Thinking of painting tins myself

[JonnyC]

So paint gods, what do you think? I've never painted anything automotive before. I'm thinking of picking up a Harbor Freight gun and giving it a shot. I figure if I'm going to be stripping my tank and rolling the seams, I might as well do the paint work myself. I want to go with a metallic black - think I would be able to get it to turn out alright? Any suggestions on paint brands?

[TI 3VOM]

I just did mine with Duplicolor paint shop series. Turned out ok. Still not amazing high gloss, but I think I can buff it up once dry. Give it a try, you can't wreck anything, just may need to get someone else to do it later.

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd350/TI3VOM/100_0648.jpg

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/dd350/TI3VOM/100_0647.jpg

[BaldEagle]

You Can Do It!!!

[BIGFERM87]

PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE!:rolleyes3

Humidity, Cold and Dirt/Sand are your enemies!:madani:

Anything Duplicolor or CarQuest is good too.

[JonnyC]

So no need to go with House of Kolor or anything pros use? I do want it to shine, so I guess I'll go with multiple clear coats and buff it.

[BIGFERM87]

Well seeing its your first Paint Job on your tins or anything automotive, practice your gun skills on some plywood, make sure you got a good viscosity mixture of paint/clear and thinner, you don't want any running of any of that. Youtube it and practice and you'll do fine.

[NismoGriff]

...or see if you can pick up a used/damaged body panel from a boneyard/bodyshop for cheap/free and practice on that.

[apache driver]

So paint gods, what do you think? I've never painted anything automotive before. I'm thinking of picking up a Harbor Freight gun and giving it a shot. I figure if I'm going to be stripping my tank and rolling the seams, I might as well do the paint work myself. I want to go with a metallic black - think I would be able to get it to turn out alright? Any suggestions on paint brands?

I say go for it, but save yourself the heartache and get a good quality spray gun, the only thing that Harbor Freight piece of shit is gonna do is frustrate the hell out of you, I use Iwata guns myself; you would be surprised how much easier life is with a good spray gun; if you do use the HF,POS you'll have to run about 80psi or more to get it to atomize worth a shit, then you gotta move pretty fast, just too much trouble.

[JonnyC]

Man, I'm probably one my 4th coat of body filler for this tank seam roll. The seam couldn't be pounded flat so I'm filling it in, but I suck. I'm using Evercoat Z-Grip, and I think the hot weather might have it setting real fast as it's hard to get smooth. I thought everything was good, then tossed some primer on and the valleys and scratches in the filler stood out. Sanded back down a bit and put another coat on tonight.

Also, the damn 9" fender isn't fitting. I'll need to try to bend it as much as possible along with shaving the frame a bit.

[crimsonblooded]

alsacorp.com

they make great paint, not toooo expensive

[JonnyC]

Well, I finally got the tank to a point where I was ready to paint it. I must have not added enough hardener for the last coat of filler before the primer that days later I was able to peel the primer and filler off with my finger. I took a wire wheel to the whole tank to get it back to bare metal and start over.

So I painted it today in my garage, and a few spatters of paint and some odd marks were on the base coat so I hit them lightly with 800 grit. Well, I missed a few of those spots with another layer of paint, so you can now see it under the clear :( Either I'll live with them, or maybe sand down the clear and respray those spots with the base color, then clear again. Man this is frustrating.

[TI 3VOM]

Yeah, I had issues with mine as well. Thinking one more coat, then I am good for clear and then getting some shit in the middle of the tank. I can see the benefit to a good booth vs the garage route you and I took. But in the end, I get lots of compliments on the paint, even though I am not 100% happy with it.

[JonnyC]

Yeah, I actually think it will turn out looking really good except for these few spots. And while others may not notice it, it's always going to bug the hell out of me - which I knew was going to be the case either way with a DIY job.

I think right now my only option is to wait for it to cure then sand it all back down to primer and start over. I'll see how it looks after wet sanding and polishing the clear though.

[JonnyC]

Here's a teaser pic. It's really hard to capture in a picture how this House of Kolor PBC100 pops.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-yU5zvqDgQlw/Tj7mi6h8oWI/AAAAAAAAAZY/v-HDBV6aMz4/s800/DSC00208.JPG

[TI 3VOM]

Damn, that is looking good!! We need more then just a teaser pic though!

[JonnyC]

Well, I only did the tank, and it has major orange peel on it right now until I wet sand and buff it tomorrow. I'll get some more pics then.

[JonnyC]

Also, note to self, if you plan on painting tins in your garage, be sure to cover your bike with something. I've got a 3 car garage but manged to get light specks of clear coat overspray on basically my entire bike :( Luckily it seems to come off with a light buff job.

I'm excited to color sand and polish the tank tomorrow, but still have to hack up and weld the rear fender which won't happen or a while still. Then new 21" C2 rim and polished DC hub will be on so I can mock up my front fender. Here's a teaser pic for that as well...

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-IMal5VdbKck/TjjRTuRrMpI/AAAAAAAAAYY/QpIYp7XBt1M/s800/DSC00205.JPG

[NismoGriff]

Lookin' good Johnny. At least one of us is making progress.

[JonnyC]

Well, I did a lot of things wrong this first time around.

1. Did not apply enough coats of clear, especially wet coats. It wasn't so much orange peal as it was pitted. In order to get down to the lowest valleys I need to sand away a lot of clear, not leaving much left. Next time I'll use two cans of clear and more wet coats - and land more clear on the tank than the garage floor.

2. I think I let the clear cure for too long. Using 2000 grit, wet sanding takes forever, and even with a wool polishing pad using a lot of pressure I'm having a tough time getting the sand scratches out of the clear.

