Hot Pink

[texscottyd]

@kilo3 - I’m hardly a pro painter, but all my experience suggests you don’t want to shoot clear directly over that rough of a surface: You’ll end up with little craters everywhere… I don’t think ‘Pink Lunar Landscape’ is the look you’re going for.   

If you can knock it down without ripping all the glitter loose, I definitely would.  If not, you might shoot a coat of clear, wet sand that smooth, and then shoot another topcoat of clear.   Again, my paintwork is amateur at best, but good result are always about the prep work.  

Good luck!  I dig it… 😀

[kilo3]

@texscottydi

No idea either, I'd think it would be more sparkly if I cleared first, but then who knows if I'd ever get it level like you said.

I asked my local fagepager as well, I know I got some garage spray booth people to bounce it off as well.

[kilo3]

Well against my thoughts, the consensus is to at least do one pass of clear, probably 2, then wetsand.

Really sparkles now, brought out the correct color at least.

Here's one very light coat of 2k clear with small run but that was my only one on all the prieces.

 

[Ride365]

A bit like Pepto-Bismol.

[knyte]

It sure POPS now!

[Heli ATP]

Waiting to see the finished product.

I want to know will you ride it if your bike doesn't start some day when you want to ride?

🦩

Edited March 30, 2023 by Heli ATP

[kilo3]

49 minutes ago, Heli ATP said:

I want to know will you ride it if your bike doesn't start some day when you want to ride?

🦩

I'll have to bust out the fuzzy assless chaps and cruise some construction sites.

[kilo3]

Well I feel shame, clearing over glitter was a bad choice. Should have knocked it down. I'll be in wetsand hell for a while.

[kilo3]

Wet sanding takes a lot of the sparkle out of it and frankly I'm done with this whole adventure.
Final coat of clear goes on friday and it will be what it is.
Right now it's a varying mix of orange peel for surface texture, but glitters like mad and that's really all she wanted.

Looks like weather wise we'll be assembling this weekend.

Edited April 12, 2023 by kilo3

[Wintersdark]

On 1/2/2023 at 1:08 PM, kilo3 said:

Now we wait a week for the paint to harden. I still can't believe they wanted 1-1.5k to paint these peices. Maybe I should get into the side business.

So to roll back to this, how do you feel about that now?  I want to have my Tracer painted, but I'm really reluctant to do it myself - it's so insanely dusty here, I've always had huge problems with dust getting onto everything I'm trying to paint.  

Looks like a huge amount of labor ended up going into the process.

[kilo3]

Minus the glitter part, I would totally do it again. There isn't much labor, it's just a lot of time waiting, so it drags out the project.
Major things I learned.

1. Do not sand below the topcoat/base of any painted part. You never know how it's going to react with dissimilar paints and bare material.

2. Basecoat, many many fine layers, don't rush, wait 4-5 days between coats because off the shelf spraypaint sucks if it doesn't cure. Not just dry, but cure. I think I did 10 totalish.

3. On the basecoat, don't worry about dust specs, minor imperfections, bumps, that all comes out in the wash on final wet sand.

4. 2k Clear coat is awesome, it's stupid hard, and self levels great but it's spendy.

I'll be doing mine next winter, or at least I say I am. I also said I was going to do my valves and clutch basket this winter but that didn't happen either so....

[kilo3]

Done.

The video really screws up the color but you can see the glitter effect.

Something in-between these two photos is the color, can't wait to get it out in the sun.

Some orange peel, some parts better, some worse.

Assembly this weekend.

 

[draco_1967]

On 4/12/2023 at 11:01 AM, Wintersdark said:

So to roll back to this, how do you feel about that now?  I want to have my Tracer painted, but I'm really reluctant to do it myself - it's so insanely dusty here, I've always had huge problems with dust getting onto everything I'm trying to paint.  

Looks like a huge amount of labor ended up going into the process.

 

On 4/12/2023 at 12:12 PM, kilo3 said:

Minus the glitter part, I would totally do it again. There isn't much labor, it's just a lot of time waiting, so it drags out the project.
Major things I learned.

1. Do not sand below the topcoat/base of any painted part. You never know how it's going to react with dissimilar paints and bare material.

2. Basecoat, many many fine layers, don't rush, wait 4-5 days between coats because off the shelf spraypaint sucks if it doesn't cure. Not just dry, but cure. I think I did 10 totalish.

3. On the basecoat, don't worry about dust specs, minor imperfections, bumps, that all comes out in the wash on final wet sand.

4. 2k Clear coat is awesome, it's stupid hard, and self levels great but it's spendy.

I'll be doing mine next winter, or at least I say I am. I also said I was going to do my valves and clutch basket this winter but that didn't happen either so....

 

I would add that creating some kind of "paint booth" helps a ton with dust management. I painted a bike a couple years ago. I hung some plastic drop cloth from my garage ceiling, had a layer on the bottom. I used box fans with A/C filters taped on them to circulate air through the partially opened garage door. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the setup. I am about to paint again, and I think I'm going to pick up an inexpensive "cabin" type tent to use as the booth. 

If you have a decent compressor, a cheap HVLP spray gun and a "real" automotive polyurethane paint is so much easier to work with than spray cans. It will lay down better, cure faster, and is chemical (fuel) resistant. You also don't have to worry about compatibility issues between the different steps. The 2K clear is great stuff, but between the cost of the spray cans, the time it takes to cure before you can work it, a little extra expense in paint makes a huge difference in the finished quality. I spent $15 on the spray gun, $160 in paint (primer, base, and clear), and used a small 8 gal compressor. Unfortunately, paint prices are up like everything else

 

I'm actually planning to repaint the same bike. I got a larger tank, and a different front fender, so it needs to match again...

 

@kilo3 I think the pink looks awesome. I'm glad your wife likes it!

[kilo3]

Yeah something like that, I didn't do the whole booth thing though, just to keep the over spray off stuff in the garage.

[kilo3]

And done.

Edited April 15, 2023 by kilo3