First Real Paint Job

BeoBob

New member
Figured I would post this up for the few that check this forum. Just got into my first real paint job. Painting a 2006 Kawasaki VN900 with aftermarket saddle bags. I only have 8-12 hours a week to put towards this, so I might be done by Christmas.

First pic is the bags after first sanding. Took a lot of work to get them flat. Second pic is of a saddle bag lid, 7 layers down in a few places. Pics 3 and 4 are of all the pieces in epoxy primer. Pics 5 and 6 are of the tank. Fairly smooth with a little orange peel. Everything is going to be sanded nice and smooth before basecoat. Pic 7 is the same saddle bag lid in epoxy. Pic 8 is where I hope to end up with this.
 

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TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Looking good. You sure slicked out the primer. You may even want to guide coat those since some of the parts had so much paint on them.
This way when you block them, you can see your highs and lows.

I can't remember the order you are doing the job. Are you doing the candy first or the black?

Christmas?? You think you're going to have another 250 hours into the job??
Good job so far.
 

BeoBob

New member
I only laid down 2 medium coats of epoxy primer. This Tamco epoxy stuff glosses up like a single stage. So it is somewhat deceiving, definitely not as thick as it looks. I am going to have to be careful not to rub through. Probably will, and will spend an extra day fixing it.

On that note, how in the heck do you block something as small and curved as a say a fender or a tank that doesn’t have 2 adjacent square inches that are flat? I was just planning on very carefully hand sanding the shine off with 320 followed by 600 before taping the flames.

The process… black is going down first. Lay out the flames with fineline, which will stay down until the end. Tape over the inside of the flames, spray black BC outside the flames, pearl effects, light coat of clear to protect it. Let it sit for a few days then pull the masking, but leave the fineline. Tape over the black, airbrush some silver metallic and black where the red is going (creates depth inside the flames), spray the red Kandy basecoat with red micro flake mixed in, and follow with good coat of clear. Let it sit a week then pull all the tape including the fineline. Might have to use a razor blade, but I have gotten pretty good at keeping things thin. Tape off everything except where the fineline was. Rough up the exposed epoxy with a sanding pencil. Airbrush metallic silver in the gap followed by silver metal flake of various sizes mixed with a little prismatic flake, and airbrush some clear to lock it down good. Wait about ½ an hour, blow off all the flake from the masking that I can, then carefully pull the masking off. Carefully sand the pinstripe with 320, just knocking the sharp pieces sticking up off. Carefully rub the rest of it with 600. Clear. Sand the pinstripe with 320. Rub all of it with 600. Clear. Then probably sand with 320 or 400 followed by 600… get it real flat and smooth and then do a flowcoat.

This is the process I used on the blue helmet and the last few sample panels I've done... learning and refining all along.

Sooooo….. I’ve got a long way to go. I’m thinking 120 hours from this point. But I also have to build a temporary paint booth before I start the clear. Plus family vacation, bad weather weekends, overtime at work, and other delays. So yeah, If I can finish this by Christmas it will be a present for sure.
 

BeoBob

New member
Spent around 16 hours sanding this weekend. Friday night I got the 3 bad parts sanded down good and flat. Saturday I sanded all the good parts nice and smooth. Started with 320 wet and moved to 600 wet. Found that to be toooo much work. This epoxy stuff is tough. Last few pieces got a very careful rub with 100 dry with my hand, followed by 220 dry carefully using a soft block and my hand, 320 wet on the block and hand, then a final rub with 600 by hand. Took about half the time to step through the grits versus using just 320-600.

As expected I rubbed through in several places.

Sunday I sprayed epoxy primer on the 3 bad parts and did touchups on the remaining pieces. Used the $9 air brush for the touchups. Everything came out great.

Hope to be ready to start taping out flames next weekend.
 

BeoBob

New member
Pic 1 and 2 are of the rough parts sanded back smooth. Pics 3 and 4 are a couple of examples of where I rubbed though.

IMG_7926.jpgIMG_7924.jpgIMG_7933.jpgIMG_7932.jpg
 

BeoBob

New member
Progress...
 

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BeoBob

New member
Second session went great. Only 8 more to go. Laying out the design on the tank took longer than I thought it would. I kept changing and tweaking things right down to the end. Came out good tho.
 

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TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Lookin sharp!
When you say session, sounds like you are painting a piece or 2 at a time?
 

BeoBob

New member
2 sets of 5 pieces at a time. 2-3 coats of base, a coat of sparkle, and a good coat or two of clear to lock everything down. It has been hot and the paint drys soo fast. By the time I have the 5th part sprayed the first one is ready for the next coat. Add in the time to clean the gun, mix the next paint, and get ready to shoot and you are talking 30 minutes since I shot the first one. I am worried about missing the recoat window and having everything wrinkle.

I am about 3/4 the way done... what's left is the metal flake pinstripe, some careful sanding, a heavy session of clear, sand everything flat and smooth, and then a flowcoat.
 

BeoBob

New member
Almost done. A few touch ups needed then 2 sessions of clear let to do.
 

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BeoBob

New member
Cleared everything this weekend. WOW what a good coat of clear will do to make the colors pop.
 

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TAZ

Administrator
Staff member
Looks great. Yea, clear will bring out depth, sparkle, candies and everything else. makes you appreciate all the hard work!
 
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