New member from Toronto, On, Canada. Looking to paint my 01' FI

Hello one and all,
Started riding after a twenty year absence. I purchased my 2001 VFR800fi, last November. He'll of a birthday preset to myself. 89000 km, the previous owner rode her to California, twice. BC one. Took really good care of her. She's a strong runner.
Already, I've added about 1,500 km to the meter. She has a few scratches and is a little camera shy. So I am going to paint her.
Right now, I have the rear seat cover, and a spare front fairing. Which I picked up for $100.00. These will be the test panels. She has the factory greyish/ silver paint. And I like it. But, it is a little dull.
I want to do a silver flake base, white stripe trimmed with black and gold.
I've turned wrenches for a long time. This is my first paint job.
I could use some advise on equipment, paints, prep work. "Do's and don't do's". What others have learned, what I should be careful of. What am I in for ( seriously, Clueless! Undonted, but clueless )
I plan on either, building a paint both ( a small one, 2m * 3m * 2m ), or, converting a portable garage into a paint both. Has anyone tried either of these? Am I crazy, or, just insane?
There are a lot of good comments for HoK paints. Are they god for motorcycle fairings? If not, what is?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

Hi, welcome aboard.I would seriously avoid trying to learn about painting on my pride and joy. I would (I did, but I was 17) start by doing work on friends old cars, painting bike frames and small bits. I have a good compressor at my brothers workshop and I know which end of the gun the paint comes out of, but given the chance I will do the prep work myself (get it to the primer stage) and then have the final colour coats done professionally. Remember proper painting businesses have heated booths with extraction systems ect. Please don't think I'm trying to put you off, I'm all for doing stuff myself, just that often with painting you reach a point of no return pretty quickly.

 

If you do decide to do it yourself remember that any paint job is only as good as the prep job done to the fairings. If the prep sanding and such is not very good, YOU WILL see the flaws in the paint job. I have talked to a couple of guys that I work with in the local auto body shops and most would agree that the new water born base coats tend to be a little less forgiving when it comes to showing things like sanding scratches etc., and the water born paints do take longer to dry.

My suggestion before you get in to buying the materials to do it yourself would be to check with a local body shop and find out how much they would charge you to paint the parts. A friend of mine works for a local body shop and he offered to paint my bike for me (my 97 VFR) and he charged me $400 labor plus the cost of the paint which was a further $350. I only repainted the bike one color, though it was a tri-coat pearl red, and my friend said it was a lot of work mainly because it is hard to hold a motorcycle fairing securely in place when he was sanding. The 97 had about 25 different pieces as I recall, including the tank and they had to be painted in two batches because they would not all fit in the body shop paint booth at the same time.

Just food for thought and like Bryan88 said, are you sure you want your first attempt to be on your pride and joy. Also remember that if you have never painted anything like this before, there will be tools that you will need that you may not have and the added cost of the tools required may increase the cost to the point where it nears the cost of getting the job done professionally.

My best friend Peter and I painted his first truck in his garage back when I was a teenager and we turned the garage into a paint booth. We hung plastic sheets all around the perimeter of the booth area and held them securely in place on the roof and sides to try and keep dust down to a minimum. The booth area was sealed as well as we could to prevent getting dust and crap in the booth and we used a huge extractor fan that his dad supplied for us and off to the races we went. The job turned out looking much better than a rattle-can-backyard-job but still it was not perfect. Sanding out dust nibs on the surface of a 1978 Chev pick-up is not that bad, just a lot of large flat surface, but motorcycle fairings are not that flat.

Good luck with the project and keep us apprised.

 

Oh and by the way. Welcome to the site and don't forget to post up some pics of before and after so we can all offer fabulous praise and lots of OOOOOOing and AAAWWWWWing once the transformation is complete.

Hopefully winter will leave Canada and the northern US at some point in the next few weeks (or months) LOL

 

Just plasti dip it. Cheap and easily removable.

 

Something to consider if you are turning your garage into a paint booth. An exhaust fan as close as possible to the floor is a great idea. That way everything settles downward. But for every bit of air you remove, that air needs to be replaced. SO you need a source of intake air. If that air is not filtered, then you are drawing dust and contaminates into the booth. If you can, seal up all the door cracks with tape and make it so that there is only one source of intake air. Make it so that this air has to travel through a cheap furnace filter before it enters the garage. This will not be as good as a professional spray booth but it should help reduce the dust nibs.

I have never sprayed with the new water based paints. For that matter never sprayed with the old automotive paints either. But I have lacquered a lot of wood in my time. And I did stay at a Best Western.

 

Buy a book before you get into something that will have you drooling into your Canadian Bacon.


All kinds of poop on automotive paints and the DIY crowd who rattlecanned a Harley and the next day got a trophy for best in show..

If this sounds scary, it should.

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/occupational-health-safety/837654-isocyanate-poisoning.html

 

Badbilly, I take your comments to heart. There is a lot of reading, viewing, texting to do. The project wont begin for a few months. Probably July.

 

Thanks for the greetings, and the comments.

