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Painting my 450

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Pete, play around with the pressure. if it sprays well at 45~50~55 go with what works. the TDS says you can reduce it up to 10% if needed.

two coats will work although it might be better to spray two, wet sand, spray two more, wet sand and polish. all within the MFG's spec'd wait times of course. it all depends on what you are after. more depth, more coats and more sanding in between.

piling on too many coats at once can lead to solvents getting trapped and that is a problem of and in its self.

Cool, that all makes sense, and I think I'll do the sensible thing... two coats as per spec's, then do the wet sand and polish Monday and see how it turns out.

I'll run the clear over that scrap metal first after setting the pattern and see how it looks.

I'm hoping by now my eyes are a bit more tuned in as to what to look for... and there's two sides to that metal so I can try different pressures fairly easily too :)

Logging off now to go take care of stuff and take my wife to work then get stuck in if the weather's still ok... wish me luck!
 
I think I'll do the sensible thing... two coats as per spec's, then do the wet sand and polish Monday and see how it turns out.
Be careful, if you don't have enough clear on, you might sand or polish through to the base coat. that's where experience becomes a good teacher.

(we don't know what your idea of a 'coat' is)
 
Hey Pete, thats Looking great now!
I found i was sh1t scared of getting runs, so i wasnt putting enough on in each coat, you have it sorted though.
I love the stripes, awesome job.
 
Be careful, if you don't have enough clear on, you might sand or polish through to the base coat. that's where experience becomes a good teacher.

(we don't know what your idea of a 'coat' is)

+1. Don't stop at just 2 coats. I guarantee you'll go through..and that opens a whole new can of worms. I would recommend at least 4. Wait a good 20 minutes between coats. Let it dry overnight, open it up (just scuff it) with 600, let it set another day to breathe, then add another 2-3 coats. That should be enough to sand it safely before polishing.
 
Be careful, if you don't have enough clear on, you might sand or polish through to the base coat. that's where experience becomes a good teacher.

(we don't know what your idea of a 'coat' is)

Ok cool, makes sense.

Don't worry, I had no idea what my idea of a coat was either, although I do now... pic's uploading :)

Hey Pete, thats Looking great now!
I found i was sh1t scared of getting runs, so i wasnt putting enough on in each coat, you have it sorted though.
I love the stripes, awesome job.

Thanks mate! I've been sh1t scared of the whole process to be honest! I really wanted to do that Tranzac pipe and head and cylinder wet blasting work justice, and I really didn't want a crappy paint job to take away from them.

I think I'm at least in the ball park now though...

+1. Don't stop at just 2 coats. I guarantee you'll go through..and that opens a whole new can of worms. I would recommend at least 4. Wait a good 20 minutes between coats. Let it dry overnight, open it up (just scuff it) with 600, let it set another day to breathe, then add another 2-3 coats. That should be enough to sand it safely before polishing.

Makes sense also Larry, and I did see this message before starting the clear so I did end up doing 4 coats 20 minutes apart.

Once these pic's upload I'm sure we'll all have a better idea if I need to do more than a light sand, cut, and polish...
 
Ok, so the weather decided to cooperate today which was awesome. Started at 92% humidity this morning but apparently it was 62% by the time I actually started any spraying, and the clouds also started to separate a bit allowing a bit of sun through occassionally.

Anyway, pulled the touch up gun out of the packaging and cleaned it up for first ever use only to find it was busted... the bulbous bit that sits on the needle for the trigger to pull was loose on the shaft, so pulling the trigger didn't release any material (in this case gun cleaner).

I managed to do a bit of a dodgy with some tape to hold it in place to get the little repair done:



Then I got the area to spray isolated with cardboard as per Dale's recommendation and I also went the paranoid route of putting masking paper over the length of the tank just in case:



Then I got 3 coats on that area... and by that I mean basically three instantaneous pulls of the trigger at about 15 minute intervals:



The reason for the spatter there is actually related to this:



My repair of the touch up gun failed and instead of not being able to open the needle to allow material in, it was staying open and letting it run out constantly...

That happened at the beginning of the second coat but I managed to bodgy it up again to get the second and third coats done properly.

I removed the masking after about half an hour:



So now it was time to setup the gun for the clear. I said bugger it and stuck the gun at about 53 PSI and tried a pattern test:



The bottom right is what I went with, maybe not perfect but I increased the fan out as you can see and there seemed to be plenty of material there without runs.

