polecat

Stage 4 : Choosing a top coat

Two pack is far too dangerous in my view to be Spraying at home in a shed so will discount this as a choice.

Cellulose is now becoming prohibited because of the health implications for home use so is rare to find in spray cans now.

So what does that leave?

The favourite now appears to be either acrylic base and laquer or enamel

Enamel is was always oil based and acrylic water based

Its horses for courses but doing some research I have found that most home spray cans seem to be acrylic and nearly all the undercoat and primers also

You can paint oil onto acrylic but not the other way around.

So if you like most people, choose the easy option of acrylic then your choice does not end there!

Do you want a solid colour or do you want metallic or pearlescent?

If you choose a solid colour you may still require a lacquer coat as most car manufacturers do nowadays, so you may as well do a metallic

Go into Halfrauds or somewhere and have a look at the range from HOLTS car paints, you will be surprised at the array !

Once you choose your colour you will then need a compatible lacquer and if you are painting a fuel tank then some fuel resistant lacquer for final coat (around £6.99 from Halfords)

On top of all this you need 1200 grit wet and dry to sand your lacquer between coats, some rubbing compound and cloths and some good quality wax .

If you Mess up a bit during coating you can cut out a lot of the problem s using rubbing compound but if you have serious Orange peel effect, then there is also something called “leveller” which will make the paint fluid again and level it out (like a kind of solvent) but I would personally Rub down and recoat.

Stage 3 : Make a spray bay

Before any painting you need to make yourself a Spray area which could be a shed or outhouse or even a homemade tent in the garden.

There is nothing worse than doing a lovely paint job to have a swarm of flies land in the wet paint.

Some ideas I have used are a large cardboard box with wire hangers inside, line the inside of your shed in plastic dust sheeting (about £3 from a DIY shop)

If you are really keen Make your own extractor with an old fan and some cardboard boxes for ducting ?

If you have Nowhere to spray then you can even make a cheap polythene tent from 2”x1” and dust sheets.

Once you have your area the best thing to Spray on is a sturdy table or workmate with a turntable on it to turn your panel as you spray (in case you don’t have all round access to the spray area )

The main thing is you have confidence the item can be sprayed all the way around and it will not fall off half way through, into a floor full of feathers.

You will need Good lighting and temperature no less than 14 degrees c

If it is raining then forget it and get on with something else !!

Humidity is worse than cold when painting so wait until you have a couple of days without rain for best results

Ready for Paint

Once Satisfied that your area is ready and the panel is all in order you need to give it a degrease all over, I find White spirit quiet good for this purpose.

Spraying

Give the panel a sanding all over with “Dry” wet and Dry paper around 240 grit

Keep the Sanding back and forth (not circles) before degrease.

Place the panel on your Sturdy table or workbench inside your “booth”

Before painting the panel with paint, run through in your mind how you are going to spray the panel in order to cover all of it, get your plan firmly in your head before squirting paint !

Shake can well !!

If the panel is metal then I would use a Zinc primer first and following my rehearsal pattern start spraying the panel by depressing the button on the can from right to left when I get to the far end release button now left to right pressing button following the line of shine from my first sweep and overlapping slightly so there is no Dry area between the two passes then down a bit press button and sweep back right to left ect (shake can when you get a chance during the coat)

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of planning, especially if you are doing something complicated like a tank.

Leave the paint to dry about 30mins to 1 hour depending on the temperature.

(Follow the coating times on the tin as they vary quite a bit from different manufacturers)

Once the first coat is dry Spray the second coat but this time turn the panel 180 degrees in case you had a “blind spot” on the first coat.

I use 3 undercoats zinc (for metals) red oxide, white ,grey reason being once the panel has become red I then spray white then finally grey, (If your base requires white undercoat then just change the order) this helps you see you are getting maximum coverage and not missing any facets.

I do not generally rub down between undercoats but if you made a mistake or got a Run, then Rub down a little with a wet and dry as required.

Once you have done your third coat and it has dried check it for any blemishes or sags, if you are happy with the way it looks run your fingers over it and see how it feels.

