Matt Tries – 1984 VF500F Overhaul

I wouldn't expect any other advice from you--such a bad influence!

You know, I feel like it was a lot better for my financial situation when you had a 56k modem and couldn't upload videos to YouTube. I've been following along with your ZX7R and the paint job you did (specifically on the tank). I got it in my head that maybe it would be kind of cool if I could recreate the '84 VF500F design in a different color palette.

So I've been going back and forth a bit with CBDecals on whether it might be possible to switch the colors on their '84 graphics scheme. I prefaced my initial email to them with "I know this goes against your mission of restoring bikes to their original showroom condition..., but..."

I was just playing around in Photoshop (don't laugh, I'm not great--and these were low res images) just to see what it might look like swapping to black/yellow/white as opposed to original. And the guy I've been talking to mentioned "you know we don't normally do this, but we probably could, but it's going to cost more." Idk where the cost will land yet and whether or not it's something I'm going to pursue, but I figured I would ask.

I think I'd be able to pull off two color paint with the decal to hide the fuckups where the colors meet.

This is the decal kit they sell.


This is a (very rough) recolor I sent them for illustration purposes.


This is the 1984 paint job. <-- also, I've been staring at the 84, 85, and 86 paint schemes. It's not even close--the '84 is the most interesting one. And I don't even have a bias here because my bike has been horror show yellow the entire time I've known it. I keep reading about how the '86 graphics package was the best.... not even close. It's my least favorite of the 3.


And this is what I was looking at thinking maybe I could pull it off.


There's a bunch of hurdles and a whole lot of ways I could mess that up and cost myself a bunch of time and money and come out with nothing to show for it. So I'm kind of just throwing it out there now so I can think about it for a while since I can't rush into trying to do it now anyway. Too cold.

And you need to stop encouraging him!

 

If any of you guys were local, I'd say come pick through all of the shit I have. I'm too lazy to do it, but all I can say is, from a hardware standpoint, it's extensive and in almost new condition. No, I won't ship.

 

Pushing forward with my idea to recolor the bike. I'm learning the hard way just how difficult it is to actually make things look good. Hoping it looks good from 10-15ft away once this is done--5ft is out of my skill ability I've learned. It certainly gives me more of an appreciation for some of the restorations people do!

I received the custom set of decals that AFE graphics made up based on my color swap requests--so that's pretty cool.

I've been using my rashed fairings on my SV650 as a testing bed. I've been using too much hardener in Bondo making it difficult to work with. And more importantly, I didn't lay down a thick enough clear coat on my SV to properly wet sand it (I was burning through the clear on some areas). Rather find that out on fairings I expect to see pavement at some point.

The pictures make it look better than reality, but I completely wasted $140 on color-matched yellow RAL 1023 with LVP paints. I don't know if the paint got messed up during winter delivery or their paint spray cans just suck that badly, but I would be better off using a paint brush than whatever nonsense comes out of the tip of those cans. I shook the thing for 10 minutes and it's still like the pigment and carrier aren't mixing and it's coming out like paint spatter off a whipping paint brush. Not sure what to even do what that paint anymore. Maybe go change some of the traffic patterns around my neighborhood? Asphalt is the only suitable substrate I can think of for it.




Good news is I think I finally have a lead on somewhere to actually chem strip the tank. My VFR700 wheels are off to a powder coater, and a place opened up next to them that does it, so I'm hopeful to finally get that resolved.

Glad to finally have a chin fairing! I'll tackle the Telefix one... someday.

 

If you were closer by Matt, I'd paint them for you.

If you buy rattle cans (ie if you don't have a compressor & HVLP gun etc), most local auto paint shops will mix you a rattle can of Ready to Spray paint. I've used it on occasion and it goes on really nice. same with the clear.

Wonder what they sent you that you had issues with.

Here in the north land, I can buy a rattle can of colour paint for $20 mixed to my requirements, its pretty cheap. I gotta thing the USA is even cheaper (it usually is)

Do you have a auto paint & body shop supply store near by ?

 

We have Wesco Auto Body Supply here in the NW that does that, but they are certainly not round $20 bucks. Haven't priced lately, but just the SprayMax 2K Clear is about $30 around here now. Last time I bought a 6-pack it was about $20/ea.

 

Your video about not mixing up one of your topcoat greens (I think on the ZX7R) was sort of how the yellow looked. It's almost like it's translucent. It's what got me thinking maybe it froze or something and got messed up. There's no way that's how it was intended. Color didn't come out uniform at all.

I believe I can get a Sherwin Williams matched topcoat in aerosols if I bring one of the wheels in. That's going to be my next avenue. I have a compressor but I'm not sure if it's enough to run an HVLP right. I also don't have a dryer. I'll take a peak at the compressor tonight.

Yea, they're like $25 I think now. I grabbed six of them thinking I was going to be doing the wheels as well for the VFR700 as well. idk why I got stingy and tried to stretch one can across my full SV main and lower fairing. Amateur mistake.

 

Yellow is one of the worst colours for coverage without a doubt (some greens too). White covers better than yellow. Yea I had a mixing issue on my ZX7 green initially. Just 2 days after they mixed it, and I even put it on the shaker right before and it still needed a stir to get it mixed properly.

You shouldn't need a dryer Matt, the ready to spray paints are catalysed and will flash off and dry without being baked or dried. usually its water-borne that needs a dryer.

