Painting my 450

[pete]

Pete, set your air pressure to the manufactures recommended pressure and turn the fluid adjustment knob 2-1/2 to 3 turns out. hold the gun about 175 mm's away from a sheet of paper, pull the trigger and adjust the fans width control until the width is around 150mm. while the gun is held 150mm or so away from the paper open and close the guns trigger in one smooth movement (approx 1 second) and check the spray pattern for even coverage, atomization and proper amount of material being applied. if it runs back off on the material. if it looks too dry open it up a bit.

el-cheep-o guns are a balancing act. too much pressure and the pattern may curve (hook) or be dry in the center. too little and it won't atomize properly. they sure can tick you off trying to set it up properly for YOUR gun handling abilities (speed).

if gun sprays out evenly at what is a 'comfortable' gun speed to you, is wet but doesn't run and looks fairly smooth when applying the material you are probably close.

think of it as a giant spray can, too close it runs, to far its dry, too fast and not enough is applied, too slow and it runs. a spray can has a fixed width, you adjust it as needed on the gun.

(possibly more later)

Cheers Dale! Printed the email alert with this in it for reference and will give that a shot this morning.

I'm pretty confident I can get it going ok and get primer on today.

I'll have to repeat the process for the 1.4mm gun for the colour tomorrow so once I've got it nailed once with this gun I should have a fair idea of how to get the other one setup.

[rustybronco]

Pete, set your air pressure to the manufactures recommended pressure and turn the fluid adjustment knob 2-1/2 to 3 turns out. hold the gun about 175 mm's away from a sheet of paper, pull the trigger and adjust the fans width control until the width is around 150mm. while the gun is held 150~175mm or so away from the paper open and close the guns trigger in one smooth movement (approx 1 second) and check the spray pattern for even coverage, atomization and proper amount of material being applied. if it runs back off on the material. if it looks too dry open it up a bit.

el-cheep-o guns are a balancing act. too much pressure and the pattern may curve (hook) or be dry in the center. too little and it won't atomize properly. they sure can tick you off trying to set it up properly for YOUR gun handling abilities (speed).

if that gun sprays out evenly at what is a 'comfortable' gun speed to you, is wet but doesn't run and looks fairly smooth when applying the material you are probably close.

think of it as a giant spray can, too close it runs, to far its dry, too fast and not enough is applied, too slow and it runs. a spray can has a fixed width, you adjust it as needed on the gun.

at this stage of the process gun adjustments aren't overly critical. as long as you get that primer-surfacer to apply fairly smoothly you should be fine. keep in mind you'll get to sand a bit of it off. still, you need to know what you are looking for when it comes time for base-clear. seeing what adjustment affects what at the primer stage will help you greatly when those adjustments become a bit more critical.

speaking of which, you'll soon figure out why body filler needs to be applied and sanded correctly.
have fun and learn... what's the worst thing that could happen, you get more experience? been there and done that!

[pete]

Looking back through the Brian Martin basics article, I see two things I definitely didn't do right straight away.

Firstly, I think I had the pressure too low and it was down towards the minimum specs. I'll wind that up closer to the maximum and see what that does.

The second thing is I definitely changed the fan control during fiddling...

I think if I sort those two things out and wind the fluid control knob out a bit more I should be on the right track. Serves me right for rushing a bit...

I won't be rushing any more and will take all morning just getting a good pattern if I have to!

[pete]

Pete, try opening up the material knob on your gun a bit and see what it does. as you have it, I don't think your gun will be putting out enough material (paint) during each pass. it's a balancing act between having a evenly distributed pattern, having the material go on wet but not to the point of running and having it atomize properly.

Thanks Dale, I see what you're saying and I'll definitely get some more material flowing.

I had some difficulty working out the knobs and by that stage I was running out of time so I don't think I gave it enough attention. I'll do it again this morning while referring to my print out of that link you provided earlier from Brian Martin too.