If you are still happy with the finish then take some 1200 – 1500 grit and lightly Dry rub the panel to remove any overspray that may have settled and leave to dry overnight.

Your panel is now ready for top coats

Stage 2 : Metal parts inspection

Metal parts inspection

For Metal panels such as metal mudguards and more relevant Fuel tanks you need to check for dings, dents and rust.

Fuel tanks can get quiet rusty underneath so first decision you will have to make with metals is either strip down to bare metal or paint over the original scheme.

Back to basics

Remove tank, empty fuel from tank then remove filler cap assembly, fuel tap, and fuel gauge assembly (if not comfortable doing this then you can mask it in a small polythene bag and masking tape)

Protect the entrances to the tank with “bungs” you can make from cloth or newspaper and masking tape ect.

Beware of fuel vapours that may remain in the tank and take precautions !!

Use a good quality paint remover and paste it onto the tank with a 1”brush then place kitchen paper over the paint remover, soaking it (this prevents the paint remover drying to quickly and becoming ineffective)

Leave a good couple of hours then scrape the soggy paper mess from the tank and repeat if nessasary.

Once the tank is more metal than mess clean it off with a damp rag (use gloves cos it burns)

You can now run a 120 grit wet and dry over the tank in a back and forth motion to remove any excess paint and shine up that metal, taking care to ensure you get the paint off underneath as well.

If you have rust on your tank beyond light surface then coat the whole tank in phosphoric acid and leave overnight (placed in a tray to avoid acid on your carpet)

When your tank is shiney silver and you have washed off the acid with a damp cloth feel all over your tank with your fingertips looking (feeling) for any bumps or dents and if none and you are not ready to paint then give the tank a coat of WD40 or ACF50 on a rag as it start to form rust in a matter of minutes!

If you find a dent

What goes in must come out, so if you have a dent the metal will have come out at some point as the metal went in, usualy this is found on the outer edge of the dent (known as a high spot) Do not try to fill the dent without removing this.

Using a flat hammer head or flat wide file slap the outer ridge of the dent gently and repeatedly, feeling often with your fingers until the high spots decrease (do not just whack it)

Once satisfied that the dent only goes inwards then sand the dent area with an 80 grit wet and dry to score the inside of the bowl of the dent and the fresh sand marks will highlight the shape of the dent area.

Use a cloth and wipe the dent with degreaser and then mix some fine automotive filler and using a plastic card spread it over the dent area keeping the shape of the tank not the dent.

Spread the filler a good few inches larger than the dent as this will help with profiling when it sets.

Leave to set overnight and then using a sanding block and wet and dry (without water) start to sand along the planes of the tank without focusing on the dent.

The size of grit at this point will determine how much you take off so I would start with 80 grit and as the filler reduces switch to 120 grit

As you reduce the filler area it will leave normal metal tank below until the dent area becomes flush with the contours of the tank (Do not rush this process)

Keep feeling with your fingertips to make sure you are not too proud or starting to recess into the dent and you will be able to tell when you are nearly flush again (at this point I would go to 240 grit)

Once you are satisfied with the shape you can give the dent area a quick blast of primer to use as a guide to how it will look under paint and if it needs further sanding….. repeat as required and if you sanded to far then you can reapply a little filler.

So you want to paint your bike ? here is how to paint on a budget and without specialist equipment.

Stage 1 :Checking your panel

Assuming you are painting a plastic (ABS) panel first inspect the panel for any damage, if you discover a crack in it do not panic as you can easily repair it using the Plastic welding technique used in many body shops.

Dig out your old soldering iron and either find a piece of similar ABS from a broken panel or you can buy ABS sticks from vehicle automotive suppliers.

If you are using a broken panel as “welding rods” Then cut a strip about twice as wide as the thickness of the and about 5-7cm long.

