Painting my 450

[pete]

I think the repairs turned out ok, there's still some obvious hard edges on the one on the rear of the tank but it's definitely much improved.

The finish seems to be pretty good, but I really need to get them out into some proper sunlight to truly see how good/bad there are.

Hopefully we actually get some sun this week at a time I can get them out there... just 15 minutes after/before work one day is all I need (yeah back to work tomorrow, holiday is over...)...

Thanks heaps again guys, I really can't express how much I appreciate the advice and help that's been given during this, and I would've been completely lost without it!

[pete]

There was unfortunately some dust and crap that seemed to blow in and stick to it today as well as the odd cat hair, but I'm doing as recommended and just letting them stay there as they can be sanded or buffed out later...

This is how it looked outside the garage pretty much for the the rest of today, so I'm glad I didn't go by the weather forecast and wait for it to improve:



So I took the precaution of leaving the flood lights on for another hour or so while I started cleaning up the garage to try to keep the warmth up in the booth:



And then I chucked another drop sheet over the booth when I started blowing dust around:



I ducked down tonight to do some other things, and they still seem to be looking pretty good:

I know Old yeller looks OK in pics but you have done a better job than I did first time out.

[pete]

Ok let's try this again... laptop did something weird and I had to reset it, so I lost the update I was in the middle of as well as it marking all the threads read that I haven't read since last time I logged on... anyways...

I really was close to the line with the weather today. I opened the garage door as usual after the second coat and there was a gentle shower just starting... I let the paint sit for a bit over half an hour instead of just 20 minutes after seeing that.

Then, about 15 or 20 minutes after putting the third coat down it started bucketing down.

All this and the humidity was not high at all, reportedly less than 70% all day... it didn't seem to have any affect on the actual paint from what I can tell though...

So, after three coats:

[pete]

Ok, it's done! Last (I hope) three coats of clear are on.

I started by doing a bit of masking ready for the repairs:



Then I tested my repaired touch up gun and it worked like a charm, so two light repair touches later:

[pete]

So pic's are uploaded...

Firstly, did the filler neck remask as recommended:



Then I figured seeing as I'll have the maroon out to do those couple of touch ups on the repair and the bit on the tail piece where I slipped, I might as well have a go at the front of the tank where I didn't mask real well and some white got through, so I gave it a bit of an extra sand ready to go for tomorrow:



Then I had a go at repairing the touch up gun because I haven't been able to find my receipt yet to try to get it replaced under warranty.

Basically I cut off a small piece of aluminium from my thin sheet of it, got some crimpers, and crimped it around the needle for the gun.



So when the bit is pushed back by the trigger it won't just slide along without doing anything and should allow fluid flow:



I'll give it a test with some gun cleaner first in the morning and see how the repair goes.

And when I was sanding last night I thought I saw something funny on the front guard and sure enough i did:



There's a strip of green still showing through there, so I'll try to get it touched up as well as the other bits tomorrow.

They say possible showers tomorrow but hopefully they either don't happen or wait until the avo' or something so I can get all the spraying done early...

[pete]

Hi Pete,I've been trying to get the time to post here for the last 3 days!!,the paint looks great-well done mate.the paint lifting off could be one of two things, first- the paint is too fresh ie. not hardened for long enough(I never try to add stripes or another colour the same day) two-I have found that sometimes the masking tape has more adhesive in some places than others so it "grips" more and tears the paint off when you remove it,which is a major pain in the arse.When I paint any bike bodywork I put 5-6 coats of primer,the same of colour then 7-9 coats of clear coat on the top, this gives you plenty of room to sand without rubbing through,but hey as several people have already mentioned practice makes good results.Before you put on your last coats of clear my advice would be to take the tape off the petrol cap hole and remask, that way you decrease the risk of chipping the lacquer and paint underneath when you remove the tape(I always mask for the primer,remask for the basecoat(colour) and again for the clearcoat, but that is just me).You should be really proud of your work, keep it up!.Johnny

Thanks for the feedback and words of encouragement Johnny! I really appreciate it

Now that I've almost done this once, I can definitely see ways I can do it better next time, and what you say about more coats of primer and colour make a lot of sense now that I see it for myself.

