Painting Plastics

ChloroFiend · 08-19-2004, 05:04 PM

Is it possible to do this at home or in the garage and still obtain decent results? Taking it to a body shop would be damn expensive, and the bike and replacement plastics are only costing me around $1100 to begin with.

Any tips/tricks/step-by-steps would be great.

robbieace · 08-19-2004, 05:07 PM

oh yea. My roomate spray painted his for like 50 bucks in our backyard. Didn't look to shabby when he was done

cookhj · 08-19-2004, 07:09 PM

i've given thought to painting my bike by myself but the only thing i worry about is if the "gas tank" is a cover over the real gas tank, or THE gas tank itself. and if it really IS the gas tank, how do i go about taking it off and preping it to paint? sorry if it's a dumb question. i'm still a little bit of a noob.

Blue · 08-19-2004, 09:21 PM

You can do a spray-bomb job at home. There are pros and cons to everything including the diff methods of painting plastics. Spray-bombing costs around 30-50 bucks depending on the paint brand where standard spraying a bike is around $500-700 (at least in my book, each painter has their own prices). So spray bombs have a price advantage. The disadvange is that the shine is almost never that great, the color fades, and without the use of adhesion promoters as in a professional paintjob the paint will chip easy.
The only tips I can give ya are don't use courser than 600 sandpaper when u prep or the sanding lines will show up with the caned paint, I dont know of a spray can adhesion promoter so be sure to sand every part till you cant see any shine on the plastic...u want a good mechanical bond, and use the same brand paint if you are going to clearcoat it... differant brands and/or types of paint can react poorly with eachother causing a wrinkled appearance or lifting of the paint.

Blue · 08-19-2004, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cookhj

i've given thought to painting my bike by myself but the only thing i worry about is if the "gas tank" is a cover over the real gas tank, or THE gas tank itself. and if it really IS the gas tank, how do i go about taking it off and preping it to paint? sorry if it's a dumb question. i'm still a little bit of a noob.

Assuming your bike is stock (a 2002 f4i right?), the surface you see on the tank IS the actual tank (unlike an fzr which has a false tank) and is removed and preped like any other painted steel surface.

Blue · 08-19-2004, 09:26 PM

If you haven't seen it already u may want to look at this thread, good advise here Need Painting Advice

rmarruda · 08-21-2004, 06:59 AM

I crash all the time, pullin tricks. I have to paint my bike 3 or 4 times a week. The best way is to sand it down, put body filler in any scratches or indents, then sand that smooth. Then put two layers of adehesive clear paint on first, so the real paint wont run. Then go to your local dealer and you can get cans of the right color paint for your bike. Put a couple of coats on , make sure you stay a good foot away when you paint so the paint doesn't blotch. Then put a couple of clear coats of clear paint on top of that so it shines, it will come out fine as long as you take your time, P.S I would stay away from the gas tank though. Take the gas tank to a pro. To much stuff to mess up. The fairings and the tail are easy because they come off the bike easy. Any questions e-mail me. rmarruda

firefighter81 · 08-21-2004, 07:20 AM

so you do all that 4x a week? dude, if you crash that much, it's time to find a new hobby.

stephygee · 08-22-2004, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firefighter81

so you do all that 4x a week? dude, if you crash that much, it's time to find a new hobby.

It sounds like he does have a hobby...stunting. Not popular with some folks, but hey, we can't all like the same things. It's nice that he has a place to go to exchange ideas and quick fixes for his bike should said stunts go wrong. Not to mention sharing his experience with painting motorcycles.

Live a little.