Heat up your soldering iron then holding the crack together press the tip or the iron into the ABS about half way in across the crack forming a Stitch then continue to stitch the crack along its entire length so it looks something like Frankenstein’s neck ?(if you still don’t know what a stitch looks like ask your nan)

Once “stitched” turn the panel over and where the crack was cut a slot into the crack about half the depth of the panel( slot will be about 3mm wide) and only do this for one quarter the length of the crack (the stiches will hold on the other end )

Now heat your “rod” with the soldering iron until it starts to melt and then feed it into the slot, you can work the iron pushing the melting rod into the slot but careful not to push it through the other side (its actually quiet tough stuff)

Let the panel cool for a minute then cut a slot into the furthest quarter of the crack and once again work your melting rod into the slot then repeat the process until the whole crack is welded.

Once you have completed the run across that side of the crack turn it over and do the same on the reverse of the panel.

This process Welds both sides of the crack together and can be stronger than the original.

Once cooled you can instantly rasp or sand off the excess ABS until flat then you are ready for painting .

Get hold of an old panel and practice before doing this on your Expensive fairings but after a few goes you will be amazed how easy this is !

"Cut and shut"....If you become really comfortable you can actually weld two broken panels to make one whole one (providing they have opposing damage of course)

Think also about broken lugs, cutting lugs from broken panels and welding them on or even making new ones from ABS offcuts……With the price of plastic panels it can be well worth the effort.

looking good m8 cant wait to see the panels back on the bike

Cheers Craig

It will certainly look very diferent from when I bought it !

Unfortunatly the weather is against me now and im on a shift pattern I cant work on it until friday so tumbleweed time .......

Final painting complete and ready to go on the bike (in a week or so )

Very pleased to have something finished because I don't have to worry about these items anymore.

I sanded down the lacquer with 1200 grit (do it lightly or you may hit base coat !! )

cleaned and degreased then left to Dry I gave the panels two extra final coats of lacquer then got them in the house as soon as I could as it was starting to get cold again

I am pleased with the results and the shine is pretty impressive although the photos do not Reflect this ( see what I did there )

Fairing paint.....Part deux

Once the undercoats had gone off I took advantage of the massive 12c degree heatwave here and decided to spray the fairing :

First I rub the inside and out with a scotchpad then go over it with a tack cloth to remove any dust.

I sprayed the inside first with Satin black acrylic (no Lacquer coat ) left it 30 minutes then gave it a thicker coat and left to dry

My rule on coverage is each coat gives you about 80% coverage and you generally need 3 coats so I spray a light coat first to create an adhesive base and the cvovereage is about 60% then 3 more coats at 80% = 300% (its ok i'm seeing a doctor about it)

what you miss on the first coat you catch on the second because you turn the item 180 degrees ect

Once the Satin had dried I then did the same on the outside but using base coat instead,after three coats left to dry and got on with rubbing down the mudguard and tail unit ready for final lacquer.

I ran two coats of lacquer over the outer fairing and once dry put it in the house to cure,once it is fully cured next week I will sand it down and apply the decals

Made a start on the fuel tank dent today.....

First using a panel beaters hammer I beat the high spots caused by the dent (what goes in must come out)

I decided as I do not have a tank tool for dents I would fill it using Extra fine body filler.

Sanded down the area with 340 grit to remove the paint and decals and get a nice surface to key in the filler.

Then mixed the filler and applied to the area following the contours of the tank.

I have applied a lot more filler than is needed but this is to avoid low spots later on when modeling it to the tank.

This filler will be left 3 days to dry before sanding

I really do not belive you can paint a frame without stripping it

What you could do is using a small model brush paint the frame with hamerite smooth to protect it until you are ready for a proper respray (where you would strip off the old paint anyway)

Sand off any rust with a small piece of 180 grit then just brush paint all the visable frame,that would make it look a lot more tidy and help protect until you are better disposed.

Another thing you can cover the side fairings in Carbon film which would smarten it up without needing to go through the emotion of painting

You can get your tank dent removed by sending it off to a dent removal company for around £150 Or if you feel confident you can buy the tool needed DIY (it is a system that pushes the dent out from the inside )

It seems to me you are not in a position to Do a normal restore so maby think more about preservation for the moment ?

use plenty of waxoil / acf50 / wd40 when you have done your Tidy up

With the rest of the day I started wet sanding the panels I lacqured last week.