3. I need to be more careful around the edges of the tank. I already broke through the clear, base, and primer - down to the metal. You can see in a picture below.

Here is it all wet sanded down
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lpYvkD8_rJg/Tj7mhX3htbI/AAAAAAAAAZM/YvIg61JhN7c/s800/DSC00210.JPG

Harbor Freight polishing kit, Meguires Machine Glaze, and a drill (switched to a corded drill).

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-cMzveQWpDV4/Tj7mh2lgVPI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/VOWhT1Wlu2I/s800/DSC00211.JPG

Here is the breakthrough that I'll have to use touchup paint on
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8gbbeJ1cG3o/Tj7miSQnYbI/AAAAAAAAAZU/WHheYbLZuVw/s800/DSC00217.JPG

I'll post up a "finished" pic later today.

[apache driver]

If that Machine glaze is all you are using to "Buff" the paint, that explains why you are having so much trouble polishing out the sanding scratches, you need a more coarse initial material, Machine Glaze is a finishing compound, you need a rubbing compound to remove sanding scratches.
I recommend: Rubbing compound/wool pad; Polishing compound/fresh wool pad; machine glaze/foam pad (usually white); swirl remover/fine foam pad (usually black)
And a machine that turns at least 1500rpm.

[JonnyC]

Thanks for the advice apache. I'm going to hit the store to get some Meguiar's "Ultimate Compound". I could pick up Meguiar's professional products tomorrow at the body supply store, but I'll give this a shot.

[JonnyC]

Alright, picked up some Ultimate Compound and that helped a lot. I got rid of the main scratches, but there are still some smaller ones there. I just need to go over it again, but damn it's time consuming with just a 3" polisher and having to constantly adjust the tank on the stand. Come to think of it, I should really mount it on the bike so I can polish it from every angle without having to worry about the tank falling over.

After the polishing compound with the wool pad, I used the machine glaze on the yellow foam pad then the white closed-cell foam pad. Looks pretty good, but it could use swirl remover like you said apache.

Here's how it stands...

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-V_hSDKZRKwc/Tj8lBHgs7pI/AAAAAAAAAZs/RWF2asHI59o/s800/DSC00218.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pXX-PVlboPY/Tj8lByKcfcI/AAAAAAAAAZw/HYFFUcKHvYk/s800/DSC00219.JPG

Here's the pitting :(
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9JxuoA6eQps/Tj8lCP7zXaI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/T3SSxWzKvb4/s800/DSC00220.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3eK5tT4_Mc4/Tj8lCt01YhI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/EjpkcMB5Fdw/s800/DSC00221.JPG

[TI 3VOM]

Wow, looking good for a dabbler. I really need to get some heat and airflow in my garage and try again this fall/winter. You got the gloss I wanted.

[JonnyC]

The gloss is all about the wet sand and polish. I think I'm going to finish up the fenders and go with the current paint job on the tank at least to have something together before the end of riding season. Then maybe I will sand the tank down and start over.

[JonnyC]

Apache, what kind of polisher and pads do you use? I'm thinking about picking up something like this - http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/488677-7_variable_speed_sander_and_polisher.html

[TI 3VOM]

I was offered the use of a full on paint booth this winter. Just might be a plan.

[JonnyC]

FINALLY done! It sure ain't perfect, and I haven't seen it in the sun yet, but I'm rather happy with the results despite the imperfections. I need to get my 21" wheel trued up *again*, mount the LED strip for the brake light, then that's it for now.

Sorry for the crappy pics, I'll get some outside shots soon.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-461aC5i5oEo/TlXAE0-zWTI/AAAAAAAAAas/hVg8nfcpkPA/s800/DSC00222.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-obYTFS9ZYkg/TlW-_X45ElI/AAAAAAAAAak/uc5NcQr7cbY/s800/DSC00223.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1gDv0fAcSII/TlW-_4Pg1dI/AAAAAAAAAao/11cFIZXzOgs/s800/DSC00224.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-X2-yNJkUnWU/TlW_BlTC4-I/AAAAAAAAAaQ/s8QFJq8i6fU/s800/DSC00225.JPG

[apache driver]

As long as you're happy with it, that's all that matters.

[TI 3VOM]

It's always hard to tell in pics, but it looks good to me. Well done man, well done!

[tclemens]

Very nice

[bobaganoosh]

looks good to me too.

[JonnyC]

Here are some better pictures. You can certainly see the hologram swirl marks that I need to polish out. Also the last picture is of my 21" C2 rim with polished hub.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M_TiSerOs_c/Tlr-3mYEqjI/AAAAAAAAAbA/gejdT9D8KVc/s800/DSC00226.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-RuHyFUmxidE/Tlr-4KbvpTI/AAAAAAAAAbE/9xq0_zuJvlE/s800/DSC00227.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-pkUo4neLFZI/Tlr-4c6_A6I/AAAAAAAAAbI/10SDterAlQ4/s800/DSC00228.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-e9lfmvy6W3w/Tlr-46JqbOI/AAAAAAAAAbM/Ubo42BxMKVU/s800/DSC00229.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4e1iRCWh4nA/Tlr-5VSVGaI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/lddmT9UA5iU/s800/DSC00230.JPG

[apache driver]

Looks great man!

[Juggernaut]

"Come to think of it, I should really mount it on the bike so I can polish it from every angle without having to worry about the tank falling over."

I have found that a 2x4 with the rubber tank stubby holders works very well. Takes 3 screws, two for the stubbies and one for the rear tank mount (with a washer or something to that effect.

[SHADOW MAC]

looks great, this is going to be a winter project for me also. Not feeling my yellow.