

...and then you will go crosseyed. Ask me how I know.
It's amazing how many flaws you will find in a CF piece.

[DarkMonster620]

...and then you will go crosseyed. Ask me how I know.
It's amazing how many flaws you will find in a CF piece.

How do you know???

You said to ask...

[mojo]

Smartass

[DarkMonster620]

Hey, I follow instructions... 

[koko64]

G'day DP.

I'm not sure if someone has covered this.
A friend had his Superlight frame powder coated and it looked great. I thought I may get my frame powder coated with my wheels in the future. Both have paint that is servicable but will need a freshen up in a few years. When I asked some guys who weld for a living about this they said not to powder coat Chromemoly (spelling?) as the heat run thru the frame anneals the welds with that material. They said to have it painted instead.
Do you know if this is true?

[Ddan]

I'd be very surprised if the powder coating got anyhwere near hot enough to anneal the frame, and FWIW, it's probably not chrome-moly

[ducpainter]

G'day DP.

I'm not sure if someone has covered this.
A friend had his Superlight frame powder coated and it looked great. I thought I may get my frame powder coated with my wheels in the future. Both have paint that is servicable but will need a freshen up in a few years. When I asked some guys who weld for a living about this they said not to powder coat Chromemoly (spelling?) as the heat run thru the frame anneals the welds with that material. They said to have it painted instead.
Do you know if this is true?

I'd be very surprised if the powder coating got anyhwere near hot enough to anneal the frame, and FWIW, it's probably not chrome-moly

The newer frames are indeed mild steel.

The problem with powder coaters, notice I didn't say coating, is in the way they remove old material. Many will put a part in the oven and set the temp at some ridiculous number like 800 degrees to burn off any coating then blast and recoat.

Those temps will change the structure of steel, but not necessarily for the worse.

The temp of the oven for curing powder is about 350, and I wouldn't worry about that at all.

[koko64]

Thanks heaps DP.