I then ran some clear across the galvanised steel and it seemed to go on ok although it's a bit hard to see:



Sorry but the pic's from here on in seem to get a bit hazy as I think I was getting in with the camera before the vapour in the air had settled down enough. Just hope I don't actually have a thin layer of clear on the camera lens :eek:
 
So on with the first coat of clear:





And after the four coats, and again sorry these are all so hazy, you can't see what they really look like and just how glossy they really are:

 




So I guess now it's waiting time until Monday. Then I can work out what needs to be done next.

While they all look really glossy, there definitly is some lint or cat fluff or something in there which needs to be removed somehow. At this stage I'm thinking light sand, cut, and polish...

I need to work out what the deal with this camera is too. If I can sort it out I'll try to get better pic's up that actually display a true representation of the clear coat...
 
looks good pete, what are the marks in the middle of the front guard?

Cheers Josh! If you're referring to the round one just in front of where the mounting area is, that appears to be something to do with the moulding of the guard.
 
BRAVO BRAVO
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A sand and a polish to get it smooth and that is going to look better than super sweet, congratulations on a job well done, you must be as happy as a dog with a belly full of pee and a street full of lamp poles.
I am really so chuffed that it all came together and worked out for you in the end.
Now go and
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you deserve it.
 
I've got a spray gun now so will be doing something similar to my tank and rear tail section soon, WAY better than pressure pack!

With the photos you will never get a good shot in that setup, you will need to get some natural light on them so maybe wait till monday when you can move them and open the garage door and get some photos.
 
a couple more pointers if I may...

first, if you let the paint sit for a bit more, tape off that white near where the red base got pulled off by the tape, then take a bit of cardboard stock and make a small cutout the size of the damaged area to spray through, take your smallest touch up gun and shoot some paint through that cardboard held off the surface 25mm or so.

I removed the masking after about half an hour:

The reason for holding the cardboard above the surface is so you don't get the hard edge you see when directly taping around the repair.


The next time you shoot the clear, back off on the amount of material being sprayed (turn the knob in). that should break up the paint a bit more and make for a little less orange peel. don't get me wrong! it looks pretty good for 'most anyone's' first time. :D

so whats the next plan? wet sand it and hit it with 2~3 more coats on Monday?

***edit***
is the compressor keeping up with your gun? or is the pressure dropping to where the paint isn't atomizing properly. the reason I ask is, some pieces the orange peel is minor, on others it's greater.

I can't lean over your shoulder, all I can do is interpret the pictures.
 
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looks good so far...man theres nothin like the feeling of seeing your own paintwork completed.
nice job.
t
 
BRAVO BRAVO
party1.gif
cheer.gif
party1.gif
cheer.gif


A sand and a polish to get it smooth and that is going to look better than super sweet, congratulations on a job well done, you must be as happy as a dog with a belly full of pee and a street full of lamp poles.
I am really so chuffed that it all came together and worked out for you in the end.
Now go and
db.gif
you deserve it.

Thanks Stan! Love the dog pee reference... hahahahahaa

And yes I did have a couple of beers to celebrate :D

I still think I probably should do more though...

I've got a spray gun now so will be doing something similar to my tank and rear tail section soon, WAY better than pressure pack!

With the photos you will never get a good shot in that setup, you will need to get some natural light on them so maybe wait till monday when you can move them and open the garage door and get some photos.

Is it a good one? Or is it a cheapie SCA one like mine are? They worked ok but if I was to do this again I'd seriously contemplate getting better guns...

Oh, and the 1.4mm gun can cope with about 55 PSI to do the clear too...

It's peeing down at the moment and supposed to be doing so all day so I probably won't get a chance to do that until tomorrow if I can get some time, although it's MotoGP at Philip Island tomorrow too...

The reason for holding the cardboard above the surface is so you don't get the hard edge you see when directly taping around the repair.

Oooops! I just re-read your post on that... for some reason I thought you meant holding the gun 25mm away which I thought was weird. Don't worry, I wasn't game to do that and I didn't, I sprayed about 20cm away...

The hard edge has blended in somewhat with the clearcoat though thankfully, and you can just make that out in the last photo of the tank from the right rear angle.

The next time you shoot the clear, back off on the amount of material being sprayed (turn the knob in). that should break up the paint a bit more and make for a little less orange peel. don't get me wrong! it looks pretty good for 'most anyone's' first time. :D

Cool, that makes sense. I did notice the coats were going on very wet and I thought that was ok for the first lot, so will definitely wind it in next time.

And thanks for the compliment, it's still turning out about 10 times better than I thought it would :D

so whats the next plan? wet sand it and hit it with 2~3 more coats on Monday?

I think the sensible thing is to wet sand today or tomorrow as per Larry's suggestion earlier then give it two or three more coats on Monday... the big question there is getting time to do the wet sanding after promising my wife I wouldn't do any bike stuff this weekend...

