Removing clearcoat

[James]

Hello folks, I'm new to the flames board.
I just bought a custom chrome bike kit (nemesis).
I got the frame powder coated(silver with course flakes).Found a guy in the yellow pages to paint the sheet metal.(BIG MISTAKE) He painted it silver with med. flakes, flames in fine and course. He did some flames that I thought the layout was very good but he did 3 layers and each layer you see the edge though the next. Also the body work sucks lots of scratches seen though the clear.
My question is to repaint this do I have to sand down though the clear to the base coat to start over and how long should I wait for the paint to cure before sanding.

 

[ezrider]

James, it sounds like there is a lot of material on your tin. If it were me i would strip it down to bare metal and start over again, especially sense you are not happy with the body work. if you have too much paint ( more than 1 custom paint job ) you can run into problems like the paint cracking later on down the road.

 

[rex]

Welcome James.This really sucks.Did he do any bodywork or are the scratches just from sanding it with too coarse a paper for prep?Since it's new metal I'll assume he had to skimcoat it with bondo or putty.I know you don't want to hear it but the best thing to do is at least strip off everything he did down to the primer over the bodywork-no fun whatsoever.Actually it's a friggin nitemare.If it were mine first I'd look for an area that will have putty and dig down to the steel.You want to see if there's primer under the putty (besides the factory primer it came with which I doubt there was any)I say this because it's much better to do bodywork over epoxy primer than bare steel.If there isn't I'd pour stripper on it and go back to steal.It'll ruin the bodywork and you need to remove it all but you don't want it 1/2 a**ed.If you do strip it chemically stay back away from any fittings and seams the stripper can seep under,about 1/2".Getting it all out and neutralizing it isn't fun.If you're not going to attempt to paint it just get a can of cheap lacquer primer in a rattle can to throw on it until you get it to someone else to paint.If the bodywork was done over primer all you can do is sand it down to the primer over the bodywork if you don't want to redo that.This really sucks and takes patience.Some 180 wet should knock it down in a reasonable amount of time but once I got down to the 1st coat of base/sealer area I'd switch to 180 dry to have finer scratches.Sand as evenly as possible to avoid cutting into the bodywork as much as possible.Tell whoever you give it to prime and block it out,but any good painter will know what to do.If you're chemically stripping it the sooner the better while the paint isn't fully cured.A fresh paintjob shouldn't be waxed for 30-60 days so it can breath out the last of the solvents,so the sooner you do it the faster the stripper will work.If you're sanding it out a week or 2 should be sufficient unless the paint is extremely thick.If the wet 180 gums up bad knock the gloss off all of it and let it sit a week and stick it in the sun as much as possible to draw out the solvents.The base is probably going to gum up a bit no matter what,but the 180 wet is really like 120 dry so it should work out descent with water.I really feel sorry for you.My buddy wants me to repaint his bike now.He wanted it pearl white with fine gold flake so I did it,but now he's tired of the formica countertop look.The prob is the new aftermarket tanks and rear fender have serious amounts of bodywork done to smooth out the pure rudeness.There's no way I'm spending another day redoing that so I'm stuck sanding it back to the sealer.I really don't look foward to this job at all,and I think he's going to have to keep me in beer for this one.Good luck and let us know how it goes.

(man do I type slow,Joe's post wasn't there

)

 

[James]

First I'd like to thank you (Ezrider and Rex) for the quick responce.
As for as the sheet metal goes it was bare steel when I left it with the guy. He did put some body filler on it I know that for sure. As for priming under the putty I don't know but I doubt the sorry a** did. The crappy body work I was talking about is some scratches that you can see though the paint I think that it is in the bondo itself mainly on the edges and corners. Rex the fittings and seams your talking about do you mean the welds and brazing on the tank.

 

[rex]

While I really dont like to put stripper on the brassed joints (I never tested to see if it affects it),I meant places that the stripper can seep into nooks and crannies.Factory Harley welds aren't bad,but when you get to the aftermarket they can get rude.Usually the worst place is the front of Softail tanks where the side is welded to the beveled filler going back to the inside plate.The welds are ugly and lumpy with quite a few 'porous' places in between the lumps or where the edge of the weld overhangs the steel.Another place is the petcock bung.There's usually a gap between the tank and the base of the bung that is awefull to clean out because it's so deep.I stay aboout 1/2" back from these areas because the paint will suck up some of the stripper,so when you're all done you're down to 1/4" or so away from it.Laying masking tape at the 1/2" mark is easier than being real careful,because you usually end up with an oops.If you can see the outline of the filler by it leaving an edge,it sounds like he pushed the dry time and counted on primer to level it out-doesn't work.If he used too much hardner in it it could have shrunk up later (bondo and putty do shrink to a point) and might even stain the paint when it finishes pushing out the extra hardner.To strip the remaining paint around the filler holes,crossover nipples and petcock bung I use a black 3M scotchbrite wheel on a die grinder.They're available at a good auto paint supply and look and mount like a cutoff wheel but are about 3/8-1/2" thick and about 3 or 4" in diameter.They will throw sparks if you stay in one place long so keep that in mind for a tank that had gas in it.For the brass joints and the spots the wheel won't get I lightly sandblast until it's clean,but quadruple cover any openings-the dust gets in places you'd never think possible and a grain of this sand will put a beautiful scratch in a cylender if it happens to make it's way there.Sounds like Joe had the right idea,take it all off and have it done right.This stuff isn't hard,but it sounds like this guy's a hack or doesn't understand painting bikes isn't like slamming out a few car jobs.Almost forgot,if you have rivets in the fenders these apply also,keep the stripper away from them.I try to sandblast these clean because sanding them can leave ugly flat spots on the heads.I personally hate rivets and prefer to remove them and weld it solid.I've only done rubbermounts so far,but if done right I don't see a prob with a solid mounted motor either.Looks much cleaner too.Take care.