TOPIC:

Tyrell Corp wrote: You can polish the orange peel / fingerprints / dust out using 1200 1500 2000 wet , then hand glaze compound.

Also avoid the temptation to bake it in the sun, you could get solvent pop bubbles in the clear if you force it too much.

I do not have an buffing tool so not really sure I want to mess with the shine? Or can it really be done by hand?

Yes, I wouldn't have any time to mess around with it until next weekend so just a slow nice curing process in the garage

If anything I learnt so far patience is the key.... I did not realise the 10 minutes between coats could feel forever!!

How many cans of each did you need ?

Here's my 'bill of material'

Duplicolor Monza Red DSF45 large can $19
Duplicolor Satellite Silver DSC65 small can $16
Duplicolor Vespers Blue DSH86 small can $16
Spray Max 2K Clear coat $46
HyStick low-stick tape $10
Fine blue masking tape $9
320, 800 grit papers $10
Body filler already had, about $12
=====================================
Total: $138

Professional paint would cost me $620 ($500 + $120 for the decals)

I don't know. If it was a really nice/historical bike like z900 I'd just do it professionally. But this bike started as somewhat a rat bike so anything was bound to be great improvement. Plus it's learning a new skills and also appreciate what work involved in professional job. Simple things like fighting dust almost makes a professional paint booth worth the money just by itself.

Primer
panel wipe
fine putty filler
hand glaze compound


Hand finishing and compounding is ideal, buffing machines are more suited to cars. When wet sanding the clear you will see it coming off as a milky white colour. If you get colours then you have sanded through to the basecoat - Angular GPz bits harder than the more 'bubbly' curved earlier kz styling. Go really light on any edges.

If you screw it up you can key it, degrease and shoot more clear on -only after it is fully hardened. Obviously you want to use the same brand of clear.

I just checked the job and it's now harden real well. I really don't want to bother it. What brand of Hand Glaze would you recommend?

The shine is deep, feels smooth and 'fluid'. I am sold to 2K paint now ! .. but still don't like the health risk.

There are iso-free 2K clear on the market such as this one. I wonder if it's a great & safer alternative. If so I might just invest in spray gun

www.hichem.com.au/htmlfiles/trade%20auto...20repai/2Kclears.htm

Nice save in your final step before clear coat. You can knock down the orange peel with 2000 wetsand, then buff with a polisher and wax. It won't look so "plasticy" then either.

That looks really good and you were creative to work within your budget. Even the best professional painter equipped with top of line equipment are going to get some orange peel. When I was searching for painting information I came across an article for professional collision repair shops on how to duplicate the factory orange peel on a brand new car. Interestingly, there are different techniques to duplicate US, Asia and European manufacturer's orange peel. I had never noticed until I started looking closely a brand new cars. They all have a high gloss, but try reading a printed document in the reflection. Unlike a mirror, the letters will be fuzzy.
The difference between a good paint job and show quality paint job starts after the clear coat is dry. Careful fine grit (1500 - 2000)wet sanding and polish bring out that mirror finish. It can be intimidating to start sanding your nice glossy finish. The trick is knowing when to stop and having the confidence that the polish will bring the gloss back . As mentioned, you are OK as long as the sanding color is a milky white. However, it's to late if you start seeing base color, because you've already sanded thru.
If you do decide to try it, sanding will show just how bad the orange peel is. The high spots will be flat or dull and the low areas will be glossy. Your first response will be that you've ruined your paint job. As you progress, the glossy "valleys" will become smaller as you level the surface. Ideally you want to sand until they are all gone, with flat even finish. You're now ready to polish back to a high gloss. You may want to work a small area and intermittently polish to determine the acceptable level of sanding finish you are after. Better might be good enough. I also cheat a little. It's hard to notice orange peel on small areas or sharp bends. That's also the easiest place to sand thru. Minimize sanding in these areas. Concentrate on the larger flatter surfaces where the reflection will be most obvious.
An electric buffer will make the polishing job quicker. A Dual Action or DA is best for novices like us. True polishers take some skill not to burn the paint. However, you also can do it by hand. Polishing compounds are probably sold from the same place you bought your paint.
Either way, you can be proud of the job you've done. It's up to you what level you want to go to.

Thanks all for the tips. To be honest I think I chewed a bit more than I thought, as initially I was planning to just blast the whole tank with enamel . But yes really pleased how it turned out.

I think I will just enjoy it for a while. Anything better from this will require me to buy buffing tool. And by that time I would try to use acryllic clear etc... something to do in summer not rainy winter.

Indeed the more I delved into a topic the more there is to learn. I knew that car paints have orange peel from the factory... but I did not know that European orange peel is different than Japanese ones. And that Mazda has the worst orange peel there is!!!

So perhaps sometimes in the future I'd buy one of this "ANI R150" mini gun and start painting stuff with acryllic or iso-free clears. Sounds like a great hobby when the weather is good.

If at some point you do decide to sand it with 1500 or 2000 grit paper or rub it out with polishing compound you will improve you chances of success if you keep water running continuously on the area you are working on. Doing this will keep flushing fine abrasives and paint debris off the paint so they don't cause any damage to the paint's surface. Many years ago a real pro painted an Austin Healey I owned, and after a few months to let the paint cure we polished it out using polishing compound and running water. When we were finished the car looked like it was made of British Racing Green glass! Ed

Many years ago a real pro painted an Austin Healey I owned, and after a few months to let the paint cure we polished it out using polishing compound and running water. When we were finished the car looked like it was made of British Racing Green glass! Ed

"Dipped in glass" look call it -my favorite part of the job. There are buffers with water washing built in, but for the angular GPz lines by hand is best imo.

Dr Rot, interesting, your priming tech is different and probably better than mine, I used a 1k high build primer previously , but in future will use a 2k...just the weight of the tin makes me think it will be loads better.

2k clear you really can't beat. There are respirators with a replaceable 30 hour use cartridge available.

Another thing worth doing would have been a couple of test pieces on old paint cans -then OP could have experimented a bit with finishing.

MDZ1 great write up, clear flatting is quite tricky, you explained it really well.

Problem with getting 'into' paint is that most factory / accident repair car paint suddenly becomes glaringly bad. Time is money. Also explains the high cost of motorcycle paintwork compared to car resprays.

... and for the Final product (for now!) ... I really think it's 'good enough' and don't want to waste what little sunny day left this season to muck around with buffing or painting

THANK YOU ALL for your help and TIPS!!

a job well done

don