Custom Paint- How Much Did It Take?

I've already began reconsidering the color of my 04 but why dip it when I can just take it into the paint bay and shoot it with a real color? The driving question- is whether the outcome will justify the cost. I could always just get plenty of paint and go from there but I want house of color metalized paint and its not exactly cheap lol.

So- has anybody gone through this recently enough to give me a ballpark?

-Drew

 

-Drew

 

Thank you tinkerinWstuff that is very informative.

I was thinking two qts. should be enough with some extra- but wasn't positive.

-Drew

 

Awesome to hear.

I am still rolling around the idea of how I want to paint it- because if I can keep the cost down I can repaint the bike a different color every riding season which I think would be fun but If costs get high it might just be a one time thing. I may end up just sanding and shooting the insides with cheaper black paint and finishing the outside as needed.

-Drew

 

Someone in the know more than I may correct me, but if you were to repaint every year, you are going to end up with a really thick layer of paint on the bike. That is fine for the tank being metal but on the plastic faring, I would think that it would be very prone to cracking once you built up a thick coat. Too much flex in the plastics. Maybe badbilly will chime in here. He seems to have some background knowledge in painting affairs.

 

I'll remove any excess paint.

I am a "professional" military painter- I do coating work on the F22 so my job mostly consists of sanding off paint and spraying on new paint. I'm no auto-body pro- but I am skilled enough to sand one layer of paint at a time without breaking into any further coats. I'll use this to my advantage when prepping the panels.

-Drew

 

Ballparking on product from House of Kolor would be impossible unless the specific paint is chosen. Some of their paints run 2k a gallon.

Coverage depends on color and particulate size just as a beginning, red is transparent and even some of the blues and greens using Pthalo blue or green are transparent. This is where a careful choice of undercoat color is critical.

Painting the inside of fairing parts with topcoat material is a waste of expensive paint. Matte black is great.

Removal of all the paint from fairing part (s) is the least necessary step in a repaint that is possible.

House of Kolor has great ads, great paint and everything you need or so you think to paint a bike. There are other sources. Many of the "auto" type paints are manufactured by one or more subsidiaries of Sherwin-Williams. This includes generic reducers, gloss enhancers, primers, primer/fillers, catalyzers and hardeners. All have sample and "chip" books. Best deal in many places in the US is NAPA and Martin-Senour.

A trick in painting is to use lacquer as the paint, topcoated with one of the two component clearcoats.

Another factor in cost that is many times overlooked is the type of sprayrig used. A "conventional" gun and compressor will do very fine work depending on the quality of the equipment but the waste in material is the price paid. Current technology calls for the use of HVLP equipment where transfer rate can approach 85%.

Like many dudes that have bikes and ride without ATGATT or close, there's an ATGATT for automotive level spraywork. Too little of that and you might end up having someone spoon feeding you Top Ramen. Bottom line? This shit is toxic..



For those areas that are subject to rocks, roadkill, flotsam and jetsam a couple of clearcoats works. The film from 3M is bulletproof.

Best bet IMO. spend a few pesos on a book and RTFM before laying out green on somebody's counter because they think it's a good idea. '

 

Paint yes. Affairs no! Maybe try Norcalboy..

 

Awesome information badbilly!

To clarify- I will be a filtered paint bay with full coverage tyvek suit and 3m 6700 full face respirator with filtered forced air using a gravity fed HVLP.

I spray all the time- and can throw down consistent coats without striping and can address gun issues as they arrive but in my line of work we rarely use clear coat and even more rarely does the product have to look as pristine as auto-body clearcoat standards.

I'm thinking with my basic experience with the equipment, and the facility I have access to the hardest part will be deciding what stackup I want for base, color, and top as well as how much I'll need. The House of kolor stuff I was looking at is only around $50 a qt.

Item Detail

-Drew

 

Somehow I managed to dig this up from a year or two ago.



-Drew

 

You got it made GI.. All the right gear and facilities and the experience. It's all the same thing, just apply what you know. Adjust your lighting so that you can see the material being applied. This is pretty important with metallics and clearcoats. So does Uncle supply you guys with cammo bunny suits?

If you have, use the finest projection set you have there for shooting your bike stuff especially with the metallic. One trick is to thin the last coat of the metallics to even out the pattern. Using an HVLP like the one shown crank up the air some.

Some pitfalls might be a potential for curtains in the reverse curves. These automotives flash off pretty fast so you can do a nice wet edge with the same 50% overlap and not get in trouble. Best teaching method I used to use is to find something with a reverse curve and shoot some water on it.


With the right color primer, a quart of the blue should be enough. Use a generic black on the inside surfaces. This is nothing more than some more masking.

If possible fashion some jigs for the fairing parts. Just something to hold them in place whilst painting. Another good tool is a turntable. A lazy susan bearing and some plywood works fine.

Nice gun.. and no paint under your nails and quick.. Good show.. Clean and mean..

Painted lots of things but never an airplane. Never told the USAF that I could do it..