Spray Painting your Bike

[He Man]

Plagued with Insomnia, I've decided to write a how to guide on painting your bike. There already is a guide here, but heres one that is a little more step by step. ill be finishing it over the next few nights. Specificly, I will be writing up how to get your tank looking like this. On a side note, you WILL need to enlist a local painter to clear coat the tank for you. This paint job by all means NOT a substitute for a real paint job, i assume this black will fade with time due to UV exposure because it is not of any particular high grade paint. The amount of time required for his project depends on the temperature you are operating in. The hotter the better. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS PROJECT WITHOUT PROPER VENTILATION!

You will need at least a week of (at minimum) 70 degree weather with clear and sunny skies(I will tell you why later on).



Im going to be taking snapshots from various parts of the bike as it is being painted. Your total cost of this project will depend on what you are painting. but for the tank, and seat cover, you should be looking at no more than $150 dollars depending on your area.


Step 1


The First step to painting your bike is to remove and clean the pieces. Remove all fasteners, washers or stickers you have on any particular part. Use an ammonium based wash to remove all the nastys such as road debris or oil. Then take each piece and begin wet sanding it with 600grit, and progressively to 1,000 grit. If you have a clear coat layer on your original paint job, you may either choose to completely remove the original paintjob, or scuff it just enough to paint over.

For my S2R 1000 tank, i used a 200grit and spent about 7 hours sanding the entire tank down. My initial attempt was to remove the original paint, but slowly i began to realize that i do not feel like developing carpal tunnel. So i just sanded the clear coat off. Beware of over sanding certain edges. You will notice that the the tank will begin to show the primer or the plastic/metal underneath all that paint. overly sanded Flat spots will stand out after a paint job is done if they are not corrected.

Tip: Dunk a package of sand paper in water prior to using it. The sand paper wont dry out as fast.


This is the wash/sand phase. You will notice that i do indeed have flat spots. (see that black strip? it has a white/black spot, the white is the tanks plastic color and the black is the original primer). It isnt so bad, so i worked it out with some elbow grease and some more sanding.

Tip: if you need to remove viynl, use a blade and find where the Viynl ends or begins. This part usually does not have a thick layer of clear coat. Take the knife and make a small incision to lift the viynl. Do not pull too hard or else it will snap and will cause you to have to dig in several times to lift the vinyl. If you are not careful, you will end up nicking your tank and having to sand more.



Using non rusty blades is recommended if you have not had your tetanus shot yet

Pay special attention to sanding the areas where you have removed Vinyl. As they will most definitely show if they are not PERFECTLY SMOOTH. If you can feel a slight raise, you may opt to have extra layers of primer to smoothen it out, although there is no guarantee primer will make them disappear without prior experience.




Now back to the sanding...

For sand paper, i would recommend buying the large sheets and cutting them up to the size of your palm. I do not like using a and paper holder because the shape of a fender or tank is usually round and will lead to flat spots, so using your hand is probably the best choice. For the bumpy areas such as where you removed the vinyl, i used a electric sanding tool and attacked it. Yes i did end up getting flat spots, however they were not bad at all. I used good old hand rubbing to smoothen it out.

After each grade of sand paper, wash of the part cleanly as to not leave behind any of the old sandpaper/water goo. you do not want 200 grit sand rubbing swirls when you are trying to smoothen it out with 1,000 grit. Progress from 200 grit to 600 to 1000, washing between each change of sandpaper grit.

For the tank only, you will need 2 packs of 200grit, 1 pack of 600grit 1 pack of 1,000grit, and 2 packs of 2,000 grit.

After you have prepped the surface, you will need to wash the part completely with an ammonium based cleaner. Let it air dry. you should be bale to close your eyes and molest your tank and not feel any odd surface deformations. It should also feel a bit like dusty and smooth.

[He Man]

Step 2, Ready to Prime.

After you have sanded and washed the desired piece you would like to paint, find a good spot that elevates the piece, for a tank, you might want to build a small wooden stool so the tank can sit on so you can spray the bottom edges of the tank.

Prior to priming, hit the tank with a tack cloth, this will remove all left over particles that will show when priming. Be gentle with the tack cloth because it is made of some type of organic suger/honey. Its sticky and you do not want it to transfer onto your surface. Just a gentle glide over the surface is good enough.



Alright, here comes the first layer of paint!
I recommend you use Dupli Color sandable primer. Its pretty good stuff and comes with a fan spray nozzle that is adjustable to spray lengthwise or width wise. Dupli Color makes their sandable primer in four tones. Depending on the color you choose, you may want to pick either gray black white or a copper red tone.

TIP: shake vigorously and leave your rattle can in a bucket of hot water. This helped my tank look much smoother.