I saw the email about your reply earlier so I was able to remask the filler neck tonight along with some other things which I'll update shortly once I've uploaded the pic's.

Even though I'm a little annoyed at the couple of issues and the way the front guard turned out, I am still a little proud of getting it this far, so hopefully I can do those little repairs and finish off the clear coat successfully tomorrow and then sand/polish without needing any more repairs... then I'll be a really happy camper!

Hi Pete,I've been trying to get the time to post here for the last 3 days!!,the paint looks great-well done mate.the paint lifting off could be one of two things, first- the paint is too fresh ie. not hardened for long enough(I never try to add stripes or another colour the same day) two-I have found that sometimes the masking tape has more adhesive in some places than others so it "grips" more and tears the paint off when you remove it,which is a major pain in the arse.When I paint any bike bodywork I put 5-6 coats of primer,the same of colour then 7-9 coats of clear coat on the top, this gives you plenty of room to sand without rubbing through,but hey as several people have already mentioned practice makes good results.Before you put on your last coats of clear my advice would be to take the tape off the petrol cap hole and remask, that way you decrease the risk of chipping the lacquer and paint underneath when you remove the tape(I always mask for the primer,remask for the basecoat(colour) and again for the clearcoat, but that is just me).You should be really proud of your work, keep it up!.Johnny

[pete]

in my experience...(im not by any means a prfessional)...ive always had to:
1. use higher gun pressures than reccomended
2. mix a little bit thinner than reccomended (especially on the clear)
now..maybe its because im not using 700 dollar guns or what..who knows.
i do know that with the epa requirements getting stricter..its harder for paint mfgrs to comply...maybe thats why the suggested settings are as such.

again..jmo..etc. ...please only take it as such. but ive never sanded my clear coats (cld hav been better. .if i did tho)...but they were pretty smooth right out the gun.

heres my guitar i did with leftover paint from a bike i had. note the cieling light bulb in reflection.if my pic shows up. ....

Mate that's good work! And thanks for the input, I do appreciate it

I was amazed at how well that clear came out, but I can also see why Dale suggested winding the material back a touch too.

I'm hoping if it ends up like that after the next three coats I should have to do only minimal sanding. I'll probably have to do that regardless as I tend to get a bit of cat fluff floating around the place no matter what I do... one of the joys of fluffy white cat ownership... haha

heres the bike

kandy lime gold..over a mix of green/silver..
was gonna do dark green flames..but ran out of time.

sorry..
havin trouble postin pics from phone...stay tuned...

figgered it out

again im just contributing more info/experiences to thread.

That turned out mighty fine too!

It's good inspiration to see non-professional guys get good results and it encourages me to give it a go, so thanks for sharing.

Mind you, having someone like Larry or Johnny offering advice and feedback is also awesome encouragement as these guys do it for a living...

I appreciate all feedback I can get on this and it's only due to that that I have a chance of it succeeding

Any bit of encouragement or helpful advice is 'always' very much welcome.

nice paint work. I realy love that color... H.O.K. is it?

it's A.F.G!

Well said Dale! That's it exactly...

I like those HOK paints and looked at them ages ago but are waaaaaaaay outside my budget...

yes.. HOK indeed..i had to at least try it....i also figgered..of ur gonna go thru the work of painting..make it stand out..and they have the crazyest color selection..kinda overwhelming.
ill try to do a thread when i paint my gs. (prolly a similar green as i have a quart of kandy lime gold leftover.this time im doin the flames tho.)
ok..enuff hijaking.. back to pete.
sorry

Mate hijack away, I've done it a time or two myself

I do like their colours (or should I say kolors) although some are pretty out there...

