Paint and tail chop

[two_fry]

The first winter I owned my thumper, I kept it in our garage. We had a boatload of snow that winter, and the roof collapsed, one of the support beams landed on the tail of my bike. I had looked at getting a new tail, but somethin just didnt seem right about it.

Your bike should be a reflection of you.

So i Chopped it, going off some of the DIYs on this site, and buellridersonline.com

Also wanted to really make it my own, and I had an idea in mind.
you all know the WWII planes that had the shark mouth on the nose, I had always loved that design, but i still wanted my own twist on it, while keeping the rest of the bike simple.

so, here is the transformation of my thumper (and, naturally, i doubt i am done, i have more in mind for next winter)


This is how it looked more or less when i got it, plus the damage to the tail.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093939_L.jpg
some scratches on the plastic for the tank
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093800_L.jpg
The broken tail.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093851_L.jpg
The design i wanted to use for paint. I based this off the WWII planes, but added my own twist to it.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093347_L.jpg
I wanted to use the primer for the teeth, since i wanted to go for a, more or less, flat color look to it all. This stage was to put the black for the mouth on.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093432_L.jpg
next i taped off what would be the red for the tongue
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093513_L.jpg
and then taped off the work i had done to paint the olive drab on the rest of the tank.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093604_L.jpg
The finished Tank.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130515093701_L.jpg
And then the tail chop. I cant seem to find any of the pictures i had taken while doing this, but i wanted to cut the tail so you couldnt tell it had ever been cracked, which meant cutting it right to the lip that the seat goes up to.
http://www.buellxb.com/buell_images/13699_20130512141756_L.jpg

So far, I am very happy with how it all turned out. But of course I am still on the forums every other day looking for new unique ideas I can use.

Tell me what you guys think!

[fishxb12]

Looks good! [up]

[J20tD]

Dig the green, Im also a fan of green. Hence why mine is painted british racing green lol

[Alien]

Def cool.

[iman501]

I like it man thats pretty sweet!!!

[Negative]

That's actually a really cool paint job man!!

[Jmal18]

Rad tank. My future elbow tattoo will be the a-10 Warthog mouth

[06XB12SS_LOVER]

This helmet would go perfect with that theme. BTW nice paint job.

http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/bell-vortex-flying-tiger-helmet

[two_fry]

That helmet is bad ass! a little pricey though....maybe ill sand the paint back down on my helmet and do something along these lines. maybe.

Jmal, Id never thought of doin somethin like this as a tattoo, id like to see how that turns out!

[justin4260]

did you buy a chopped tail or what did you do cuz thst looks cool and how easy and costly was it to paint your plastics thst green color. i dont wsnt the mouth just the green. (ALTHOUGHT THE MOUTH IS BOSS). what color is the green?

[two_fry]

All of my supplies for the entire paint project were less than $50 total. I guess it would have been more if this were a metal tank, but since it was plastic, i just used rattle cans from walmart. the green was one of the camo green paints they have with the rest of the spray paints, and there is a matte finish clear coat over it.

For chopping the tail, ill direct you to another thread. This is what i used to plan my tail chop.
http://www.buellxb.com/Buell-XB-Forum/Buell-Blast/Modifications/chopping-the-tail-on-my-01-blast

[justin4260]

so you just spray painted it camo green then coated it with mat finish?

[two_fry]

more or less, yes. If you are carefull and patient you can get rattle can paint jobs lookin just fine. just make sure to take your time with your entire project. The matte clear coat was the hardest to find. i think that was the only thing i couldnt find at walmart.

[Internet Annoyance]

until you spill some gasoline or brake fluid on it, or it sits in the sun for very long. The truth is rattle can just doesnt hold up very well, YES,, you can get a good look, its just not durable, Even real auto paint can peel, fade or bubble,, but its far more durable and can be very resistant to damage, not to mention touched up or repaired.

But that is a super cool paint job,,,,,,, congratulations, nice work.

[justin4260]

did you buy new plastics and paint them, or did you strip down the old ones, or just paint over the old paint couldn't tell in the pics if they were new or striped.

[two_fry]

@Annoyance - Thank you, I had a feeling the lifetime durability of the spray can paint might not be fantastic. But, at the same time, it was fun as hell doin the paint job, and im thinking about re doing this over next winter. Not sure what yet, or if i will. Im also looking into an automotive clearcoat, to put over whatever i decide to do next time. Id think that should hold up better than spray can clear coat.

@justin, I sanded the old plastic down real good, before i painted. when i was working on the paint job, i had a budget of about $20 every other week. Had to make do with what i had.

[BamBamBoom]

[up]

[08herobolt]

[up]

[Sirius815]

[up] Great job on the paint!!

[mothumper610]

I thought about doing this with mine. Never got around to it ha. Looks great, love the worthog mouth on the tank!