New paint - '83 Interceptor - Image heavy

My bike's looking incredibly tatty - so it's time for a repaint. I've done rattle can paint jobs before but I've invested in a compressor and spray guns - this is my first attempt with such equipment

Before:



The tank is mismatched and dented, the remaining paintwork was done by the previous owner using cheap rattle cans. He'd bought an expensive decal kit but hadn't clearcoated anything. It looks worse in reality than the photos would suggest.

I really like the r/w/b stock Honda Scheme, so I'm going to do something very similar.

In my enthusiasm to get cracking on with jobs, I forget to take pictures so not every stage has been photographed.

I didn't start taking pictures until I'd already filled,primed and white basecoated the parts - and masked off the bits that are going to be red. Prior to painting the candy red, I painted a high sparkle silver basecoat.

Here are pics of the primed/basecoated and masked parts:










Over the silver, I painted candy red:









Then masked for and painted the blue detailing:



I'd already removed the masking from most of the parts before I took pictures - so there's only the one side panel pictured.

I then removed the masking to reveal the red/white and blue:















On the following picture, I've added a couple of coats of clearcoat to protect it for now - I'm going to add a couple of honda wing decals to the tank then a couple of coats of clear over them


The bike's due for it's MOT at the end of the month, so I'm aiming to have it ready for then.

Unfortunately I took the pics on my camera and it's not really captured the proper effect of the red over silver sparkle - I think it makes the red really 'pop'. I've taken a close-up to try to capture the effect:



The white, silver sparkle and candy red was sourced here:

Custom Paint | Pearl Paint | Chrome Paint - SpecialistPaints.com

The blue stripe detailing is from here:

Halfords | Bikes | Sat Nav | Car Audio | Car Seats | Car Maintenance

The blue is Rover Tahiti Blue

Clearcoat is UPOL

The fairing isn't pictured because I've left that till last. So far it's come out much better than I expected. I'll take some pics once it's all complete and on the bike. I also need to renew the fork seals for the test and fit new front brake pads.

 

That looks like really good work. I know the review is much less than all the work that went into it. Looking forward to seeing it put together.

 

Very nice work :thumbsup:

 

Nice, love it when someone goes the extra mile. Well done.

 

Beautiful. Nice to see someone going with the excellent stock colour scheme rather than some of the sort of hideous boy-racer squid-style paintjobs with the flames, skulls, dragons, old english script slogans saying just how badass you are that you see on some restorations. Can't go wrong with the understated, classy, iconic and near-perfection paint scheme that the original Honda Interceptors came with.

 

Fez
Great results! Could you be kind to list equipment you used exactly.
What kind of compressor/gun etc.
Steps of painting.How many times did you sand /how many coats/Did you sand between base and clear? Sanded the clear? etc.
I am thinking of paiting my bike as well and could use helping tips.
Thank you

 

wow really nice..I too cant wait to see it put back together!

 

Thank you for the kind words, much appreciated!

I have a Rhyas compressor with a 24 litre tank, which I bought on Ebay together with a selection of spray accessories which included a Rockworth gravity fed HVLP spraygun with a 1.5 mm nozzle.

It's not an expensive gun but I first used it on the primer and got such good results i've stuck with it throughout.

I also have a Neptune mini gravity fed gun with a 1.4 mm nozzle that I've used a couple of times for patching up in areas.

I removed the original paint and decals from the tank using Nitromors paint remover. The side panels,tailpiece and fairing I just removed the decals using a sharp blade and rubbed them down with 400 grit wet.

The tank was quite battered so I filled the dings with Colour cure filler and rubbed it all down with 400.

I then painted the lot in two coats of Halfords filler/primer, after cleaning them all in dish detergent and drying them thoroughly.

I rubbed down the filler primer with 600 grit wet so it was silky smooth alll over then examined it closely letting the light fall over it from a variety of angles to highlight any imperfections, which I filled and rubbed down again.

I find it easier to find imperfections when everything is a uniform colour rather than a patchwork of primer and filler so in between each filling/rubbing down session I applied a thin coat of cellulose primer mixed 50/50 with thinners and rubbed down with 800 grit wet until I was completely satisfied.

Finally I applied a couple of wet coats of celly primer.

This was rubbed down wet with 800 grit wet (I always use it wet...) tilll nice and silky.

I then applied three coats of white basecoat, thinned 60/40 with basecoat thinners - using a tacky rag between coats.

I rubbed this down lightly with 1000grit - it wasn't a bad surface to begin with - no orange peel or runs - just slightly 'dusty'

I then masked off the red sections, using Tamiya 6mm masking tape. It sticks well, leaves a nice clean edge and with a little work can be made to go round curves (as long as they are not too tight). Prior to removing the original paint, I'd traced the profile of the original paint on transfer paper so I could get the line reasonably accurately. From this I made a cardboard pattern and used this to mark for masking.

I masked off the white sections completely then sprayed a light dusting of silver sparkle thinned 2:1 then a wet coat.

Most of the metallic particles in the sparkle paint 'lay down' in the wet coat, but it does leave a slightly rough surface, which I was reluctant to sand, so once it was completely dry, I wiped it over very well with a tacky rag before I sprayed a couple of coats of red candy mixed 2:1 with thinners from the same supplier. I've never used a candy finish or metal flake paint before and I didn't want to mess up the surface with abrasives so I didn't sand at all - just used a tack rag to remove lint and dust.

I removed the masking - leaving the 6mm tape in place and then masked for the blue line - using the template to get the line right - I was going to try replicating the 'V-FOUR' tank decal in paint using masking film, but I couldn't get it quite right, and I think lettering has to be just right or it draws attention to itself - so I just did a plain blue line. I just used a rattle can for the blue.