Are ghost flames a bit over the top? Naaaaa

Mate if you do that you'll have the kraziest GS paint job out there... haha... sorry couldn't resist the pun

[pete]

It's looking better and better all the time, Pete. If you still wanted to make the tank touch up look a little better (even though it's hidden) you could mask the stripe next to it, and then just lightly fog a bit of the color over your repair before the next clear coat session. Same for the tail section. If you can't get anything finer than 1200 as a final grit, sand it against itself a bit. That'll make it a very used piece and basically simulate a piece of 1500. It'll take a little more buffer action then with 2000 grit, but it should still polish out as long as you start with a more aggresive (tan-colored) rubbing compound before moving on to a medium (white-colored) grade then a final swirl remover. 3 pads..wool to start, then a yellow foam with the medium grade compound, and finally a black (or blue) foam polishing pad for the swirl remover. If you don't have, or are uncomfortable using a full-size buffer, all 3 of those 3M pads can be bought in a kit as velcro quick-release mini-buffer pads, including the adapter, that you can chuck into a good drill. I do all my small parts with one of those, but you could do a tank with one, too, if you wanted. The whole set costs about $30..and is way easier then taking the chance of having a full-size buffer shoot your smaller parts across the floor.. Ask me how I know..

Thanks Larry, good to know my work is getting somewhere, and thanks for the compliment

If I can get the touch up gun functional temporarily again I'll give that light fogging a go. This time I won't mask it off for hard lines like I did the first time

The corner of the tail piece is so small I think I'll just touch that with a brush still which will save me masking the white off. It's about 4mm wide by 1mm across or something like that.

I would imagine I should be able to get fine paper somewhere around, but good to know I can use that technique if not (or get some from Dale too of course ).

I purposefully haven't looked into anything polishing wise yet simply to ensure I resist all temptation to touch it before it's ready for polishing.

However, my house mate has a bunch of polishing pads in the garage that attach to either grinders or drills or something along those lines, so I should have suitable ones handy or at least some of them anyway.

I definitely need to get compounds though.

Thanks for the polishing tips there, I'll pull all the polishing stuff out and see what's there and see what tools he has to go with them before deciding what to do, but that 3M kit sounds like a good idea!

Hopefully I can get these last clear coats done tomorrow and let it sit to cure, and then I can work out the polishing stuff... the weather prediction for tomorrow is starting to look a little iffy but the predicted humidity is still less than 70%...

[rustybronco]

Are ghost flames a bit over the top? Naaaaa

Any bit of encouragement or helpful advice is 'always' very much welcome.

nice paint work. I realy love that color... H.O.K. is it?

it's A.F.G!

yes.. HOK indeed..i had to at least try it....i also figgered..of ur gonna go thru the work of painting..make it stand out..and they have the crazyest color selection..kinda overwhelming.
ill try to do a thread when i paint my gs. (prolly a similar green as i have a quart of kandy lime gold leftover.this time im doin the flames tho.)
ok..enuff hijaking.. back to pete.
sorry

[rustybronco]

Any bit of encouragement or helpful advice is 'always' very much welcome.

nice paint work. I realy love that color... H.O.K. is it?

it's A.F.G!

heres the bike

kandy lime gold..over a mix of green/silver..
was gonna do dark green flames..but ran out of time.

sorry..
havin trouble postin pics from phone...stay tuned...




figgered it out

again im just contributing more info/experiences to thread.

in my experience...(im not by any means a prfessional)...ive always had to:
1. use higher gun pressures than reccomended
2. mix a little bit thinner than reccomended (especially on the clear)
now..maybe its because im not using 700 dollar guns or what..who knows.
i do know that with the epa requirements getting stricter..its harder for paint mfgrs to comply...maybe thats why the suggested settings are as such.

again..jmo..etc. ...please only take it as such. but ive never sanded my clear coats (cld hav been better. .if i did tho)...but they were pretty smooth right out the gun.

heres my guitar i did with leftover paint from a bike i had. note the cieling light bulb in reflection.if my pic shows up. ....