Best paint with air sprayer

[andrewclaycomb]

I've been searching and it seems like every paint my bike post relates to rattle can. I have an air compressor and I'm going to get a HVLP touch up gun. What else do I need? Respirator? what grits of sandpaper? Anything else? Also what primer, paint, clear combinations are working really well for you guys?

Any tips on how to actually paint the bike? I've got a second complete set of bodywork so I'm ok with "learning" as I go.

My garage will get to be my "paint booth" My plan is to open the garage door about halfway and stick a fan in the opening blowing air out of the garage. My last rattle can paint booth was a storage unit with an open garage door and surprisingly I got very little orange peel.

I'm growing tired of flat black, and am ready for something with color and shine!

Thanks in advance!

[Nessism]

Respirator is a must. Auto paints are pretty toxic, the better stuff is not even 100% safe to use with a charcoal mask, you need a fresh air supply (which I don't use).

I like PPG products although they are getting killer expensive. DP Epoxy primer, DBC base coat, and urethane clear. The good clear (2001/2002) is not sold in my area any more do to VOC issues, fortunately, even the low VOC stuff is pretty good.

You need to fit some sort of water drying device on your compressor or it will spit water all over your nice spray job.

Painting a bike is just like a car in terms of prep, sanding, spraying, etc. Start by removing all the old finish and filling dents with plastic filler. Follow that up with a couple of coats of epoxy primer. Sand smooth with 600 wet. If you cut through, hit it again with the primer and build it up a little more. After the primer is nice and smooth you can shoot the base coat and a couple layers of clear. I like to let this set up followed by sanding with 1000 grit before adding graphics. Two more clear layers and you are done.

Not hard to do at all, just take patients...and lots of money since the paint is expensive. Find someone to go in with you to split the cost - you will have more than enough paint to paint a whole slew of bikes using the smallest sizes available.

First photo is before the last two layers of clear.








Good luck.

[andrewclaycomb]

Wow, the difference between before and after the last two clear coats is unreal!

So you don't sand between each coat?

[posplayr]

Another little trick

Nessism I would be very proud If my parts look as good as that tank. Fortunately I'm doing red and blue so it wont be quite as critical as the Black.

Anyway, when sanding the primer, it is a little easier to use two different color primers when sanding rather than sanding through. What we used to do was, put on a nice layer of sand able light Grey (this also seems to make red show nicer), then just lightly fog the Grey after dry with a dark Grey or black. Now when you sand, any low spots will not sand out and any of the high spots you will immediately go through the fogged dark color. If you go through to metal no problems you will just have to paint the primer the whole thing again to get the level back up. This technique highlights the low spots where more application of primer or filler (if it is really down) is needed.

Posplayr

P.S. watch out for any pilot lights, if for example you have a water heater in the garage. Personally I don't know how well this would work in my garage; maybe yours is spotless (and no dust). Also when painting outside you would want to wash down all the floor surfaces to wet down any dust (in the garage???).

Also practice so you know your gun.

[Nessism]

Wow, the difference between before and after the last two clear coats is unreal!

So you don't sand between each coat?

The term "coat" means each layer, it's common for two wet layers to be laid down, with flash time between each, followed by dry time. After drying is sanding time.

1) Spray two wet coats of primer...let dry...sand with 600 grit wet.

2) Spray as many coats of base coat as necessary to get the color effect you want. No need to sand after this.

3) Spray two wet coats of clear...let dry...sand with 1000 grit wet.

4) Add pinstrips, decals, etc.

5) Spray two wet coats of clear...let dry...done (or color sand with 2000 and polish).

[PAULYBOY]

I've been searching and it seems like every paint my bike post relates to rattle can. I have an air compressor and I'm going to get a HVLP touch up gun. What else do I need? Respirator? what grits of sandpaper? Anything else? Also what primer, paint, clear combinations are working really well for you guys?

Any tips on how to actually paint the bike? I've got a second complete set of bodywork so I'm ok with "learning" as I go.

My garage will get to be my "paint booth" My plan is to open the garage door about halfway and stick a fan in the opening blowing air out of the garage. My last rattle can paint booth was a storage unit with an open garage door and surprisingly I got very little orange peel.

I'm growing tired of flat black, and am ready for something with color and shine!

Thanks in advance!

Andrew, last time I sprayed, which was in a onecar attached garage, I put a fan in front of the door to the house, and sprayed at the other end of the garage with the door fully open. The fan was at my back, but at such a distance so as not to kick up dust or alter the spray pattern as it was airborne. Seemed to work very good, best results I've gotten so far. Make sure the sun isn't coming in (garage door facing the sun) because most paints catalyze mostly due to UV rays.
Nessism must have a lot of experience, his advice is rigght on the button.