This is the part of the process most people do not understand so I will explain in more detail.

You have put on your base coat and built up a lovely shiney gloss finish with your lacquer and now you are ready to add decals.

You can not apply the decals to the base coat because it has to be slightly tacky when you apply your first lacquer to bond it (usually 30 minutes after base coat)

So you let the shiney gloss finish dry completly then sand it down with wet 1500 grit

Apply the decals to the now matt finish and then give the whole thing 3 New coats of lacquer (clear coat )

Wait two more weeks and then what you should do is ...yeah you guessed,sand down your shiney clear coat with 2000 grit wet and dry to make the surface matt again ! (Or you can use a fine rubbing compound)

The reason for the final sanding is So you can KEY your wax into the clear coat (lacquer)

I will be using SIMONIZ Original Carnauba Car Wax Paste (as long as it is carnauba based any brand is ok)

If you don't key in the wax it will just shift around the clear coat and never really bed in and you won't get a real "hot rod" shine ( you end up with a hazy dull lacquer insead, over time )

So here is the end panel being wet sanded and ready for final lacquer (decal positioned using vernier caliper )

The weather caught me out today .....

Had I known it was going to be a lovely sunny day I would have got up earlier and had a spray day because I know these conditions are going to become more rare as we hurtle towards christmas (spits)

So by the time I got myself together I managed to do some plastic welding on the small crack on the bottom of the fairing (not mentioned in the advert on ebay )

Sanded it down with 400 grit and gave it two final coats of undercoat,which I will leave over night to dry before getting ready for the Base coat in the morning (weather permitting)

I can not recommend any brands but for the alli use a self etch primer on aluminium sanded with 1500 grit

it is quiet thin looking paint (sometimes green)

when its dry the undercoat will adhere to the primer which in turn grips the base metal

then just paint as normal.

Steel use a zinc primer then undercoat

Stainless use do not use zinc primer as it can attack the stainless,make abrasions in the stainless by hand sanding then coat in a two pack epoxy or polyurethane primer suitable for stainless steel then Undercoat

Plasitics you can use a Plastic base coat on fresh plastic or lightly sand and streight to undercoat.

Once all the surfaces are undercoated you can go streight to your top coat of Matt black (or satin ) and when dry overlay in a matt or semi matt clear coat for protection

The worlds biggest parcel arrives today...... come open it with me

Do you paint using spray cans or air compressor?

Also I have a givi arms for a top box (without mounting plate), a double bubble screen, and a flip screen if you are interested.

Hi

I am using spray cans as they are plenty adequate for a bike

what is a flip screen ?

Update for today :

not a great deal done since Yesterday as I was feeling a little weary but I changed the Brake lever which was a really simple job of undoing a nut and slipping on the new one,do up nut,job done

I then decided to re-coat the cylinder head and exhausts where the paint was chipped which was really easy with the paint I got on ebay called "Granville Cylinder black" It is quiet thin but covers in one go with a small paint brush (as in artist brush)

Once done the cylinder looks "Showroom condition" so £6 well spent and the small tin will last years I reckon !

The panels are Drying nicely and next week I will put the decals on them and re coat in more laquer.

Still waiting for my fairing to arrive but the weather is going to get bad again anyway so no chance of any spraying

UPDATE RE Cat c :

It appears I got a fact wrong when I posted about cat c ,infact there is no fee for getting your registration document V5c when you buy an economic write off.

Imagine my suprise when DVLA sent my cheque back

In my defence ....... the application was ambiguous so I rang up and asked and the person I spoke to said I needed to send a cheque for £25

 

The DVLA returns cheque to motorist

Spend it on some chrome

I know I was so suprised,it took a while to sink in

In fairness to them they also sent no longer the keeper of my old bike and a sorn decleraion receipt for my new one,so A+@ DVLA

UPDATE RE Cat c :

It appears I got a fact wrong when I posted about cat c ,infact there is no fee for getting your registration document V5c when you buy an economic write off.

