VFR 6th Gen respray (with pics)

Hello all,

Here is the process i went through this weekend to get my standard silver VFR800 sprayed a slightly different "Sword Silver Metallic" (A standard colour of a newer year). So i live in London in the UK and my good friends work in a body shop and have the necessary skills and tools to get a professional finish on the bike. As with these things, prep is everything and the longer you take doing this, the better the result will be.

During the winter, i managed to drop the bike on some ice and this resulted in a smashed mudguard and some scratches to the left main fairing and the top cowl. The mudguard needed replacing but the scrached panels were only lightly grazed.

Rode to essex first thing on saturday morning and rode home sunday night with a fresh bike!
The difference is amazing and it looks like a new bike

Decided to get rid of all the fairing stickers except for the tank wings and i like the simplicity and clean look of the minimalist paint scheme.
I've also changed the indicators to the clear variety and a LED rear unit.

1) Damage from the drop




2) Stripping the bike down








3) All fairings off



4) Repairing the damaged panels with a rotary sander






5) All parts off!





6) Prepping the tank (and removing the honda wing decals from under the lacquer)



(What is wrong with this picture?)



7) Primer the damaged panels






8) Clean and degrease




9) Paint








10) Lacquer



11) Drying overnight




12) Reassembly with clear lenses








13) Tank decals




14) Finished



We used a 3HP 10Bar compressor with various sizes of spray guns for the paint and lacquer. The result is a smooth finish with minimal orange peel (thanks to the huge Devilbiss GTI Pro) and a nice sheen. Got rid of the horrible black section between the headlights and made it a single colour.

Hope you like the photos and inspires you to have a go!

Richard

 

Far out dude. You got nice mates. Asome paint job!

 

Damn you photo bucket!!!

I can't comment as photobucket is evil and I can't see pics..

 

Gorgeous!!!

 

Nice job, and +1, you do have some good mates.

 

Nice....Where did you get the rear LED tail lights? Do you have a link for the supplier. I can't seem to find any over here in North America.

 

Hi Randy,

I got it from ebay, but the original seller got it from a company in Belgium:

https://www.bike-design.com/detail.php?p=105730&page=1&shp_category=305&shp_make=8&shp_model=3966&shp_year=2003

The picture shows the red brake light section but once delivered was clear.

 

How long did this whole process take you - from the pics it looks like it was all done on the same day - but I'm sure it was much longer.

Great job!

 

So you put the Honda stickers on the clear coat and not under?

 

Really nice! It looks wetter than the stock paint, I likey. "What's wrong with this picture?" The photographer is waaaaay to close! LOL!

 

I'd be more concerned about the lit cigarette on the gas tank, LOL

Is that the OEM color? Looks a touch darker, perhaps it's just the lighting but I like it a LOT!

Color matching that front section makes it looks awesome, very well done!

 

Thanks for the replies guys. i'm really happy with the results a month later.

The tank decals are indeed above the laquer. Because we did this in a day, I didn't want to risk screwing up the placing of the decals (as I only got 1 set of them) so decided to put them on top of the laquer. The drawbacks being that when refuelling, any spilt fuel will eat through them or cause them to peel and need replacing. I figure i'll get my friends to give the tank another coat in the future. They are still there at the moment but i figured £1.50 on ebay for a set, i can replace them if anything does go wrong :redface:

thanks for the replies and the stars! Any questions, let me know.

 

Lookin good! Must've been a pain sanding out the fairings with all those angles. What did you use as a filler for the scratches?

 

Nicely done. I love it when I see guys D.I.Y. this stuff. That's good inspiration for the rest of us. Excellent post.

 

Nice job mate, looks really good

 

Hello Type 2 with 914 steelies!