Bryan88 and zoom-zoom,
There is no way that I am going to spray my baby without a test run. As stated in the original thread. I have a spare front fairing and the original rear seat cover. I've attached a couple of pictures. These panels are in excellent condition. :thumb:

As far as the equipment is concerned. I need to design and build a paint booth. That's the big job. Searching around. Not finding much.
I do need a new compressor. The old one is dying, slowly. Painfully slow. Looking at Getting a Dewalt electric powered 20 gallon oiled compressor. About $400.00.
I already have the spray guns, nothing fancy. Got them at a garage sale. Never been used. Some new hoses, fittings and filters. And most of what I need. I'll have.

34468 Randy,
Thanks for the heads up on the intake/exhaust fans. If I understand you correctly. Both the intake and exhaust fans should incorporate a filter. I'm thinking furnace filters or the like. (they are pretty cheap at RONA's, LOWES and HOME DEPOT.) The intake fan should be placed high and on the opposite side of the exhaust fan. The exhaust fan is mounted at ground level. Thus creating a simple down draft effect.

I will be starting the prep work on the test panels soon. There will be more pictures comments and probably the odd bit of profanity.

 

I can't see it hurting to put a filter on the out flow but don't think you need that. That filter will clog up pretty quick with paint particles anyway. Don't assume I have built a paint booth or know one hell of a lot about painting. I just use reasoning. And using that reasoning, I would suggest that the exhaust should have a fan while the intake just an opening with the filter to allow displaced air to replenish itself. To put a fan on the intake would force air into the chamber thus possibly stirring up dust while if you just allow the air to flow in as needed, then there should be minimal if any disturbances. I also would put the intake air source down low as well as the exhaust. Everything settles. You are going to want to be in that room with the doors accesses closed for a while to allow dust to settle to the floor, then wipe the parts down with the proper solvents just before you paint. Keep you movements to a minimum while you are painting. This is only to reduce the dust nipples on the final finish. I can't see any of my advise having any effect to reduce the hazard Badbilly spoke of.

Another thing I have been led to believe is that moisture created from compressed air is also the culprit of blemishes in finished paint. So you need some system in place on your outflow of the compressor to trap and dry the air before it gets into your gun, and then into the paint. What I am told is that the simple moisture trap is not sufficient. With a 20 gallon compressor you are not going to be able to do too much painting before you have to stop to allow the compressor to build up enough air to run the spray guns. I seriously doubt the compressors you mention are going to be able to keep up. My Speedair 20 gal would not. I now have a 80 gal 175 psi 220V Porter Gable. If I was to get the proper driers for that thing, it would be enough I am sure.

I was considering painting my own until I saw what it was going to cost me to set things up, so decided to have a professional paint it. But if you are not seeking perfection, or you are capable of perfection, then fly at it. Others here have painted their own and met with success.

Best of luck to you.

 

Most of the moisture is caused by laziness. Tanks should be drained with great regularity as in, with each use.

A DIY booth can be constructed using a large cardboard appliance container. For bike parts a refrigerator size will work. Another more sophisticated assembly can be fashioned from ABS piping, a rattlecan of 3M adhesive and some medium mil plastic sheeting.

Furnace filters and box fans can work.

Since the individual parts of a faired bike are relatively small and should be painted as individual pieces, there is not much need for a giant compressor. Nice to have especially if one used air tools but not necessary for painting a bike and associated parts. (IMO).

Attempting to "match' red paint of any kind even using the latest computer software is a bitch. Adding to that is that reds are pricy.. The deal is if ya got 10 pieces to paint and 3 or 4 need to be matched is makes sense to do the whole bunch rather than go bonkers trying to match a fugitive color that has faded over the span of even a year..

$$$$$ Automotive paints are not cheap. Some run as much as 2k/gallon.. No shit??? Yep, No shit.. and this doesn't include the clearcoat, the reducers, fisheye preventers, gloss enhancers, accelerators and inhibitors. All of which leads to sprayguns.

Ya got your "conventional" rigs of various capacities all the way from airbrushes used to paint models to $19.95 quart cup guns from China to as large as 25 gallon remote pots. Basic stuff is the paint is atomized either inside or outside of the aircap with high pressure air. This system has what is called a low transfer rate. ie a bunch of the paint ($$$) ends up on whatever is being painted and almost as much doesn't.

Next is HVLP. High Volume Low Pressure. Great transfer rate. as much as 85%. Uses lots of air... and the atomization is much less.

Yep both types can be from China Inc tools or the majors like Binks or DeVilbis.

Many others.. Electrostatic, airless and powder coat also a spray app.

The scary shit still exists.. These paints most of the time are isocyanates, that cause nerve damage. No problemo if you have lizard blood and can grow ganglia that is fried otherwise ...

BUY A FUCKING BOOK and RTFM.

 

That bedspread would be a cool thing to model a paintjob after..

 

The filter on the outlet is so your wifes SUV doesn't end up covered in over spray. It's worth some thought just based on teh "happy wife, happy life" principle. otstir:

I'm planning to do the same this summer on my 07. I have a full set of spare fairings and a tank so I just need to get busy and stop osting my outrageous opinions here.