Painting a full set of bike plastics.

northwest · 2026-05-03T12:43:53+0100

Robotstar5 said:
I just breathe out of the side of my mouth (the side without the fag in it obviously)

Stealing my technique there you are. If you had have been any closer @Pete. I would have come over and sprayed it for you. I have a full HVLP setup and now I only use HP if pushed. Being a Yorkshireman of Scottish heritage, I need to get the paint to go as far as is physically possible, the price of it.

Pete. · 2026-05-03T19:47:58+0100

Kram said:
@Pete. how did it go?

I have mixed results. Some things I did wrong, some stuff I didn't think to do. I'll post an update later.

mtt.tr said:
Cracking job Pete. Wouldn't expect any less.

Its an odd one in my late teens I sprayed a number of bikes with great results.
Now I'm older I have more doubt than I used to.

These are my last survive pictures.
View attachment 539056 View attachment 539057

But once again I always appreciate your effort Pete.

Cheers Matt. That's a lovely finish I'm full of envy.

northwest said:
Stealing my technique there you are. If you had have been any closer @Pete. I would have come over and sprayed it for you. I have a full HVLP setup and now I only use HP if pushed. Being a Yorkshireman of Scottish heritage, I need to get the paint to go as far as is physically possible, the price of it.

I would have welcomed it with open arms Graham. Right now I'll settle for a half decent spray gun. I've already made enquiries and I would have a GTi by now but the guy who was selling it has left it at work over the bank holiday.

Windy Miller · 2026-05-03T20:51:25+0100

Pete. said:
I have mixed results. Some things I did wrong, some stuff I didn't think to do. I'll post an update later.

Cheers Matt. That's a lovely finish I'm full of envy.

I would have welcomed it with open arms Graham. Right now I'll settle for a half decent spray gun. I've already made enquiries and I would have a GTi by now but the guy who was selling it has left it at work over the bank holiday.

You’re welcome to have a play with my spray guns @Pete.

qwakers · 2026-05-03T20:59:37+0100

the devilbiss gti prolite clones on ebay are decent.

Pete. · 2026-05-03T23:25:08+0100

Right well I've been out this evening and bought a pair of used Devilbiss FLG-5 spray guns off gumtree, a 1.8 and a 1.3. The 1.3 is very clean and the 1.8 fairly clean, having some remnants of filler primer. They are soaking in a tub of thinners now so I'll get them all spangly new looking tomorrow.

So how did I get on?

First a couple of basic mistakes that I made:
I made a stand from metal pipe and angle, and then added some timber batten bits with nails as adaptable mounts for my panels. What I should also have done is taped up all the timber battensbecause I kept getting tiny bits in the paint especially on the larger panels. Eventually I realised that I was blowing bits of wood off the battens and they were getting airborne and some were settling in the paint. Not a lot nor big bits but it was unnecessary.

I tried painting the clear coat with a 1.0 tip mini gun and found it hard going. It wasn't terrible but I couldn't get a consistant wet line going (nor see it properly). Obviously most of this was just lack of technique but I don't think the 30 quid gun with a too-small tip was helping. When I tried to spray one more pass over the bits that were a little dry - it ran. Plus I was getting bits in it as above.

I tried to use isopropanol as panel wipe and it just melted the (aerosol) primer/basecoat, causing it to smear.

Thursday I went out and bought a liter of 2-pack primer and sprayed the bits that were reacting 9after flatting them down). I also bought 5L of panel wipe which got rid of the problem of it melting the paint below and now I can really go over it thoroughly before spraying.

Here's the bits I have sucessfully painted so far: