1980 GS1100LT Cleanup

[nvr2old]

Soaking a spray can in very warm water is always a good idea. Shake it, soak it, shake it again. It does flow out nicer. You can hang your side covers, too. Attach a wire to hang it, then attach another wire (a short piece of clothes hanger works great) to one of the lower mounting tabs to hold in your free hand. It allows you to spray w/o the darn thing spinning or moving around

 

[Guest]

Soaking a spray can in very warm water is always a good idea. Shake it, soak it, shake it again. It does flow out nicer. You can hang your side covers, too. Attach a wire to hang it, then attach another wire (a short piece of clothes hanger works great) to one of the lower mounting tabs to hold in your free hand. It allows you to spray w/o the darn thing spinning or moving around

I wet sanded the side covers down and applied another round of clearcoat and did things exactly the way I did with the clearcoat that came out with the grainy texture EXCEPT I did not immerse the the clearcoat can in warm water and both side covers came out looking great. I have a couple of small runs to wet sand out but other than that the surface is as smooth as a baby's butt.
The warm can technique works for many people and the next time I tried it this technique could work for me..

 

[Guest]

btw....prior to wet sanding the side covers down I wiped them down with a clean, damp, cloth and the gritty texture appears to be tiny, tiny, air bubbles and most of them "popped" when wiping down.

 

[Guest]

I wet sanded the tank again and will apply another base coat tomorrow or Saturday...the west sanding is actually getting kind of fun in trying to get that perfectly smooth surface.

A couple of things that I have really learned so far is to get any imperfections covered in the primer/filler stages because paint does not fill low spots very well even if the low spots seem tiny. The other thing is that wet sanding is your friend and don't be afraid to do it between base or clear coats...the scratches from wet sanding disappear even between coats of clear.

 

[Guest]

My experience has been that the final finish is all about how you lay on the final clear layers. You don't really need a super smooth base coat, and has been mentioned if it is to glassy the clear will not adhere.


Here is a slide show of a 1980 GS1100L I did for Chef1366. He later buffed out teh clear, but it was pretty presentable as it was. This was my first black paint job with painted lines.

http://s449.photobucket.com/user/posplayr/slideshow/GSR/Bills_Tank

When I say smooth I mean that there are no little/tiny holes or imperfections in the tank itself. I had 3 tiny spots no bigger than the head of a pin that didn't get tilled in on the primer/filler part of the tank and I have been fighting getting those tiny holes filled in with the paint.

 

[Guest]

So it would be easier to touch up with sealer/filler and then base coat the areas again? I have Rustoleum filler and thought about doing that.

 

[Guest]

My experience has been that the final finish is all about how you lay on the final clear layers. You don't really need a super smooth base coat, and has been mentioned if it is to glassy the clear will not adhere.


Here is a slide show of a 1980 GS1100L I did for Chef1366. He later buffed out teh clear, but it was pretty presentable as it was. This was my first black paint job with painted lines.

Final:
http://s449.photobucket.com/user/posplayr/slideshow/GSR/Bills_Tank


Prep:
http://s449.photobucket.com/user/posplayr/slideshow/GSR/Bills_Tank/Bills_Tank_Prep?sort=6


Paint:
http://s449.photobucket.com/user/posplayr/slideshow/GSR/Bills_Tank/Bill_Paint_Job?sort=3

LOL...I see you need to thank the United States Postal Service for the free cardboard too

 

[posplayr]

LOL...I see you need to thank the United States Postal Service for the free cardboard too

For those posting to this thread you seem to be the most needy.

 

[Guest]

For those posting to this thread you seem to be the most needy.

There are photos of USPS cardboard shipping boxes in your photos and hence the reference to the boxes......

 

[Guest]

Wet sanded tank, hung tank, used tack cloth, let Rustoleum Enamel can sit in hot/warm tap water, and sprayed another base coat...this coat came out almost perfect with no orange peel or "sandy/gritty" look in the paint. Just have one very small paint sag and will wet sand it out in several days and apply the last base coat (hopefully).

IMG_8313 (800x600)

IMG_8311 (800x600)

 

[Guest]

Since the tank came out so good I decided to wet sand the side covers and add one last coat of clear coat. Used the same process as the tank.......wet sand with 1000 grit and wipe with semi-clean cloths (no oils on them), wipe with clean cloth and water, wipe with a clean cloth that is lightly soaked in a 50/50 mixture of water/Isopropyl Alcohol, blow dry with air compressor, hang side covers, wipe side covers with tack cloth, apply clear coat that has had the can sitting in hot/tap water. The other thing I do is was my hands a lot to keep oils/dirt off them.

I hung the side covers by electric fence wire to keep them from spinning around and anchored them to a paint can.
Been removing clear coat from the engine off and on and will concentrate on this once the side cover and tank painting is done. The little white Dremel tips (not the Scotchbrite ones) are working pretty good for polishing the hard to get places on the engine....White Diamond Metal Polish is my favorite today but tomorrow it might be something else
Once I am satisfied with the engine I'll remove the swingarm and start sanding the frame for paint.

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[nvr2old]

Looks like things are improving for you as you take more and more preventative and precautionary steps. Hanging the parts is the right thing to do. Clean, clean clean. Washing your hands, even using rubber gloves, very smart. Tack rag, check. The only question I have now, is why, after sanding the slight run out of the base coat on the tank, you feel it's necessary to spray more base coat? It's not critical to get a base coat absolutely orange peel free, creamy smooth. You need to sand it with 600 anyway to get it ready for the clear. Your final last couple coats of clear want to be as wet as possible to aid in final sanding before polishing, not so wet as to create a run, but still better to do it in the clear then the base coat. If you sand the sag out of the base coat and it's clean and ready to go, just clear the thing and get it over with, my friend.

 

[Guest]

The run disappeared after the base coat dried so no need to sand and clear will be next

 

[Guest]

Been busy and cooler so no painting/clear done but did get a soda blaster from Amazon....$14.99 delivered and I'll try this out next. Didn't have time to pick up any bulk soda but I wanted to try this out and my wife wouldn't let me have any of her baking soda:

IMG_8373 (800x600)

 

[Guest]

Progress has been slow but I did try soda blasting (outside)and it really cleans things up nicely. I decided to pull off the carbs to better clean the engine and also to soda blast the carbs...I'm a little hesitant to paint the carbs (worried about gas leaks on paint) but have decided to use VHT engine enamel on the engine and buff some of the cases. I tried a couple of test spots on the fins and the paint looks great.

Getting the airbox off on my Suzuki was a whole bunch of fun...watched several videos and it was even a chore for others that seemed to know what they were doing. Kind of crazy that the only way to get the one piece airbox off is to remove the carbs first but with my year/model that appears to be the only way.

Before started this cleanup my Suzuki was running but had a slight miss probably due to the fact that it had not been started in a long time. I may just have the local Suzuki dealer clean my carbs, install them, and do a safety inspection which I will need to license it anyway.

Soda blasting the carbs still assembled might not be the preferred way of cleaning but I have fat fingers and limited carb knowledge and would end up with a pile of parts and not smart enough to put them together correctly...I'm going to speak with the Suzuki dealer and get his thought on this too


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[Guest]

Painted most of the engine with VHT paint and it came out pretty good...the VHT paint is really thin and gets in all the corners well but doesn't run easily. I pulled the rear wheel and swing arm off last night and now on to prepping frame for paint


IMG_8645 (800x600)

IMG_8648 (800x600)

IMG_8653 (800x600)

 

[thebrandonbeezy]

This may sound kinda dumb, but do you use baking soda in a soda blaster?
I know its a sand blaster but im interested in less abrasive medias

 

[thebrandonbeezy]

Also, your engine looks top notch

 

[Guest]

This may sound kinda dumb, but do you use baking soda in a soda blaster?
I know its a sand blaster but im interested in less abrasive medias

Yes I used baking soda and it works well for grime/dirt and cleaning around bolt heads...removes all traces of oil or grease.

 

[Guest]

Sanded the frame twice with 600 grit paper then taped up everything and blew off any dust, then cleaned the exposed parts of the frame with a damp hot towel, wiped down 2 times with 50/50 alcohol/water solution and then wiped the frame twice with a new tack cloth and shot some Rustoleum primer. Looks like a pretty flat finish to apply Rustoleum enamel on and that frame was clean enough to eat off of. Temps are still in the high 60's here so trying to take advantage of this nice weather to paint.


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