Painting a full set of bike plastics.

[Pete.]

Got stuck in to some propping some fairings yesterday, continuing today. I de-stickered them forst using a heat gun and a lot of patience. The factory stickers have been on there 20+ years and they were a nuisance to remove plus they left a heavy glue outline which was troublesome. I tried IPA, acetone, thinners and methylated spirits but in the end I just went over them very gently with 320 grit wet and dry and that took the glue lines off.

You'll notice that there's different colours here, that's because I had a spare blue side fairing is great condition and I was going to do the one set of fairings whilst the other set were on the bike but instead I thought I might as well get the whole lot done in one then I can pick out the best and then either store or re-work the ones that were not so good. Saves me going to the trouble of setting up the spray booth again.

Normal good paint I dry flatted with 800 followed by grey scotchbrite



Inside the fairings I scuffed with brown scotchbrite



Small scratches in the paint I dry flatted with 500 then scotchbrite



Chips or deep scratches I wet flatted with 320 by hand and I'll have to prime them before spraying.





There's loads more than this done and I got a few more to do yet. I was thinking of setting up to paint today but I don't want to rush things plus there's no wind and I don't want the smell of paint lingering for the neighbours when there will probably be kids out in the gardens.

 

[Kram]

If you have the booth up, do you have a photo? Interested to see, while I'm currently using a tent I might make something more permenent with a removable cover.

 

[ajlelectronics]

A few tips...

DON'T use water at any stage until final polishing. Wet and dry paper is not the best choice of abrasives, Mirka do a good range of Abranet which can be recommended.

Final flat before solid colour coat application, 4-500 grit dry, no Scotchbrite required. If metallic base and clear, 800 grit dry, no Scotchbrite.

Scotchbrite is good stuff, but it is used INSTEAD of flatting abrasives, especially helpful around difficult contours.

Clean with SLOW panel wipe thoroughly a couple of times at least. If getting on with the job is important, I like to go over with fast afterwards to disperse any remnants of slow, hiding where it will cause you grief!

 

[steveo3002]

clean cloths...wipe on then wipe off while wet
more fresh cloths do it again

surprising the amount of people that wipe it on and let it dry

 

[Pete.]

If you have the booth up, do you have a photo? Interested to see, while I'm currently using a tent I might make something more permenent with a removable cover.

Not yet, probably not until next weekend. I am going to make the frames for the filters first once I've done flatting the panels and figure a way to connect the exhaust filters to the fan blower. I purposely cleaned all the panels inside and out with hot water and washing machine liquid to get rid of all the road film and muck from the panels, don't want to get my hands grubby and end up putting dirty fingerprints on the flatted surfaces.