Painting

[BuellyBagger]

1000 is awfully coarse to try to buff. when i color sand and buff paint i go all the way to 3000 "tri-zact" i would say u should work ur way down to 2500 jumpin in 500 grit incriments.

 

[CrazyTexan]

Hey Buelly, What do you think about wet sanding with 12/1500 and then 3000 with a 3" Air sander? I used 1500 when I painted the plastics but did it all by hand and it sucked. I bought a little 3" air buffer/sander. It has hook and loop adapters. 2 foam pads and a VERY soft wool/cotton pad I was gonna use for the compound/wax stages, But I bought the 3k grit pads to put on for mby the wet sanding process..I figured if I went slow and easy it would be safe, but thought i'd asd.

 

[Oldgit]

Wow 3000, I didn't know it went that fine. Thats like stroking the plastics with satin lol. Thanks, I'll give it a go.

 

[BuellyBagger]

What do you think about wet sanding with 12/1500 and then 3000 with a 3" Air sander?

that will work great. I often cut panels down with 1500 3m finishing paper with my 6" DA (fine stroke DA) and then go right to 3000(TRIZACT). U've gotta be pretty thurough with the 3000 to smooth out all the 1500, but the results are good and it goes quite quickly.
if ur sander is a Dual Action Orbital sander it wont buff very fast. If u can lock it to make single action for buffing it will work a little faster. Or if u can get ahold of a variable speed air grinder or die grinder and adapt ur pads to it and run those @ about 1200-1400 rpm for buffing.

 

[BuellyBagger]

I'm just throwin this out there. Would ne one be willing to send me various colored samples of plastics so i could color match them.

I wont be able to make formulas that will cross reference into paint lines other than BASF ones, but if u can find a paint jobber that carries Diamont basecoast or UNO single-stage in ur area u'd be able to take the formulas i make and have them mix them.

I'd like to make formulas for thrust blue, the sunset orange/red that was on the 06-07lightnings, racing red that was on the firebolts(i think that was racing red), the bright yellow (nobody is going to want the yellow that was on the uly's), and possibly the 1125 red (if thats different from the red on the firebolts).

 

[03BuellUSA]

I painted my EBR race belly pan for my firebolt with krylon... Patriotic Blue... Super close match. Took some time with collor sanding and hand rubing it to a glass finish. Very happy with the results.

 

[BuellyBagger]

This is for you CrazyTexan: heres my restored tractor Sprinkler!!

 

[CrazyTexan]

Found the Thread again! Thats awesome man! When I get mine all painted up we should drink beer and race them!

public on topic question. Going from rough to strip plastics and get it leveled out, then working up finer, At what grit would you stop at and leave for Primer to fill in the rest? Just curious, I was using 320, and seemed a little coarse for the primer to fill, until i got a few coats on it, But there was still little rough patches i'll have to get out once its all dry.

 

[BuellyBagger]

But there was still little rough patches i'll have to get out once its all dry.

yeah, with aerosol primers (they dont fill very well) ull need to let it dry, hit it with 4-600 and shoot a couple more coats of primer. 320 is kinda ruff 4 raw plastic but it can b filled and then u know for sure u have a good bite.

Thats awesome man! When I get mine all painted up we should drink beer and race them!

i think i could down a case of beer b4 we finished that race. i actually sold that one, but maybe ill get another and re-gear it 4 racing

 

[CrazyTexan]

aerosol primers eh? I'll just get a jug of non aerosol primer and shoot it on through the gun.

i think i could down a case of beer b4 we finished that race. i actually sold that one, but maybe ill get another and re-gear it 4 racing

Yep, Thats the idea, Sittin out relaxi drinkin beer while the tractor sprinklers do their thing. 1/64 of a wheel turn per 5 minutes.

 

[BuellyBagger]

I'll just get a jug of non aerosol primer and shoot it on through the gun.

i'd recommend dupont4004 2part primer surfacer, transtar 2part primer surfacer(if u want some thin a lil cheaper its the way to go and it still works great). or Basf Diamont DP26 or ne thing comparable to those.

Yep, Thats the idea, Sittin out relaxi drinkin beer while the tractor sprinklers do their thing. 1/64 of a wheel turn per 5 minutes.

i like the way u think!