Pete - this thread is awesome. Your paint work will come out far better than mine, as I am impatient and do dumb things (like move ahead before letting paint dry fully, not using a spray booth, etc.).

Having done two tanks with stripes over the weekend, here is one thing I picked up that might not be so dumb.

Paint the stripes first.

Did the same pattern on two tanks. The first tank I painted the base color, then let it dray and laid out and painted the striping. Even with lots of precautions and masking, there were a few bleed through spots.

When I found my new tank did not fit I decided to quickly do the old tank in the same pattern.

For that one, I primed it and then roughed in the white center stripe. After that dried, I taped off the white center and roughed in the purple border stripes. After that dried, I taped off the purple stripes, and painted the yellow.

The second sequence was better, because I could leave the tape in place as the painting progressed, and it's much easier to mask off a small area (i.e., the striping) than 80% of the tank.

HTH

Thanks mate! I had to do this thread because I'm such a noob with it and after spending a few hundred $ on paint and putting such an effort in with the rest of the bike I didn't want to screw it up.

These guys are awesome and have given me a fighting chance of a good job

I'm all set up to paint the base colour then mask for the stripes like you did the first time, but there's a couple of days before I get to them so I'll see how the primer and base coat goes on.

I do want to try a bit of tape on the scrap metal and see if I get bleed through on that, although Johnny gave me a tip earlier in the thread to get the tape down so it shouldn't bleed.

Pete - this thread is awesome. Your paint work will come out far better than mine, as I am impatient and do dumb things (like move ahead before letting paint dry fully, not using a spray booth, etc.).

Having done two tanks with stripes over the weekend, here is one thing I picked up that might not be so dumb.

Paint the stripes first.

Did the same pattern on two tanks. The first tank I painted the base color, then let it dray and laid out and painted the striping. Even with lots of precautions and masking, there were a few bleed through spots.

When I found my new tank did not fit I decided to quickly do the old tank in the same pattern.

For that one, I primed it and then roughed in the white center stripe. After that dried, I taped off the white center and roughed in the purple border stripes. After that dried, I taped off the purple stripes, and painted the yellow.

The second sequence was better, because I could leave the tape in place as the painting progressed, and it's much easier to mask off a small area (i.e., the striping) than 80% of the tank.

HTH

[rustybronco]

Pete, try opening up the material knob on your gun a bit and see what it does. as you have it, I don't think your gun will be putting out enough material (paint) during each pass. it's a balancing act between having a evenly distributed pattern, having the material go on wet but not to the point of running and having it atomize properly.

[pete]

It's upside down, Miss Jane.


That's looking the goods, Pete.
I love the shape of that tank.
A good tank for a racer, I reckon.

Oh no, I can't remember any Mr Squiggle quotes! Dammit...

I love that tank too actually, it's definitely the perfect shape for a cafe or racer...

I'm hanging to get some paint on it, but one thing at a time... gotta get that old paint off first!

Hahahhaa nice! Haven't seen Mr Squiggle for years!

Is my update in quick enough for ya'?

It's upside down, Miss Jane.


That's looking the goods, Pete.
I love the shape of that tank.
A good tank for a racer, I reckon.

[pete]

Yeah, no rush, Pete...



HURRY UP!!

Hahahhaa nice! Haven't seen Mr Squiggle for years!

Is my update in quick enough for ya'?

[pete]

So while doing other things there I ended up putting three different lots of stripper on the tank, and it now looked like this:



Just cannot find good stripper any more! That stuff is weak as water... frustrating!

Anyway, here's the best pic's I could get of my spray patterns:



The primer does not show up well on the cardboard so it was difficult trying to find a good setting. I think it ended up ok...

So that was the end of the day after cleanup, but I did go down before and do a couple of little things.