[ggreenfield]

My dad owned a body shop before I was born and until long after I left home to venture out into the world and for most of those years he had no official paint booth and yet he could do some pretty nice work. One trick I recall is using a logging chain attached to the frame of the car with the other end left to lie on the floor. This keeps the car (or in this case bike) grounded so as not to build up any static electricity which will attract dust. As previously mentiond we too would clean the entire shop front to back, top to bottom and wash the floor w/ a hose and leave the floor a bit damp to help keep dust down.

The littlest bit of grease, oil or silicone will make your paint look terrible.

The littlest bit of dust can do the same. Use a tackrag and take your time getting all the dust off. I always start with an air gun and clean rag and work my way from there to the tackrag. The tackrag is for the smallest bits of dust.

If you don't have a tackrag a bit of rattlecan paint sprayed on a clean rag will do the trick.

Insects are your enemy! If you get a fly in your paint job it will undoubtedly be in the most noticeable place possible. On a car that place is the hood right in front of the driver. :roll: On a bike I suppose that's the top of the tank.

If you do use your garage it's possible that you'll have <insert your spray color here> walls when you finish although the HVLP is likely to reduce this quite a bit. You could buy some inexpensive tarps and cover all the walls but be sure nothing is going to flap in the wind and create dust.

As to spray guns - you can get pretty good results with an inexpensive gun but always keep the fluid needle and tip clean. If you have a bad spray pattern you'll have a hard time laying it down evenly. Spray in a logical left to right and back again pattern releasing the trigger between passes. On a car i usually overlap patterns approx. 1/2 way but on smaller parts it's easy to get too much paint in some areas simply because it's hard not to hit them multiple times. This is how you get a run or a sag in your finish. In those cases I'll usually hit the hard to reach areas first with a quick burst and finally fill in between them to avoid runs.

Make sure you have everything you need in the shop before you get started. Opening the door is a good way to stir up some air and subsequently some dust.

Now then.....
it's been a few years since I've sprayed anything - we'll find out just how rusty I am sometime this summer.

[tkent02]

My methods will be vehemently opposed, but they work for me.
I paint outside, in cold weather. There are no bugs around here in winter, and no dust.
The paint and the gun needs to be warm, and the item being painted needs to be warm.
It all needs to be warm after spraying to dry normally.
So I take them outside one at a time, shoot a little paint, bring them back in.
I crank the heat in my little shop, to keep things warm.
The temperature of the air the paint flies through coming out of the gun does not seem to make much difference.

If something small gets into the paint it does not matter, I will be wet sanding anyway.

Blowing snowflakes tend to land in the worst place too, so wait until it stops snowing.

Respirator is not required if you use any breeze to your advantage, don't spray into the wind, and don't breath the stuff.

I have done this in weather below freezing, it worked fine.

Not sure it works with all paints, some types may be more sensitive to temperature extremes. But nothing really gets that cold if it's only outside for a minute.

[PAULYBOY]

One trick I recall is using a logging chain attached to the frame of the car with the other end left to lie on the floor. This keeps the car (or in this case bike) grounded so as not to build up any static electricity which will attract dust. As previously mentiond we too would clean the entire shop front to back, top to bottom and wash the floor w/ a hose and leave the floor a bit damp to help keep dust down.


If you don't have a tackrag a bit of rattlecan paint sprayed on a clean rag will do the trick.

Insects are your enemy! If you get a fly in your paint job it will undoubtedly be in the most noticeable place possible. On a car that place is the hood right in front of the driver. :roll: On a bike I suppose that's the top of the tank.

As to the fly in the ointment, I had a Mercedes that I had to replace the hood on, painted it in my backyard. I was really patting myself on the back that day. Painted it right at dusk soas not to suffer the ill effects of the daytime wind. Went out the next morning and found a huge fly in the clearcoat right in front of where a hood star mounts in an older Mercedes. AHHHHHH! Then again, it did become a conversation piece around my workplace.

[Nessism]

Could be just an urban legend…but I’ve heard that fly’s in the paint/fiberglass work of early Ducati’s is sort of a badge of honor documenting the parts authenticity.

[Billy Ricks]

Could be just an urban legend…but I’ve heard that fly’s in the paint/fiberglass work of early Ducati’s is sort of a badge of honor documenting the parts authenticity.

I've heard the same about Ferrari. The Ducati thing I believe is true. I've seen magazine writers comment on it before.

[SqDancerLynn1]

If their is any question about you tank ? Have it boiled & coated before painting!!!! Will save lots of sanding time