South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Hey

I know a couple of guys on here have done there own spray painting, but I'm confused what to buy?!

I have brought all my panels now, going to sand them down properly soon when I get a bit of free time. As with regards to the paint I dont know what to buy!

I'd like to paint in 2K paint rather than cellulose as 2K is supposed to be better for beginners. I'm obviously going to need to buy some primer (what kind am I looking for), a basecoat colour, I want some metal flake, need some laquer, and hardener. How much of each will I need to buy? When I watch people do it on custom car/bike programs there mixing stuff in with the basecoat, is that hardender there putting in there? What ratio? I need to find all this stuff out before I even attempt it .

Hope someone can help - I hope to be all ready, riding my re-built (again) ZXR400 in metal flaked blue, ready for summer time! .

Thanks

Lee

to use 2-pack paint you will definitely need breathing gear and an extraction system as they give off toxic fumes (cyanide i think from memory). if you dont have a booth set up it may not be the right road to go down. have you thought about using an acrylic or cellulose paint and just getting a pro to give it a coat of 2-pack lacquer?

2-pack is by far the best way to go... but I'm shat at painting and paid someone else to do it for me!!!

Don't use Cellulose though m8, yuk!

DO however do all the prep work yourself... get everything done nice with P600 fine wet n dry paper, make sure all the surfaces are baby-bum smooth... then my advice would be if you want good results take it to someone who does it for a living to prime up and spray with 2-pak.

I think for a whole bike... that you've got all the bits off, preped and ready, so long as it ain't fancy paint ya after or a design, should be well under the ?G200 mark!


If you do go down the 2-pak route yaself, try not to use too much hardener... but then again not too much either as otherwise ya paint will be soft like dream machine and get scrached to feeeek!

Nearest place I know that does full on professional spraying is a place not far from bristol, they do all the spray repairs for Fowlers of Bristol!!!

Only reason I know all this shat is cos when I came to getting the rear end of my TL done I looked into it, spray painting is an art all in itself I'd rather pay a wun-off to an expert to get it right then smile at the results for yrs to come

Try using Dulux and for best finnish use a roller and then cut in with a small brush

Thanks for info Furry, I think I'll do the prep myself like you said, shall I take the plastics back to plastic? or key the original paint on there now? I dont fancy making a balls of it, and I definately dont fancy contracting cancer from intake of cyanide... (I dont love my bike that much!!)

Lee

Oh Age m8 your so funny my stretch marks are splitting LOL

Lee m8...Yer It will take you ages, but get it right back down to the plastic... and make sure everything is silky smooth, even the lightest scratch will show though the primer

I made the stupid mistake of using corse sand-paper to get most of the origional paint off, then use fine afterwards.... foooook me took me a whole day with fine to get it all smooth again LOL

You should fine just using P600 Fine for the whole thing will get it all nice, might take a while, I found it easy to do it in the bath...

Also a bleady good tip I was given, is use good old soap with the P600 paper when it's wet... so it doesn't "BITE" as much when sanding... gives a really nice (but dull) finish! Perfect for priming and painting on!

So I should dry sand it first to remove most of paint, then wet sand it with soap to get it nice and smooth?

Dont think parents would take kindly to a fuel tank, top fairing, front mudguard, left and right side panels, and left and right side rear seat panels and a solo seat cowl in the bath tub...!

I'll take my time.... spend a week or so..

Lee

dry sanding it is ok... but once you start getting though the paint then go wet with soap for the rest of it, will prolly take ya ages.... but from memory the ZXR400 not too many odd shapes to it so shouldn't be too bad!!!

Baaaa wait till ya parents go on holiday ;) lol

Thanks alot dude, off to Mill Autos I guess, 3000 sheets on P600 ...

Cheers

Lee

prime it let it dry then spray a light mist of paint over it as a guide to sanding it down.

600 grit is a bit coarse in my opinion go for 1000 or 1200 wet or dry paper with water. Furry's tip on using fairy liquid is a good one.



What ever top coat you use for best results warm the paiint slightly before spraying.




Please forgive me for being a bit rusty as I have not sprayed anything for 10 years




I did once spray a combine harvester that was a big job

P600 is made by 3M sold at B&Q...

I think different makers of sand paper use different numbers for grades

(I Found this when reading an americian forum, and he said the fine over there was 120??!?!?!?!)

Certainlly P600 was the finest they did, done the job nice too

Donno if anyone can shed any light on this???

Piccie of the stuff I'm talking about below... (Hope this helps!)

looks coarse in the pic mate


the higher the number the finer it is 1000 to 1200 grit is what lee needs

When I used that sandpaper left it all really smooth, even says "Smooth finish" on the packet...

I feel a "Sandpaper Investigation" comming on lol

I'm my garage I have some 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400, 200, 50....I brought loads of the stuff from millauto's. I had to filler the giant bent in my tank after my accident, and so I brought loads of different grades. 1200 is well smooth...I'd say that would give the best finish, I used 600 is medium coarse grade..

Lee