Went to the paint shop today, EXPENSIVE!

Makes me miss the "good ol' days" of DuPont Centari Acrylic Enamel w/hardner. Spray it, forget it, unmask next day and drive off.
Someone told me years ago that ANYTHING with red in it is gonna be expensive, hi $$ paint.....why is that??

Here's the deal...

Red used to be most expensive because all the tint used was from naturally existing elements. Pearls, flakes and mettallics were also more expensive because they too were from natural elements.

now, we have synthetics of most things. Some fancypants link'ns and bimmers still use paint with "natural materials" and they are so expensive and impossible to match with most intermix systems, that a total respray is in order, when they get damaged.



To whomever asked about easy to use paint...

What is so hard about mixing 2 things together and dumping them into a gun?

There is nothing overly complicated about painting in basecoat/clearcoat.

here's the rundown...

to paint in laquer(which yes, West Penn Laco still sells laquer):

1. pour in 2 parts paint
2. pour in 1 part laquer thinner
3. stir
4. dump in gun
5. shoot

let dry... done


to paint in acrylic enamel:
1. pour in 8 parts paint
2. pour in 6 parts thinner
3. pour in 1 part hardener (omit this step if you are cheap, or it's your brother-in-law's car)
4. mix
5. dump in gun
6. shoot



to paint in basecoat/clearcoat (exacts depend on specific paints)

1. pour in 1 part paint
2. pour in 1.5 parts reducer
3. mix
4. dump in gun
5. shoot
6. wait 45 minutes and clean out paint gun.
7. pour in 4 parts clear
8. pour in 1 part hardener
9. mix
10. dump in gun
11. shoot


There isn't that many more steps, and honestly, it should take you about 3 hours(start to finish) for a novice to shoot base/clear on a set of bike parts. IF you are going to spend 10-20 hours of sanding, filling, prepping, and obsessing over your bodypanels, then what's the big deal about spending 3 hours to paint something with good stuff?


I'm not trying to sound mean. I am just curious what makes it seem so hard to do?


Do you want me to make you a list of every single specific paint component you have to get in order to shoot? The paint retailer usually does a good job of giving you what you need, if you have a rough idea of what you want. Example: Let's say you want to use basic PPG base clear system, and that's all you know, aside from your paint color. You tell them that, and tell them you want basic stuff, but not bottom of the line stuff. They will then say, "Ok Mr. Soandso, we'll set you up with PPG DBU basecoat, and PPG 2021 clear. Here is your pint of basecoat, and here's the proper DR-1170 reactive reducer for it. I'll label the reducer for you with some tape so you know this goes with the basecoat. And here is a quart of 2021 clearcoat, and here's a pint of hardener for that clearcoat. I'll just label those as well, and here's some stir sticks, and strainers to get you started."

...and then, you'll be just fine, and your bike will be of the shiney variety once again.


Hope this helps in a lightly comedical fashion.

I'm a mechanic, not a painter, so I know pretty much nothing about painting, but it's my impression that all the good paints (gas resistant and durable) require painting with a full body suit and fresh air supply (to the painter). Are there any good paints that could just be used to paint in open air (like outside) without hurting or killing myself? I have a compressor with enough air supply and access to paint guns, but I'm just a little paranoid

Assume I know absolutely nothing about painting, cause I don't

John68 wrote:

Here's the deal...

Red used to be most expensive because all the tint used was from naturally existing elements. Pearls, flakes and mettallics were also more expensive because they too were from natural elements.

now, we have synthetics of most things. Some fancypants link'ns and bimmers still use paint with "natural materials" and they are so expensive and impossible to match with most intermix systems, that a total respray is in order, when they get damaged.



To whomever asked about easy to use paint...

What is so hard about mixing 2 things together and dumping them into a gun?

There is nothing overly complicated about painting in basecoat/clearcoat.

here's the rundown...

to paint in laquer(which yes, West Penn Laco still sells laquer):

1. pour in 2 parts paint
2. pour in 1 part laquer thinner
3. stir
4. dump in gun
5. shoot

let dry... done


to paint in acrylic enamel:
1. pour in 8 parts paint
2. pour in 6 parts thinner
3. pour in 1 part hardener (omit this step if you are cheap, or it's your brother-in-law's car)
4. mix
5. dump in gun
6. shoot



to paint in basecoat/clearcoat (exacts depend on specific paints)

1. pour in 1 part paint
2. pour in 1.5 parts reducer
3. mix
4. dump in gun
5. shoot
6. wait 45 minutes and clean out paint gun.
7. pour in 4 parts clear
8. pour in 1 part hardener
9. mix
10. dump in gun
11. shoot


There isn't that many more steps, and honestly, it should take you about 3 hours(start to finish) for a novice to shoot base/clear on a set of bike parts. IF you are going to spend 10-20 hours of sanding, filling, prepping, and obsessing over your bodypanels, then what's the big deal about spending 3 hours to paint something with good stuff?