Imagine my suprise when DVLA sent my cheque back

In my defence ....... the application was ambiguous so I rang up and asked and the person I spoke to said I needed to send a cheque for £25

Amazing results, can hardly believe you sprayed them yourself in your shed lol

Thanks

The key is planning,weather and patience.... the paint does the rest

The fairing will be interesting to paint as it has So many facets,what I do is imagine spraying the object before applying any paint so when you start you know where you will start your pattern and where you will end without getting in a muddle.

Well I had a busy day painting today and this is mainly because of the shorter days and the fact that the weather was quiet sunny and warm so I felt pressed to get on with it.

4 panels painted and each panel required 3 undercoats 3 base coats and 3 laquer coats with drying times between coats times 4, I was painting the final coat as it started getting dark and only just got it done before the bad weather comes again

So I am now able to reveal the final colour of the bike,Sorry to all those who chose Yellow and others who chose pink but I decided to be predictable and maby boring and went for Metalic black (better the devil you know ) and silver trim.

I like black bikes and since my last three were black,why change now

(if you look closely you can see tiny blue metalic specs but these do not show in cloudy weather)

I ordered a new brake lever from Ebay....simple mine is broke need a new one

Ordered of this seller and wait and few days later a parcel arrives ....open it up excitedly (like you do) and see a clutch lever

Phone up seller and say you sent a clutch lever "yeah these things happen, we sell a lot of stuff,send me back the clutch lever and i'll send you a brake lever and refund you the postage " wait a few more days and a brake lever arrives,great send email to seller saying brake lever here now can I have my refund on the postage ?

Today a packet arrives .... A brake lever ...... cool now I have two

will I have to send another one back ? where is it all going to end

Well no progress has happened in AGGGESSS!!! sadly This is due to me moving to uni and such and the workload is intense... anyway...

I have finally sourced and bought a L/H fairing, so now the fairing is complete. Its now going to be painted but theres no timescale on that as im not sure realy when i can get anything else done and what with winter coming theres no big rush anyway.

Much still to do, have decided not to bother going too much into it so just generally going to give it abit of a tidy up and get it on the road. Still the front brake capilers to rebuild and bleed all the brakes, then will take the front end off and paint the bottom of the forks as theyre flakey.... then basically give it a service and away we go hopefully insure it as its only £190 for the year and get a few days in before the snow hits, but we will see how we go first....

Sorry for the realy slow progress, i had intended at first to have this dont before i went to uni, but having a faff with a company who sent me the wrong fairing ect and my better half starting a jon ive not had time realy

I look forward to seeing it finished ................Are you gonna paint it Pink ?

So what colour is it turning? Imo light colours on fazers look better

All will be revealed tonight

Malaguti were not very well known in uk like they were in France where I grew up (in the 70's)

so there is loads of information but on French and italien sites

try google search jais un Malaguti.....or....if you do not speak french use a text translator,you will be suprised how much there is on these bikes.

Also France is really good for spares on old italien bikes as they are considered "cool"

Can't wait to see the photos

Next thing was to make a spray list 1,center panel 2 mudguard,3 left side panel ,4 right side panel the reason I do this is because if you spray 1 first in undercoat,then 1 will be dry first for the top coats later on.

Rubbed down all the panels in 180 grit wet and dry in a bucket of washing up liqued to get rid of wax and polish ect then went over them with 360 grit to level them off for primer coats (once all the stickers and bits and bobs were removed)

once Dry rub down with white spirit then rub with a clean cloth to get the spirit off.

I am spraying 3 coats of undercoat , 3 base coat and 3 laquer coats, a fourth coat will be sprayed on certain parts after decals are fitted and Halfords fuel proof paint on the Fuel tank will be sprayed over when decals are fitted on that in a few weeks.

note the darker side panel is a replacement I bought on Ebay for £15 as my left one had a crack in it