DIY paintjobs

davkav

Right I have this motorbike that I crashed a while back (Virago XV125S) and Ive decided to chance my arm at a bit of modding. the only thing thats wrong with the bike is the forks are bent and a **** load of cosmetic damage that it wasnt worth getting fixed so im gonna do it myself.
Im gonna start with a new paintjob and was wondering what grades of sandpaper to use to get rid of the present paint and then how to go about spray painting a new colour on.

Neil3030

http://www.web-cars.com/detail/touchup.php May help. Though it's talking about cars.

Gmodified

Had a quick look at the link and US must have different grit structure
As 1000,2000,3000 would be unusable for surface preparation, when looking at available grit here. Also this is more about auto detailing then actual paint touch up.


This bike will be sprayed with clear overcoat which means that any touching up is pointless and is easier to re-spray entire parts.
What is that you are going to paint? Is it tank\frame ? R u going to change color of the bike?

frogboy

Newbie here!
Unfortunately there's no foolproof, step by step method of learning to
paint, just trial & error, here're some of the things which have worked
for me. It's not an exhaustive list, but some of the important points.
If you've any other questions, ask & I'll try & help.

The adage goes "The three most important things about painting are
preparation, preparation & preparation". It's true.
Ordinary sandpaper isn't going to do the job for you, you'll need to go
to a motor factor or paint supplier and get some "wet & dry", this comes in
various grits, 260, 400, 600, 1200 & a fair few in between, the lower the
number, the coarser it is. As the name suggests it can be used wet or dry,
always use it wet, (warm & soapy is good), this keeps the dust down, &
keeps the paper from clogging.
It may not be neccesary to take your tank down to bare metal, if the
existing paint is sound & isn't flaking off anywhere, rub it down well with
400, or maybe some thing a little coarser to key the surface, & repair any damaged areas with filler. It might sound obvious, but go easy on the filler or
you'll be sanding forever, go out over the edges of the dent with filler so you
can blend the repair in when you sand it back.
Then it's back to the 400 wet and dry until you're happy that you've got a
good smooth surface to paint on. If you dry the tank off with a hair dryer &
look at it under decent lighting, (fluorescent or daylight), you'll be able to see
any high or low spots or other blemishes, these can usually be fixed with
cellulose putty & more sanding. If you can see faults at this point they'll
be twice as obvious once the paint's on.
Assuming you're planning on using rattle can paints there are a few things
to note.
Get plenty of primer & don't be afraid to use it.
Don't bother with the small cans of touch-up paint you see in some shops,
not worth the trouble.
If you're going for a basic colour, most car part shops have large cans of
black/white/red acrylic paints, you can get good results with these.
Most autopaint shops can make up aerosols for you in any colour you want,
they're expensive, (€15+ each), but they cover well & a couple of cans would
probably do a small tank & couple of mudguards.
Metallic paint from a can is easy to **** up, hard to get right. Hardly worth the headache.
Paint goes on best in warm, dry, dust free conditions. A cold, damp garage
in mid winter isn't ideal. If you can warm the place up a bit, good, but no
gas heaters/naked flames while you're spraying for obvious reasons.
Standing the aerosols in hot water for a while can be good as well, increases
the pressure in the can & make the paint a little more fluid, again for obvious
reasons don't heat the cans with direct heat.
Everything must be dry before you think about laying down paint.
Apply the paint in thin coats. Apply the next coat before the previous one is totally dry, this way you get a good chemical bond between each layer.
Get plenty of paint on, but don't rush it, so if you get any runs you can rub
them out once the paint has cured, without going through the paint.
When you're finished lock the garage /shed/whatever so the dog/cat/resident
idiot can't mess up your hard work.
When the paint's fully cured you'll be able to rub out minor blemishes with
1200 w&d, (wet again), followed by T-Cut to finish.

Having said all that, for almost instant, first motorcycle paintjob gratification,
satin black takes an awful lot of beating. Do as much of the prep work as you
can stand, it's never wasted work. Go out & buy half a dozen cans of satin
black paint, (not matt black), then paint. It's good stuff, cheap, goes on
easy, hides a multitude of sins, drys quick & your bike will be black & mean like a bike's supposed to be. Don't let the current trend for American Chopper
inspired, €5k bad taste paint, jobs kid you otherwise.

Gmodified

good advise frogboy. Preparation is the key, in regards to sanding you get great effect when using combination of 3 paper grits starting from the lowest, this removes most of the scraches previously introduces by lower grit paper . Always sand bigger area not only filled or damaged spot as will be visible later. Also heat is good but not too much heat as will introduce airborne dust which is simply drying overspray, with smaller areas is easier to pre heat the panel (watch the fuel tank ) which will make the paint dry quicker with less chance of ****e sticking to it, which is important when doing DIY painting as conditions are different. After painting you can heat the panel again but watch it, as you can easily boil the paint . Some paints have to be baked anyway.

Cellulose paint is the best for DIY.However, lacquer finish will be hard wearing and look the business on the chopper but you will need spray gun for it as cans are brutal.

Well, if you have no access to spray gun then can will have to do.

frogboy

Gmodified made a good point about heat, not too much, the point is to have a
reasonable ambient temperature, ie room temperature. If it's too cold the paint
seems to shrink & you wind up with a kind of orange peel/fat birds arse effect,
particularly if you're laying it on a bit thick.
Something else worth mentioning is DO NOT, under any circumstances, be
tempted to wipe whatever you're painting down with a cloth that may have
thinners, turps, petrol, or any kind of solvent on it. You will regret it when it
comes to paint time.
I worked in a body shop for a while & one day I was told to wipe down a car
to get the dust off ready for painting. There's stuff called tack cloth, it's
tacky, & when you wipe things dust sticks to it & doesn't get airborn, looked
just the same as the other cloth they had in the place though. Not knowing
the difference at this point I picked up a cloth & started on the bonnet.
From painting stuff at home I know why you don't clean stuff down
with thinners, so the smell should have given it away, but the cloth I had
wasn't even wet. Halfway through the bonnet I'm thinking "somethings not
right here", & had a surreptitious sniff of the rag, sure enough faint
scent of thinners on it. There was nobody else about so I did the decent
thing, got a clean one, finished wiping down & went home. The next time
I was in, (part time job), there's a freshly painted Escort in the shed with
lumpy paint on the bonnet with the painter going "that's strange",I agreed
with him, made no further comments & went & made the tea.

Gmodified

o yeah, cellulose thinner is lethal

Lenny

If you're looking for any sandpapers or anyhting give me a shout ill se what I can do,
work in a big garage
One or two of the lads may be intrested in painting your bix for a nixer?
you be intrested?

heggie

on the topic of this, can anyone recommend a good place to get my integra sprayed ? lookin at either pearlescent orange or a lime green, thanks oh yeh and how much!