Once I'd painted the blue line (which went on beautifully smoothly) I removed all the masking tape.

Final job before clearcoating was to lightly sand out any overspray on the white with 1000grit wet, then wash everything in dish detergent.

I then applied a couple of coats of Upol Clearcoat mixed 2.1 with Hardener and with 10% basecoat thinners.

It's gone on very smoothly over most of the parts, though I can still feel very slight texture on the silver sparkle/candy sections. I'll be adding Honda vinyl 'classic big wings' decals to the tank, then another couple of coats of clear. I'm thinking of giving the 'textured' sections a light rub down with very fine wet first to remove the texture, but I'm not sure. But that's my progress to date.

The fairing - I had a bit of a mishap with it. I'd just painted the candy on top of the silver sparkle - the fairing was strapped to a garden chair, and my dawg set off after a cat - sending the chair flying.

The damage was scuffs to the bottom of the fairing (where the 'grille effect is) and a nasty gouge in the paint on one flat panel side.

I'd almost used up all the silver sparkle - there were just the dregs in the bottom of the bottle left and I didn't want to buy more (at £20 per half litre) so instead of rubbing all down and starting again I decided to try patching it up.

Once the paint had thoroughly dried, I rubbed down the affected area so it was reasonably smooth and no further than the white basecoat. I thinned the dregs of silver sparkle - must have been a ratio of 50:50 or thereabouts, and carefully sprayed the damaged sections. As the candy had already been applied I was concerned the end result would be patchy candy red - or strange effects in the silver sparkle - but luckily the silver sparkle seems perfectly even and there's no patchiness in the candy red. I haven't painted the blue on the fairing yet, or clearcoated it. Because the fairing has effectively another coat of candy red, and the depth of colour in candy paint is dependent on how many coats are applied, I'm expecting the colour may be a shade darker on that than the other parts, but as I've already clearcoated everything else I can't add another coat of candy to 'even them up'. I'm hoping clearcoat will lighten it just enough.

So - don't paint stuff where it can be knocked over...

and if using candy paint, clearcoat everything together. That way if anything untoward happens and something needs another coat, everything can get another coat and it'll all match.

I hope you find my experience useful, and I'll post further pictures in due course.

Regards

 

Good god, well done sir, can't wait to see her all back together!

 

This thread has inspired me to redo the paint on my vf1kf... Just wanna get the dents out first...

May I ask how much this project set you back? I'm already looking at over 300 just for the paint supplies minus the compressor...

 

What about the chin spoiler?

Larry

 

excellent job Fez

 

Cost of the project?

The compressor with three paint guns, two hoses, a blaster, two bags of blue flake (not used them), five litres of general purpose thinner, a litre of cellulose primer, a litre of black base coat, a litre of basecoat thinners, a litre of Upol clearcoat and a half litre of rapid hardner = £100 gbp

1 litre D-thinners = £8
half litre of Silver Sparkle = £19.99
half litre of Candy Red = £19.99
Half litre of White Basecoat = £14.99

Probably another £20 on abrasives, masking tape and other sundries.

Then there's a couple of honda vinyls - I've ordered vinyls for the side panels but they haven't arrived yet - the big wings decals came within two days. In retrospect I'd have liked the wings a little smaller, and I had to be really careful putting them on - as soon as the adhesive touched the tank, and it only had to be a glancing touch - they were stuck solid.


So all in all - it's cost a little over £200 including the compressor.

Got a bit of orange peel on the clearcoat so i carefully rubbed it down with 2000 grit wet until it was an even satiny matt finish, and polished it up with wax.

The MOT is due tomorrow morning, so I've been putting her back together this weekend - replaced the fork seals and front brake pads - the rear were replaced not so long ago.

Anyway, it was starting to go dark by the time I was finishing, but I've taken a few pics to see how they'd turn out -



The chin fairing? - The one that's on the bike isn't in bad shape - not new paint by any means but it's not bad - I have a spare that I was going to paint. I removed the decal and thought I'd removed all traces of the adhesive, but when I came to prime it the primer reacted really badly, so I imagine that there were still traces of adhesive. Anyway, rather than strip the lot, I covered the lot in a thin layer of body filler. I planned to rub that down - get it real smooth and repaint it, but before I got to that we had some good weather (it's been one of the wettest years in memory so far this year) - so I'd white basecoated everything else - used up the full half litre, and I didn't intend buying another half litre just for the chin fairing.

Now the bike's back on the road (assuming the MOT goes ok), I'll crack on with the chin fairing - I've another interceptor in bits - so that one will be getting rebuilt, and I'll need white basecoat for that one - I'll get a litre next time. I don't need to buy a compressor this time...

A quick 'before and after':

 

The end product is amazing. Thank you for sharing.

 

Well, the bike flew through the MOT, and it's a sunny day so I took a few pics in daylight...

one small issue that arose was that on the way to the MOT testing station, as soon as I exceeded 30ish, the clocks started whining. I tried removing and reconnecting the speedo cable to no effect.

Fortunately I have a spare set of clocks, so I changed the speedo over (one set of clocks has a broken tacho needle - the one I'm using has an intact needle - otherwise I'd have just changed the clocks as a unit) and the problem disappeared.

Anyway - pics in the daylight:




I'm still a crap photographer whatever the lighting conditions...

 

Great job !:thumb:

 

Wow, she didn't look bad before, but she sure looks showroom fantastic now!! :thumbsup: Good job sir, many more miles and smiles for you. Sure is a head turner now!