I'm not trying to sound mean. I am just curious what makes it seem so hard to do?


Do you want me to make you a list of every single specific paint component you have to get in order to shoot? The paint retailer usually does a good job of giving you what you need, if you have a rough idea of what you want. Example: Let's say you want to use basic PPG base clear system, and that's all you know, aside from your paint color. You tell them that, and tell them you want basic stuff, but not bottom of the line stuff. They will then say, "Ok Mr. Soandso, we'll set you up with PPG DBU basecoat, and PPG 2021 clear. Here is your pint of basecoat, and here's the proper DR-1170 reactive reducer for it. I'll label the reducer for you with some tape so you know this goes with the basecoat. And here is a quart of 2021 clearcoat, and here's a pint of hardener for that clearcoat. I'll just label those as well, and here's some stir sticks, and strainers to get you started."

...and then, you'll be just fine, and your bike will be of the shiney variety once again.


Hope this helps in a lightly comedical fashion.

VEry nice help there (and humor) Guess i wont paint mine afterall. seems too hard. (kidding :whistle: )

Im going to go out and strip my tank here shortly, after I make sure its clean on the inside too. No use wasting painting it and then ruining the paint while I am cleaning the inside.

---

as for the aircraft paint stripper on bondo, I will be spraying my used bondo cardboard too, Just to see what happens :woohoo:

body suits or tyvek suits are meant to keep the airborne contaminents to a minimum not to protect the painter. with a large enough paint room/booth you should be able to breathe fine with a decent resperator.
if you care about your finish, never paint outdoors.
too many chances here. chances of animals,leaves,bugs and airbornes. even if you have to paint in your garage it still beats painting outdoors.

and im not quite sure why everyone thinks that to repaint a tank you have to strip it.....
bottom line...stripper is nasty and your asking for rust.o2,h2o and corrosives=rust.
the ONLY time i go down to bare metal is if the paint is unstable,rust,pits,mods or filling.

basic painting is very easy if you do a little research.
it's the candy's and multi-layer graphics that get tricky.

ONLY time i go down to bare metal is if the paint is unstable,rust,pits,mods or filling.


Yup, that why I am. this tank has nasty ding's all over it and rust pockets everywhere also. it sat outside with bare spots and only covered in primer to boot. so I am faced with a bare metal project.

On the painting outside thing, i have no choice at all. I'm not blessed with a garage and the wife wont let me paint in the shed with all her "i will use em again someday" things stored in there. I am under a 10X10 tent awning, so I will do with what I have I guess and hope for the best. If all goes bad I will take it to my Brothers (will anyhow) and have him cut & buff it for me when I am done spraying.

Flattened mosquitoes all over the tank might look different too! could fetch alot of money from a Bug Scientist!:woohoo:

i didnt mean you personally (almost every paint thread i see, they ask what to strip it with) but you do bring up a good point. i might practice with painting outdoors to see what kind of bugs i can get on my paint then use them as masking;) .
hell who knows i might luck out and get a dragonfly or something. if i get a few of em it might turn out to be a cool pattern,:lol:

I have no place to paint inside as well, and professional paint jobs are way outside my budget

A long time ago when I was a Vehicle Maintenance Superintendant in the AF, a shop I ran had a paint and body guy assigned but lacked a paint booth. He would get a vehicle (Pickup, sedan, or whatever) prepped the night before, and then come in at 5 am (in the summer) and wet the pavement down outside the shop, pull the vehicle out and paint it. The reasoning was that at 5 am, the sun is rising, the humidity is low, and the bugs aren't awake yet
Worked pretty well too, seldomly had bugs or dust in the paint and the vehicles came out looking pretty good.
Of course the standard for military vehicle paint jobs is a little lower than commercial

Oh yeah, this was at Hancock Field, N. Syracuse NY.

Post edited by: steell, at: 2006/03/17 20:02

there are ways around not having to shoot outdoors.
you could buy an awning type structure for around $45 and plastic around it.get a fan and you should be good to go.the whole rig should cost around $65-70
ive done my fair share of low budget painting.

if your worried about respiratory problems just take a suck or two off your air hose and hold your breath:ohmy: :sick: :ohmy: :sick: :ohmy: :sick: :ohmy: :sick:

mykznme wrote:

there are ways around not having to shoot outdoors.
you could buy an awning type structure for around $45 and plastic around it.get a fan and you should be good to go.the whole rig should cost around $65-70
ive done my fair share of low budget painting.

That most likely what I will be doing, but the primer no, it sands out.

I sanded my butt off today, this tank was full of Dings and rust spots but im getting the better of it.

Since I havent got any tank badges I decided to fill in the areas, How hard is it to pop out the brackets that are tack welded onto the tank for the badges? I keep getting a high spot and have no grinder. I could always use the dremmel but dont have the sanding drums right now.

im am pretty pleased how its going so far, but this tank will never be perfect, oh well. i was hoping it would have been in better shape but nope.:S it will look ok though.

Heres what I did today.

.