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This is the second time making this post, a gremlin ate the first one

I have started painting my bike in my garage. This will save some money but the time it takes to do your own is expensive. I am posting my triumphs and pitfalls here so others may learn who wish to follow along.

Please do not ask about the final results as those are now a national secret.

First and foremost ALWAYS USE THE SAME COMPANY ON ALL CHEMICALS AND PAINTS!!!! I did not heed this warning and I am currently paying the price. I will explain later in the thread.

These are the supplies you WILL need to paint the bike properly. The picture is missing an Item that was not shipped to me as requested and that is the PRIMER that goes with all the paints.


You will need the cleaner to removed all the crap from the factory off the plastic so it will bond with the primer. You will need the adhesion promoter to assure bonding of the primer is strong. THESE ARE HUGE TIPS I GOT AT A PAINT SHOP

Next you need a safe place to paint that will not bother your family or tick off your landlord with paint over spray. I used a cage that I have in my garage and converted it into a Painting Tent. If you want the specs PM me and I will try to get them to you.


Once you have all your paints, chemicals, and painting area you will need to start sanding off the clear coat and paint off the parts to be painted. If there are chips in the paint down to the plastic you will have to sand that area and feather the bare plastic to be smooth to the surrounding paint. This will take A LOT of time. The first sanding i did took 10-14 hrs a day for a full week. The reason i say first sanding is I used a Krylon Plastic Paint as a primer and that turned out to be disastrous. I have been using a shop vac next to the sanding surface to keep the paint dust down, this has turned out to be a very good idea as there is very little paint dust in my garage after sanding.





As you can see from the picture I am working on sanding off the other primer which is taking yet another week out of my life.

The next thing you have to think about is how are you going to dry the parts that are painted. I decided to take metal coat hangers and cut them down to small pieces. I hang on end on the garage door rail and the other to the piece so it is not touching the ground. I have read that using anything to cover the freshly painted areas is a no-no and will cause errors in the paint job.



I will update this thread as time progresses and my achievements are made clear. I go back to school on Jan 19 so there will be long pauses in the work so please bear with.

I hope this helps you guys/girls in painting your own bikes 

Great post!
On pins n needles to see rest ... and finished product.
Thanks for taking time to show us how you're going about it.

No problem, I am on pins and needles too to see the finished product


Here are some pics of how I am using the shop vac and how I am sanding the parts to make life a bit easier since I fail to possess 8 arms and hands (geneticists need to hurry up with genetic manipulations)

Great job so far. Here's a hint for future projects. If the current paint job is in good shape (no peeling, cracking, etc...) you don't have to sand it away. Just rough up the surface with 600 grit wet/dry sand paper (do this after washing and degreasing the parts so you don't impregnate oils into the paint). Wash off the dust and degrease one more time, then you can prime and paint. It doesn't take nearly as long to sand when you're just roughing up the surface. Nice little paint booth. Are you venting it at all or are you just working on one part at a time and changing out? Usually ventilation is a good thing to add or the solvents build up too much and cause other problems with the paint. By the way, you are very correct about using the same brand paint for all parts. This guarantees compatibility with the between the paint chemicals and avoids problems down the road. Also, what are you using to lay the paint down? Good luck with the project.

David

The blue parts will be only sanded down to the plastic in the places that are chipped that far, which is only a few but the fairings were really bad on the bottom that is why they are sanded down so much.

The tent is vented on the bottom on all sides. It is only a painting area because of all the over spray dust and what not that will get into the tent after painting. The parts will be hung using the hangers to dry. Just wish the oven was big enough to fit the parts so i could bake them at 430 degrees, but such is life huh?

Because the parts are small enough I am using a small air brush kit that i bought for models and rockets. I have the nozzles for different styles including large surfaces to very fine lines. I will have the compressor on the outside of the tent while i shoot. All the paints and primers are coming in cans. I was told NEVER to use a rattle can on a project like this because it will not lay the paint even enough to have the finish i am looking for.

This project has opened my eyes to a lot of different things and why paint shops charge so much

Nice work Canter. I love a good DIY project.

The idea to make yourself a little spray booth is something I probably would have overlooked, so good thinking!!!!!

Cant wait to see your final result. Thanks for putting up the thread and pics.

Why did you have to paint the bike in the first place ??

I read something about chipped of paint..... where and why ?

I am painting the bike because I want a unique bike.

The chips were on the bottom of the fairings and front fender

Looking forward to seeing the whole process and the results.


Quick tip with loosing posts after alot of work ,is submit or "save" your long posts as you go ,i've done long how to posts and lost them if the post take over 20 minutes to make with pictures etc.

Sounds like you have it under control. Yes, spray cans will not give a very consistent finish over large surfaces. It's much better to use a compressor and air sprayer. Keep up the good work.

With in the next few days I will be posting some more pics of the project. I am still sanding parts (will it ever end?).

Patience bud, patience ...............

UPDATE

I got my primer in today and the catalyst ruptured in the box. The company is already closed for the day so I will find out what they say about it in the morning. Looks its going to be another week delay before i can start painting

There are pics of the bike in the "she is completely naked" thread....enjoy....perverts

Welcome back to another exciting episode of DIY “Bike Painter Edition”.

This weeks episode include….you guessed it “more sanding”. If you have no life what so ever then the best way to eat up a bunch of time for weeks on end, then I recommend that you strip your bike and start sanding.
Before we get to the endless excitement I have to mention some of my downsides for this week. As reported before “I think” My last shipment of materials for the painting came with a clear coat instead of primer. This lead to another week of cooling my heals, this lead to more ideas and more sanding due to boredom. The primer finally arrived at my house about 5 days later (on ColorRites dime). For some reason unbeknownst to me, the disgruntled employee of ColorRite did not provide enough packing material in the box which caused the Primer Catalyst to rupture in the box. Now I am waiting for yet another delivery of my Primer so I can start painting.
I started sanding the tank by hand, but after noticing the factory decided to use a full 55 gal drum of clear coat just on the tank I switched over to using a power sander. This did cut the time down but it did take most of the afternoon to sand the tank down, but now I have to used the dremel to get to the paint on the lower lip. The lower lip would shred the sand paper on the rotary sander. The down side other than the lower lip was the amount of paint dust produced. The vacuum did “okay” but still had a lot of paint dust to clean up.

All in all I am happy with the way things are turning out. I have some parts on order and some new parts already on the bike. This is a very long project so please keep that in mind if you are planning on doing this yourself.

Stayed tune for another exciting episode of DIY “Bike Painter Edition”

Must say better than the daily soap this,cant wait to see finished project how much do you think the full cost of the work will be,you must have got the patience of a saint and very sore hands.Just had aq brill idea paint it orange and black and you will have one of those fast er ones,only joking keep up the good work