New paint!

[boatdetective]

Well, I need room in the garage and it's time for Gina, my V50III to go. The problem was that I had a chip in the paint. The bike had been painted before I bought it in LeMans I clothes- really nice red and black. The red is "Porsche Guards red"- highly recommended.

I tried doing a touch up and blending it in- you can imagine how that went. I've been trying to teach myself to paint, so I decided why not and dove in. I stripped off the topcoat on the tank. The front fender wasn't that nice, so I shot it too.

Any decent paint job starts witha high quality primer, so I used Awlgrip 545 two part epoxy. Wonderful stuff that has excellent adhesion and sands/fairs in very easily.



I decided to go with the two stage base/clear coat system used in the automotive business. The cost of this paint is outrageous. They literally sell it by the cup. The system apparently is designed to spray clear over the base without sanding the base- but I waited and wet sanded the base before shooting clear. What can I say? In the boat business we wetsand everything.



Looks pretty good just before shooting clear. I bought a new gun to shoot the clear.  I was terrified!  The new gun is awesome- but it took some nerve wracking fiddling to get the pattern, air, paint flow, and pressure just right.

The clear did not flow as much as I would've liked-  practice, practice, practice.However, the system is designed so that you can wetsand and buff out minor sins. I was patient and worked down from 1000 grit to 3000 before buffing with Finesse it.


and....voila!


The problem now- of course- is that the tank and fender force me to fluff and buff the rest of the machine before it hits the market.

It was a lot of work- but a good learning experience and another skill.  I may have built up enough courage to paint my boat now.



 
 

[oldbike54]

 

 Dusty

[lucian]

Wow, nice work. How was the pin stripe accomplished?  My daughters v 50 tank has a couple dings and scratches and I would someday like to attempt the same. I'm pretty familiar with HVLP spraying as I do a lot of cabinets. Mostly catalyzed lacquers, and always a single color. I have no experience with two colors and stripes and such but hope to learn .  Thank's for sharing , the v50 is a lovely bike , I hope it finds a good home.

[boatdetective]

Wow, nice work. How was the pin stripe accomplished?  My daughters v 50 tank has a couple dings and scratches and I would someday like to attempt the same. I'm pretty familiar with HVLP spraying as I do a lot of cabinets. Mostly catalyzed lacquers, and always a single color. I have no experience with two colors and stripes and such but hope to learn .  Thank's for sharing , the v50 is a lovely bike , I hope it finds a good home.

The stripe is taped off and sprayed with the black. It's fiddly- but worth the effort. You use 1/8" fine line tape. Shoot the red first, then lay the tape down with one thin strip of tap covering the red at the edge- which becomes the thin strip of red between the back top and the black stripe.

The automotive acrylics dry quite fast- 15 minutes or less. However- this also means they don't have much chance to flow out smooth. Yacht linear polyurethane takes as much as an hour wait between coats. This allows the paint to flow - but also means it can hang much easier. 

[SED]

Outstanding job!  You have way more patience than me.  Someone is going to get a nice looking V50.

[nobleswood]

That's a beautiful finish ! 

You've given me some useful pointers that I'll need to spray my tank. Do you know if the products you used will work on a plastic tank ?

[Rich A]

Looks great and it's wonderful to learn a new skill.

Rich A

[Turin]

That came out great !

[Gliderjohn]

 
GliderJohn

[jdgretz]

Very nice.  Something that is not yet in my skill set.

jdg

[boatdetective]

That's a beautiful finish ! 

You've given me some useful pointers that I'll need to spray my tank. Do you know if the products you used will work on a plastic tank ?

Plastic should not be a problem. I think the critical step in your case would be the primer. You probably don't want to use the "self etching" primers sold for automotive. Once again, I used a two part epoxy primer that I'm very familiar with. Awlgrip 545 has been a staple in the marine business for over 40 years. PPG has a very good primer- Amerlock II, but it is ungodly expensive and does not come in quarts.

Another thing to remember is that you are dealing with perilously thin layers. So, you need to be surgical about sandpaper- only use the grit that is coarse enough to get the job done and do not skip steps when working your way through finer grits

[Zoom Zoom]

Looks good for sure!

John Henry

[Rusnak_322]

I love painting, I have done a number of bikes. It really is an accomplishment you can admire. Sure, rebuilding a engine may be more work, but when you are done, no one can really tell.

as far as plastic, yes. Same paint is used. there is an adhesion promoter that can be sprayed on. It is used for plastic car bumpers that are really flexible.

Best thing is to go to the automotive paint store and ask questions. This is one of the areas that saving 6% on the cost of the paint vs online is a bad plan. The guys I have spoken to over the years have always been very helpful and if you go right before you paint, they can recommend a fast, medium or slow hardener depending on the weather forecast.

Also - red is way more expensive than any other color for some reason.

BTW - Great looking paint job!

[Chuck in Indiana]

Looks really good..
comma but
More practice is needed before you do your boat. You *really* don't want to sand and buff that. 

[Two Checks]

Hey, we are talking Guzzi here....the Krylon touch is needed!


That tank turned out nicely!

[boatdetective]

Looks really good..
comma but
More practice is needed before you do your boat. You *really* don't want to sand and buff that. 

I had a friend shoot my topsides. He is used to shooting auto acrylics. The poly used on boats dries much slower and he bailed waaaay too much material on. It's a 20' boat and I was left with an 18' sag to long board out!!!

[larrys]

I had a friend shoot my topsides. He is used to shooting auto acrylics. The poly used on boats dries much slower and he bailed waaaay too much material on. It's a 20' boat and I was left with an 18' sag to long board out!!!

They're not called sags or runs. The proper terminology is 'flow indicators'. Lets you know when you got enough paint on there.
Larry

[boatdetective]

They're not called sags or runs. The proper terminology is 'flow indicators'. Lets you know when you got enough paint on there.
Larry

Euphemism Award of the Day

[lrutt]

Assume you used an HVLP gun. Honestly I just use my HF gun, works fine for me. I also only spray acrylic enamel with hardner. Single stage, tough, easy to shoot. Not near as toxic as other paints. wetsands and buffs out nicely if need be but has good working time depending on the thinner used. I've painted a few cars including my 53 TD, and many bikes including my LM1, all with enamel. Guess I'm just old school and go with what I know.

Good on you for venturing into the BC CC realm though. I never had the guts for that.

[boatdetective]

Assume you used an HVLP gun. Honestly I just use my HF gun, works fine for me. I also only spray acrylic enamel with hardner. Single stage, tough, easy to shoot. Not near as toxic as other paints. wetsands and buffs out nicely if need be but has good working time depending on the thinner used. I've painted a few cars including my 53 TD, and many bikes including my LM1, all with enamel. Guess I'm just old school and go with what I know.

Good on you for venturing into the BC CC realm though. I never had the guts for that.

They wouldn't have come up with this if it's not forgiving. The idea that you can have a "mulligan" in terms of sanding out the orange peel is great.  However, buffing is by its nature abrasive- so you only have so many tries before it's time to lay down more material.

I did end up using an HVLP. I don't think it atomizes as well as a suction gun- but it's the wave of the future. The clear coat gun I bought is pretty trick, though.

[JJ]

At the end of the day..."Well Done!!"...and your little V50 looks GREAT!!

[kballowe]

very nice