 

[BuellyBagger]

Alright its time to get this thread back on track, I'm actually gonna be painting a BUELL!!! 1badtitan has contracted me to paint the plastics for his '07 lightning. We've dicided to go with a color very similar to the new ducati pearl white(pic below) with satin clear coat. It looked pretty awesome on the street fighter we looked @ @ ducati dealer in Omaha.

The plastics ill be paint include the original air box from his bike, a black front fender he purchased from RyanExtra and a slightly cracked up kickash flyscreen(also from Ryan).

The color i will eventually spray on it will be General Motors WA560Q which is a very bright 3stage(tri-coat) white pearl and flattened urethane clear coat.


Well i got the plastics home today and while i was takin a brake from doing some lanscaping @ home i removed the emblems from everything and took some pics. I sat all the plastics with emblems out in the sun for about an hour to make the emblems easy to remove. so heres some pics.

The streetfighter:

Air Box (emblems and city X removed)

The emblems & City X

Fender:

And finally the beat down fly screen:

Next on the to do list is remove adhesive, repair the flyscreen, and prep for primer surfacer....

 

[BuellyBagger]

heres a pic of 1badtitan90's bike that the paint is for. (stolen from another thread)

 

[1badtitan90]

oh man i cant wait

 

[BuellyBagger]

all right here goes:

I began prepping the parts for primer tuesday night.
Started with cleaning all road grime, dirt, and big guts off with glass cleaner and lint free towels, then removed all adhesive from the emblems with wax and greae remover(u want to use a mild quick evaporating solvent for this on plastics so it doesnt swell the plastic), and then wiping everything down with a plastic prep cleaner(RM902).

cleaned and adhesive removed:

then i removed the fuel cap bezel by gently pulling on it and carefully warming the plastic tabs with a butane torch to melt them so it would pull apart

then i began repairing the cracks in the fly screen with my plastic welder and some poly carbonate plastic rod. i stiched the cracks together and then filled the lower holes with the plastic rod (bad has his screen dropped, so no need for the lower holes) and them sanded my plastic welds smooth with 80 grit on my miny DA

then i smoothed my repair with 3m semi-rigid plastic repair adhesive. sanded with 80 then 180 then 320.

after finishing prepping the fly screen i took a much needed, short break

then i began to prep the rest of the plastics with red scuff pads

i also trimmed the mold lines off the airbox with a razor blade

and soon i was finished prepping and ready to get everything hung up for priming

 

[BuellyBagger]

then finally after i got it all hung up i called it quits for the nite

then this afternoon after wiping everything down with 902 again i spryed a light coat of 868 adhesion premoter and then 3 coats of flexed DP25 on all the parts and then guide coated them, next on the list is to sand them down and prep them for paint.

 

[BuellyBagger]

skipped th pic of the mold lines i trimmed off the airbox

 

[CrazyTexan]

This is good stuff...I have my crashed tail all repaired, and airbox all ready, I just got it to the primed point as well. Now I just gotta get some paint!

 

[1badtitan90]

Man i can wait.. im like a little kid waiting for christmas..

 

[BuellyBagger]

Well next i prepped everything for paint by sanding my primer surfacer with 320 on my finishing DA using a foam interface pad so i dont cut down the edges. Since i didnt do ne real body work on these i didnt need to block sand them to make them ne straighter do DA'ing is sufficient. I then used a red scuff pad and a prep pin to sand the edges and tite places.

Then its time to mix up my base coat. I will be using GM 94 WA560Q Platinum Ice Tri-Coat which is nearly identical to the ducati white and much easier formula to get ahold of if Bad ever wants more parts painted to match.

Shake well

Once everything is in the booth i wiped it all down with 909 water born wax and grease remover, which is best for plastics bcuz it helps cut static. Then i will tack everything off b4 each coat. So time to paint REMEMBER to use protective equipment like rubber gloves and a Niosh approved breathing equipment.

Dont forget a paint gun i also like to have some between coat reading material. I have to spray 3 coat of the ground coat white(solid white) and 3 coats of the pearl coat and then 2 coats of clear, with 5-15 minutes of flash time between coats i'll be spending a coog bit of time "watching paint dry" and when im in the shop alone that gets a lil boring.