I decided to crash Italian Car Fest with my Ducati… but I couldn’t do it with just a run of the mill Dark, I had some changes to make.
My girlfriend wouldn’t hesitate to tell you what my favorite color is. Most people would think that it’s boring, but when it’s unexpected it can make quite a statement.
This is what I had to start with:
In the back is my new seat cap, I’ll get to that later.
Sanding…
…very important
When you need to mask off a hole, it’s best to run the tape nice and taught straight across the gap like so:
It makes for a nice strong structure, as opposed to if all the tape was parallel.
This is one of the reasons I like doing this kind of thing
That raised edge always bugged me with the original part, it comes from surface tension in the original coating causing material to “pool” at the edge of a part.
It takes a while to get rid of it…
…as you can see I had to go through several layers of material before I reached the true low spot.
More masking:
I tried to follow the original mask as best I could.
A clear tube sanded to somewhat match the inside contour of the fender hot glued into place gives me a handle for painting.
Bolts in the bumper holes keep the threads clean and allow me to turn the part over without touching down what will soon be a painted surface.
The cups are there to act as the third foot, taped and hot glued.
So fresh and so clean clean
The clear coat will get just a touch of blue pearl so that it’s not quite so plain…
…blingy!
Through my job I’ve made some friends in the printing business, so I compiled some graphics and sent them off
It’s a printer/cutter so once it’s done, I can just peel them off…
…and they’ll be ready to apply
Looks kinda like a police bike…
…that wasn’t my intention, I’ve still got some ideas left.
It’s real easy to get the clear too thick and end up with stuff like this:
(My friend Chris knows all about this)
…but that’s why god invented sandpaper
Sadly I don’t have any pictures of it at the show because, figuring there’d be plenty of people taking pictures I didn’t bring my camera, and all the online albums of the show focus too much on the cars of Italian Car Fest… go figure.
I was waiting for the finished product. It looks like it was coming out perfect. How many coats of paint and clear(base coat/clear coat? Hand rubbed lacquer?) 