With everything ready to paint, go ahead and take your rattle can and spray it a few times onto a sheet of newspaper. Make sure the nozzle is set to spray length wise (up and down). It should be a thin, but tall spray. You can change the direction of the spray if you like, but i found the lengthwise setting to be best for myself. Dont try to save painit by starting your spray on the piece you want to paint. Each time you are ready to paint and the can has sat for more than 30 seconds, you will want to respray the can onto the newspaper to make sure everything is flowing correctly.

Start spray painting the tank in one smooth and consistent motion. Start by spraying OFF the object and finish spraying OFF the object as well.


begin the spray off the object


Maintain a consistent spray

For your first layer of primer, your are not looking to cover everything. Just one swift coat will suffice.
Allow it to flash dry for about 10-15 minutes.

TIP: Placing the piece you are trying to paint in sunlight will help the paint dry faster and smoother. (a slow drying paint will pick up dust particles easier)

Okay, you've waited 10-15 minutes and the primer is safe to handle. Hit it with the tack cloth again and spray your second quick coat on it and wait 10-15 minutes again.
When it is dried, do a 3rd heavy coat. This one should be very wet, but not to the point where paint i dripping everywhere. Do not attempt to spray a certain spot if you some how missed it. Remember to ALWAYS begin a spray off the object and spray onto an object, then spray off the object. It is an essential rule to follow during this entire process.

Your heavy coat should be very shiny and wet looking.

notice in this image, that the surface of the belt covers looks similar to the surface of an orange. this is called Orange peel. We'll deal with that in a bit.

When this wet layer is dried (wait 15-20minutes) wash it and sand it with 2,000 grit. Don't press too hard, because you may end up sanding all the primer off. If there are any particular area's that you messed up, now would be a good time to sand it down and repeat the priming process. Remember, WET SAND! don't be afraid to get things a bit wet.



For the gas tank, i did this 2 quick coats, 1 heavy coat 3 times. You can expect to use 1 can between each sanding. (i repeated this process 3 times, so i used 3 cans)

After you finishing sanding, your surface should be smooth and look something like this.


This is my tank with the primer being washed


Now you are ready for pre painting phase!

[He Man]

Part 3 Pre painting phase.

Dupli-Color recommends using a adhesion promoter. to help the paint stuck to the surface of the object. Although i'm not sure if i should of applied this before the primer or after, so dont quote me on it. I tried both before and after.

Shown in this picture is the Adhesion promoter on the left.


When you spray the adhesion promoter, it will go on completely clear. In this pic, you will see a bit of a wet spot, that is exactly how the adhesion promoter goes on.


You want to spray it just like you did the primer, except, only wait 5 mins between flashing. The adhesion promoter does not require sanding. Do not use the tack cloth in between. do not touch the piece at this point. The adhesion promoter is pretty sticky stuff.
NOTE: YOU MUST SPRAY YOUR COLOR COAT WITHIN 10MINS OF THE ADHESION PROMOTER.

TIP: This stuff is like a can of fogger. very cloudy and its as bad as 60's hairspray. A painting mask should definitely be used here if you haven't already been doing so.

With your first layer of color, give it a nice quick coat to cover ever part, but remember the key to having a good smooth job.

1) Pre spray to clear the nozzle
2) Begin by spraying off the object
3) Srapy onto the object
4) Be smooth and be consistent
5) Finish your spray of the object.

You should aim to be about 8 inches away from the surface and the nozzles should be perpendicular to the surface of the object you are painting. Use your hand like a full ohlins adjustable suspension and follow the curves.

if you missed some spots. Dont worry, your 2nd quick coat will cover it. Again, 2 quick coats. 1 wet coat. Repeat twice with 15-20mins flashing in between coats.
Sand with 2,000grit, and repeat until you are completely satisfied. I did this step 5 times until i was satisfied.

This is how my final wet layer looked.



excuse the shaking, i was freaking choking on paint fumes. olice:

and after it dried





Note: you see little dimples in my tank. They were pretty deep, and you can use filler primer to get these spots. I didn't because i didn't know such a product existed. ( i layed my bike down in a grassy knoll with a bunch of small jagged rocks)


Let it dry and your tank should look pretty good. Give it 1 final 2000grit wet sanding. Let her sit for about a week or two in the sun to fully cure then go pick up a phone book. Find an autobody store that will do a 2part epoxy clear coat. My tank ran me $60 dollars. So all in all, it wasn't much at all.


What options do I have if I dont/cant get it clearcoat by a pro?

You have Three options.

Option #1
First, you can attempt to use a clear enamel such as Dupli Color High Heat Engine Enamel.

What are the pros and cons?

Pros
-Cheap
-Gas resistant
Cons
-Very easy to F*** up
-Requires a hot sunny day
-is not as hard and resistant as a 2 part epoxy

Enamel will require the piece you are working on to be warm. Aka you should leave it inside a garbage bag sittinig in the sun (on a 80degree day, no humidity) for a few hours. You should also put your spray can of engine enamel in a bucket of really hot water (not boiling). The reason for this is that enamel likes to absorb moisture in the air, causing a cloudy white haze the form as it dries. No, you cannot bake it it out ( i tried using a 200degree oven to no avail) THe milky haze looks like this.



