No rattle can

Just finished my first NON rattle can paint job.
I used A two part primer, House of Kolor base coat green Fine Platinum flake with three coats clear. The bike is my 1977 KZ650.

Looks like British Green. Nice. Didn't you paint the tail?

jimstan wrote:

Just finished my first NON rattle can paint job.
I used A two part primer, House of Kolor base coat green Fine Platinum flake with three coats clear. The bike is my 1977 KZ650.

I have a question, from the context of a person (me) about to do a non-rattle-can paint job also.

That 'House of Kolor' paint is 'spensive so I've heard! How much did you use, and how much $$ did it cost?


- Did you use an acrylic or enamel primer?

- was the base coat an acrylic paint or enamel paint?

- this might be just the photo quality -- but why doesn't it look glossy? I thought clear-coating it would make it glossy?

And if I'm wrong about the clear coat adding a gloss -- how do professional (as in body shop) painters manage to get bike tanks to look so shiny?

I like the color and especially the metallic flake in it!
The machine's in excellent shape too.

Well done.
She looks great!

Primer was a two part polyester.
For the base coat I used HOK Green # SG113 it is premixed ready to spray, I used two 4oz bottles only cost $13.00. Acrylic or enamel? as far as I can tell its both ,as you can use ether type of clear over it.

The lack of gloss is the lighting and my old camera.
I will be color sanding and buffing this weekend that will make it pop.

How come the paint came out so dull? What kind of clear did you use. Mine always shine like they were wet. Here is a picture of mine, that I did.

Here is one closeup. I have not yet put any kind of sealer on it plus it has not been washed in over a year.

The wrong thinner/reducer grade can cause the paint to look less glossy. Which humidity determines which grade you should use. Might just be like he said about camera and such but if the paint was mixed with a thinner/reducer for normal conditions and paint is sprayed with higher humidity level, the moisture in the air can dull things down somewhat. Different thinners/reducers dry at different rates and if it dries too fast (slow rate of thinner/reducer) then the paint dries too fast and loses some of it's shine. Always best to use thinner/reducer rated a little slower then needed to give paint chance to flow but that does give paint more time to collect unwanted ingredients also so it's a trade-off.

I always mix my own reducer with Toluene, Xylene, and M.E.K. I haven't used an over the counter reducer for years. For the clear coat I use straight Toluene 5-10%. I also always allow my clear coat to pre-catalyze, and use it during it's final hour of pot-life. I put four coats of clear coat on fuel tanks and fairings with three coats on all other parts.

What are those that you mentioned? They sound familiar though. I would really like to know what M.E.K. is and where you get it. Was told to use that to thin out sealers like Yamabond when coating cases and such.

racer54 wrote:

I would really like to know what M.E.K. is and where you get it.

Methyl Ethel Keytone can be bought at any hardware/paint store

MEK Methyl Ethyl Ketone belongs to the Acetone family of solvents, with three major differences from Acetone. It is not hygroscopic like acetone, it drys slower and it is 100% compatible with all Urethanes and Enamels.