Maybe I can duck down tonight when she goes to bed if it's not too late, although I won't have particularly good light to sand in...

***edit***
is the compressor keeping up with your gun? or is the pressure dropping to where the paint isn't atomizing properly. the reason I ask is, some pieces the orange peel is minor, on others it's greater.

I can't lean over your shoulder, all I can do is interpret the pictures.

Which photos are you seeing that in? I couldn't make that out...

There were a couple of times when I was painting a piece and the motor on the compressor kicked in. Normally I can do a couple of sweeps and it won't drop the pressure off if I stop then, but maybe with the higher pressure for the clear it dropped?

Also, I was literally falling asleep at the keyboard last night so forgot to say that I ran out of clear while doing the fourth coat partway through the tank, so I quickly did another small amount to finish the tank and do the tail piece.

If what you're seeing is on the left side of the tank, it could be where I ran out of material on one of the sweeps perhaps? I thought I had got coverage again after refilling but maybe not...

Oh, and as to pressure, the gun was around 55 PSI (bit hard to tell from the guage so could've been a bit lower).

looks good so far...man theres nothin like the feeling of seeing your own paintwork completed.
nice job.
t

Thanks mate! That's so true... I'm pretty stoked with how well it's coming out even with the obvious imperfections so far... :)

+1. Don't stop at just 2 coats. I guarantee you'll go through..and that opens a whole new can of worms. I would recommend at least 4. Wait a good 20 minutes between coats. Let it dry overnight, open it up (just scuff it) with 600, let it set another day to breathe, then add another 2-3 coats. That should be enough to sand it safely before polishing.

Larry, how critical are the time frames on this? As in if I wasn't to get to wet sand it with the 600 until Monday morning and then spray is that not going to get the same benefits?

I'm hoping I might be able to get it done tonight but that's very uncertain as I said above...

I'd really like to do those other 2 - 3 coats if I can work it, I still want to stick with the better safe than sorry thing...
 
Your bike is going to be beautiful! :clap:
Can't wait to see it running down the black top.
It has been too long in hibernation. :(

Daniel
 
Your bike is going to be beautiful! :clap:
Can't wait to see it running down the black top.
It has been too long in hibernation. :(

Daniel

Thanks Daniel! The plan is still by Christmas and it's still possible :D

It has definitely been far too long...

I even have Scott from Dynatek telling me he wants to see it done! Haha
 
Oh, and just to address my paranoia of screwing it up royally...

Before doing the last 2 to 3 coats, wet sand with 600 grit to scuff it, then I can just rinse with water, wax and grease remover, then tack coat... right?

And I just realised if I run out of time to do it tonight, I can potentially do more tomorrow night which will at least let it sit from Sunday night to Monday morning...

I just really don't want to screw it up at this stage...
 
Which photos are you seeing that in? I couldn't make that out...

There were a couple of times when I was painting a piece and the motor on the compressor kicked in. Normally I can do a couple of sweeps and it won't drop the pressure off if I stop then, but maybe with the higher pressure for the clear it dropped?

Pete, these...
http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/...e Paint Job/?action=view&current=IMG_3778.jpg
http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/...e Paint Job/?action=view&current=IMG_3774.jpg

I started looking a because of the bits of clear splatter I see around the pattern on the lower right of this pictute> http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt26/starpoint73/GS450/The Paint Job/IMG_3763.jpg

you can see them in the flesh, all I get to look at is the pictures.
 
Pete, these...
http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/...e Paint Job/?action=view&current=IMG_3778.jpg
http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/...e Paint Job/?action=view&current=IMG_3774.jpg

I started looking a because of the bits of clear splatter I see around the pattern on the lower right of this pictute> http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt26/starpoint73/GS450/The Paint Job/IMG_3763.jpg

you can see them in the flesh, all I get to look at is the pictures.

Ok cool, my issue right now is that I don't know what I'm looking at... I need the eyes and voice of experience ;)

I think I see what you mean in those photos, and given it's the top of the tank and the rear guard, then I think it maybe a spraying issue with the angle.

It was really hard holding that guard steady against the pressure of the gun so I'm pretty sure I got some funny spraying angles on that one. The front guard was much easier to hold.

I suspected I may have got some funny angles on the top of the tank too, so I expect that's what that will be.

I do know that spray pattern you're referring to was not quite flush as I was pointing the gun straight but the cardboard the paper is stuck too is on an angle. You can see where I managed to compensate for that with the other pattern tests but I didn't with that one.

When I do the next coats I'll take more care with the angle and make sure to stop spraying and wait if the compressor motor kicks in.

Hopefully that will take care of that along with winding the fluid control in a little more...
 
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