NOT GOOD. I striped it, and tried enamel on the beer tray. It would only dry clear using the method above. However, Enamel isn't something you can sand. So i wouldn't recommend it unless you had balls of steel.

Option #2

http://www.ketone.com/rm_aeromax_ure...oat.php?cat=15

I didn't use, i was going to, but i figure i would need 2 cans of it so it ended up costing the same as having someone else doing it.

Option #3

Another ebay member here allowed the spray paint to dry for a month and uses a prewax and some sort of paint sealent (honda glare) and they said they had good results.

If you choose neither options, when you first fill up your tank and 1 drop of gas gets on your tank, this is what happens.



BADDDDD!!!!!

Here are the final pics




and here she was before the crash(the silver one)


high res pics can be found here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14155443@N02/

Any questions comments, please feel free to post up.

[DesMotion]

Your tank turned out really nice. I'd love to see what you could do with some Kustom Kolors or the likes of it...


I have a very good tip for painting plastic pieces.

Right before you shoot the primer hit the piece with some carb cleaner instead of an adhesion promoter. Don't douse it just spray a light layer over it and let it dry, then hit it with primer right away. If you douse it, you could melt your piece into a big mess. This helps the primer adhere to the plastic and will prevent it from peeling in the near future. You can buy all kinds of expensive adhesion sprays, that will work, but I have found that the carb cleaner is more aggressive and actually softens the piece and makes the primer stick like crazy.

[COWBOY]

Nice post.  Very informative.  I've considered changing colors but have to get the wheels powdercoated first.


Thanks for sharing.

[He Man]

Your tank turned out really nice. I'd love to see what you could do with some Kustom Kolors or the likes of it...


I have a very good tip for painting plastic pieces.

Right before you shoot the primer hit the piece with some carb cleaner instead of an adhesion promoter. Don't douse it just spray a light layer over it and let it dry, then hit it with primer right away. If you douse it, you could melt your piece into a big mess. This helps the primer adhere to the plastic and will prevent it from peeling in the near future. You can buy all kinds of expensive adhesion sprays, that will work, but I have found that the carb cleaner is more aggressive and actually softens the piece and makes the primer stick like crazy.

whats kustom kolors? ive been DYING to do a NY Giants Blue theme (Football team for people whos not into sports) on a tank. My main idea though, is to get a steel tank and polish her up.

[Mad Duc]

Great post. I plan on doing my belt covers during the next off season. Thanks!

[JDS 07 S4Rs]

Nice post. I followed your project on that "Other site" this post is slightly different & answered a question I was going to ask DucPainter about sanding or removing the decals.

thanx.

[RobotDan]

Great job,

I just wanted to add that sanding without sanding blocks is asking for trouble. you can get them in different thickness' and flexibility. The reason is: that your hand has high spots and low spots so that when you are sanding you have areas of different pressure, and it will follow the imperfections in your surface instead of elimintating them. If you use a block, it evens out the pressure points and helps to sand out imperfections.

[DesMotion]

whats kustom kolors? ive been DYING to do a NY Giants Blue theme (Football team for people whos not into sports) on a tank. My main idea though, is to get a steel tank and polish her up.

Kustom Kolors makes some of the most brilliant paints available. http://www.kustomkolors.us/index.htm


RobotDan is onto something there. Not using a block, of some kind, will cause an uneven painting surface even if you think you're awesome like I did. I got this paint job all done and when you looked at it you could see deep spots. 5 bucks could've saved me $80 in paint and hours of labor.

[He Man]

Butt He-Man is awesome. I did it completely by hand and its smooth as a girl out of a full wax job. 

[RobotDan]

did you just refer to yourself in the third person? 

[Shortie]

Butt He-Man is awesome. I did it completely by hand and its smooth as a girl out of a full wax job. 

Hmm... that's quite a colorful comparison.

Speaking of girls, this girl can play too. Just finished a satin white tank, filled and sanded by hand. Oh and that nice red go fast stripe? Masked with fine line tape, by hand, without the aid of a straight edge.

 

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w50/Rockhopper15/P5090023.jpg

[RobotDan]

looks very nice; however, I should say that satin finishes hide imperfections like no body's business. Tape work is exellent though.  What I am trying to say about sanding by hand is that it is much riskier than using a block. Sure it can be done with good results, It's just not as nice as if you blocked it out. it's like  saying you can draw a strait line without a ruler. Yeah it can be done but it will never be as good as if you use a ruler. IMO.

[He Man]

Hmm... that's quite a colorful comparison.

Speaking of girls, this girl can play too. Just finished a satin white tank, filled and sanded by hand. Oh and that nice red go fast stripe? Masked with fine line tape, by hand, without the aid of a straight edge.

 

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w50/Rockhopper15/P5090023.jpg

sexy. what did you use to paint it? i remember you were working on this project and made a thread about it. pics?