Buy yes, your compressor would need to have some serious CFM to keep up with a HVLP gun. Im fortunate I paint at my Buddys place and use his compressor. neither of my compressors at home will keep up with my HVLP gun. I'd like a big compressor but they are close to $3000 and not in budget just now.

 

I'm glad there is at least something cheaper in Canada than the USA, thats a rare thing. When I buy RTS (Ready to Spray) paint by the pint or quart for the HVLP gun, its bloody expensive though. We run $80-140 per pint of RTS depending on the colour. Clear coat works out to about $80 per sprayable quart

 

Yea I'm leaning toward the aerosol route mainly because I'm familiar with it and know I could do a decent job. I did talk to a coworker about it though that snagged me a filter for my compressor out of his garage, so I'll probably putz around and get that plumbed in and probably add a desiccant dryer as well. You never learn if you don't try I suppose--so we'll see.

Stray--on one of your recent videos (that gives me nightmares), you mentioned in the comments that you aren't intending to clear coat over the ZX7R decals that were applied. Is that specific to the look you're going for with the ZX7R? I was planning to do the top coat, wet sand, apply decals, and then clear coat over both the tank and plastics. Would you advise otherwise?

 

Hi Matt

I miss understood what you meant by dryer. I see you're referring to ta air dryer/moisture trap for the compressed air...good idea. I thought you meant a paint dryer...not necessary.

re clear over decals - My preference is the OEM look, which on most bikes is the fuel tank decals get cleared over and nothing else. There are lots of folks who like the clear on all the decals for the shiny look and durability. Just personal preference really, im after OEM. Also its a pile more work to sand everything again and clear everything again .

The way I do it (on the tank) is to do the base colour coat, then 2 coats of clear, leave it to dry for week, wet sand the clear with 600, apply the tank decals, , wait a few days , then 2 more coats of clear.

I have done it once where I applied the base colour coat and immediately after (1 hour), applied the decals and cleared over them. Its not my preferred way as the base coat is still not 100% cured and its 1) easily marked up and 2) on occasion the subsequent flash off can cause issues with the decals (mine were ok though).

What I'd be worried about with your potential method, is wet sanding through the base coat. you'd have to be very careful. With 2 coats of clear (my approach above) its easy to see where ive sanded and Im not worried about blowing through a base coat into the primer. I guess worst case scenario, you'd have to re apply the base coat where you sand through. not the end of the world I guess.

Re decal application in general, you'll find the VFR pretty simple I think, Ive done a few and there aren't any massively wide decals or compound curves in the bodywork like I was dealing with on the Kawasaki ZX7.

 

Thank you thank you for the detailed explanation. I'm going to follow that approach for the tank, and I'll do some more thinking about how to approach the plastics.

The tank is now with my coworker who is dropping it off for chem stripping tomorrow or friday. I'm a bit worried it'll come back a flash-rusted mess, but we shall see.

 

BTW the cleanliness of your floor is something else ! looks great in there !

 

Im just trying to help ! lol

 

I'm not sure what kind of horror chemicals the company used to strip this tank, but I feel like it was probably the best $75 I could have spent. An investment into my health, hah. They apparently used some type of paintable and didn't need to submerge it which is great because I was worried about having to either deal with interior flash rust or possibly lining the thing if all went wrong.

I've got a bunch of sanding to do and some bondo work. I didn't realize that SprayMax made a 2K sandable primer--and I'm thinking that's what I was going to pick up. I had bought some "self etching" 1K, but i'm also open to suggestions.


Or just clear it and call it a day.

 

Nice Matt, looks great. I'd like to get me some of what ever they used on that.

I'd personally start with filling the dents, move to a self etching primer on the bare metal, then go to your 2k high build sandable primer - thats just what I'd do, others may have different ideas.

 

Thanks Stray. I did as you recommended. 1K etching primer followed by 2K spraymax primer. Cleaning all the leftover stripping agent and rust from the underside burned through about 10 dremel tips--but I'm pretty certain it'll hold up. My bondo fills on the few very minor dents should look good from 5ft away--isn't going to win any "best of show" awards though.




It's starting to look like some kind of mismatched lego assortment at this point. Still working on finding the proper topcoat, but hopeful I'll have it by this next weekend. Wouldn't mind getting going on spraying some of the topcoat and clear during Indy 500 weekend. I should probably install all the new rubber grommets onto the frame. Those have to be around here somewhere..

 

Jesus you weren't kidding. I'm actually really glad you said that about the yellows because it gave me some confidence that it eventually would--it would just take a while. It kept me from rushing it. It turns out we actually sell some cans of "safety yellow" touch-up paint at work and a coworker sprayed some out onto cardboard for me. I had my rear sprocket carrier in my car to take to Sherwin Williams after to color match. Turns out the shit we sell was almost bang on color-wise--so I just bought some of those cans from work. My finger tips hurt, lol.




Slowly getting there. The tank is next. It'll look good in pictures and from >10ft away. That's where my goal is set. I got a drip on the front fender I didn't catch in time that I need to deal with. And yes I realize this color on a VF is probably tough for some of you to stomach.

 

Unconventional but it kind of suits the black frame.

 

Nice goin' Matt.

There are no rules when it comes to personalizing your bike. As long as it makes you happy then the colour is perfect ! Sometimes changing things up is better than OEM.

 

Do you mean "bought" or "bought..wink wink".