Painting Your Bike

[camthepyro]

Does anyone have a step-by-step guide to painting your bike? Preferable with pics, thanks.

[NorthernPete]

Grind, sand, clean, prime, sand, prime, (repeat sanding and priming X amount of times, until you think it looks good) pick colour you like, apply, sand apply, clear coat.

This is my rattle can method, seemed to work for me.

Oh, and the badges come off pretty easy (screws)

[camthepyro]

Ok, can you just use ordinary spray paint for the color paint, and for the clear acryllic spray paint stuff for the clear coat?

[NorthernPete]

I dont see why not, just watch when you get your next fuel fill up not to spill, I found the spray paint doesnt react well to solvents...IE gas.

But its cheap, and not hard to do, and if you dont liek the colour, hey, 7 bucks got you a new colour. and once you find a good one, get it done by a professional.

[camthepyro]

Ok, I might try it out, I'm probably going to have to get a new gas tank, and side plastics. So I want to paint them all to match (as well as the rear cowl), but I don't want to spend much money. I don't really care if it comes out looking professional, as long as it's a uniform color, and was like melt or something.

[snwbrdr]

if you are gonna do your pipes or anything that gets hot dont forget that you have to use high temp paint.

[Stratus311]

I'm in the process of finishing up paint on my bike(only the gas tank is left) and the method I used was primer till everything fairly lightly covered, lightly wetsand with 600 grit, dry completely. Touch up any bare spots you see. Then with the color coat, spray *lightly* all over. The first time I painted I basically sprayed until I saw some gloss; don't do this. It will chip very easily if you spray too heavy. Anyways, I sprayed several light coats until it was pretty uniform. Then I wetsanded(after it dried ofcourse) with 1000 and then 1500 grit to pretty make the paint look like scratched poo. The I went over it with a few coats of clear. Then wetsanded one last time with 1500 grit. After that, go over it with some Polishing Compound a few times(rubbing lightly). If you take your time you can make a rattle can paint job look pretty good. Here's a couple pics for you:






As a side note, I only used Dupli-color primer, and Engine Enamel Gloss Black for color coat.

[snwbrdr]

i just did my pipes and used the same paints. they look pretty good.