First paint job

way cool, the job is on off 281 and the 1604 loop, I will try to look you up when I get this job up and going

Congrats George ! I'm glad you have venturened into real painting. I mean the kind that will better sustain environment and wear. Although I'd like to say just as a word of caution.(and I'm sure you are doing) is......to protect yourself by wearing a quality respirator. You should as well cover as much of your body from overspray also. Remember, catalyzed paints most often have isocynates in them. Generally in the hardner. This is harmful to you. Just be careful. Looking foward to see your results.

Congrats George ! I'm glad you have venturened into real painting. I mean the kind that will better sustain environment and wear. Although I'd like to say just as a word of caution.(and I'm sure you are doing) is......to protect yourself by wearing a quality respirator. You should as well cover as much of your body from overspray also. Remember, catalyzed paints most often have isocynates in them. Generally in the hardner. This is harmful to you. Just be careful. Looking foward to see your results.

BSKZ650, Drop me an email and I will send you a note with contact info, etc. lesho@bigfoot.com

George, have you made any progress on the paint? Inquiring minds want to know.

Sure have... finished the paint work. See pics in the project folder. I did learn a bit.

1. Don't mix too much paint... too much paint mixed will start to set up before it can be used and once it starts to set up, you can't stir it back; metallics start to separate some
2. More sanding and use of better filler probably was in order. Buy a bunch of tack cloth or figure out how to clean the surface of "stuff".
3. Biggest problem was not using proper "stands". The fender was especially tricky as I set it on a cardboard box with a 4x4 under it and it was too low. The tank had similar problems. Paint would come out the top of my guns resevoir when I bent over... next time I will build some simple stands and have the work up on a higher level.
4. Clearcoat needs some practice. Shooting primer and then the base is just a matter of cover. Painting is similar to using a rattle can in that you can apply with short bursts; moving across the work... the clear doesn't spray the same... it needs to be flowed on and put down a bit heavier. It is HARD to see... even in direct sunlight. I was thin on the clear in places.

All in all, not as bad as I thought. Prep is most important. I did a couple coats of primer, three coats of base (each pretty thin) and then three coats of clear. I could probably have laid down another coat of clear as there were thin places that were hard to catch with the work set on cardboard boxes.

I used NAPA paint... their "value" (cheap) line paint. The brand name was Crossfire. I used a Harbor Freight detail gun that cost less than $20. It didn't hold enough paint for the first coat of primer and I had to add paint for the first coat but after that, the resevoir on the gun was large enough to cover all body parts at least once. It was not an HVLP gun and needed to be run at 50 PSI... my compressor was definitely not stressed and hardly kicked on; certainly not as much as running a die grinder or something.

Anyway, that is my initial experience. I had about $140 in the paint I guess with plenty left to do another bike. I will be painting my rattle can Barney bike next as it will be going into the shop for a freshening up.

wiredgeorge wrote:

Sure have... finished the paint work. See pics in the project folder. I did learn a bit.

What do you mean, "projects folder"? I'm lost on how to see your pics...

its the last forum in the forum list

In the project folder, I posted links... pics are hosted on photobucket.com so they won't take forever to load on this site. Only posted one pic directly.

BTW: Picked out the next project color... green metallic. I am going to repaint my purple rattle can bike "Barney".

your killing purple with green? thats just WRONG!!!