Firstly I got some 120 grit paper into the tank to try to break some more of the paint up so I can give it yet another go with the stripper in the morning:



And it then dawned on me that seeing as the flexi primer doesn't really have any substance to it along the lines of the 2K filler primer, I figured the front guard was going to be a bit scratched up from sanding to just paint over:



So I took some 240 grit to it to smooth it down and then gave it a go with the wax and grease remover again so I can spray some more flexi primer on it in the morning:



And that's where everything sits right now.

So, if I get the tank prep'd quickly enough in the morning, there's theoretically enough time to get the primer on with enough time to let it sit for a few hours ready to sand and then get the maroon on in the avo'.

In reality after today's effort I think that will be pushing it and I may be better just leaving it with primer on, sanding it later in the afternoon so I can do other stuff Wednesday morning and get the base colour on Wednesday avo' ready to do the stripes and clear on Thursday morning.

Any feedback on finish, spray patterns, etc. is more than welcome... and in fact I would really appreciate it!

[pete]

So while I let the putty do its thing, I hung the guards and seat trim up ready for the flexi primer (after wax and grease remover of course):



Then threw a drop sheet over the most valuable things in the garage:



Got my safety gear together (isn't it a sexy hat):



And the flexi primer is on:



Can't tell can you? I expected a gray primer colour or something, not clear.

Then I finished sanding the tail piece, and I believe it may be 100% done finally!



There's a couple of spots I still need to get a closer look at tomorrow, but if there's anything there then the smallest spot of putty will sort it out. Very happy with it finally!

Then came the frustrating part of the day...

The mob I bought the water separator from won't honour warranty because they say the crack extends down to the air fitting which proves to them I didn't use two spanners to tighten the air fitting. I say bollocks to you because I *know* 100% I used two spanners, and if the crack goes down there, why does the air only leak from the obvious crack up the side of where the relief valve is set in? Oh well, haven't made a donation this year...

Anyway, ended up making two trips to get a new one which unfortunately also includes yet another regulator, which means 3 in line now... geez... second trip was because it uses different fittings to the other one. So here's the filter + regulator and the regulator I'll be using at the gun end to actually do the regulating (the other two I'm just leaving turned to full):



So finally the day was almost over but I wanted to try my hand at some spraying, so I decided to give a bit of the primer a go in the 1.7mm gun:



And I stuck a spare piece of galvanised steel and some cardboard in to practise on and check the spray pattern:

[pete]

Ok, so after lots of sanding the filler on the tail piece, this is what I ended up with:



Still not quite right, so one final layer on which I had to put on in two goes as I *still* managed to put too much hardener in.



So while that hardened up for sanding, I chucked some paint stripper on the tank:



Some more sanding of the tail piece while the stripper did its thing and finally it's about 99% there:



There's potentially a couple of little spots to be taken care of, but the big thing was this on the right side:



Couple of holes where I've exposed fibreglass.

This means I actually found a really good use for that putty I tried initially:

Yeah, no rush, Pete...



HURRY UP!!

[pete]

Awesome, you have been a busy Auzzie, all set up and ready to rock and roll, no more procrastinating now, 9 years and it all comes down to this, or as our Yankee bretheren would say, its the bottom of the ninth, the scores are tied, its time for the big one.

Now get some paint on that thing, you killing us here......................

Just revving you Pete, don't rush anything, take your time

Haha yeah nice way to get me to be patient Stan Hahahaha

I'll definitely be going against every instinctual grain in my body and will *not* be rushing it this week, even though I feel like I'm in a fight against the weather...

Started off with showers this morning but was nice and sunny this avo'. At the moment the forecast for the rest of the week is mostly fine, possible showers, and relative humidity is expected to stay below 70%. Wait and see what that actually ends up being though...

Awesome, you have been a busy Auzzie, all set up and ready to rock and roll, no more procrastinating now, 9 years and it all comes down to this, or as our Yankee bretheren would say, its the bottom of the ninth, the scores are tied, its time for the big one.

Now get some paint on that thing, you killing us here......................

Just revving you Pete, don't rush anything, take your time