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Hey,
I bought my 1980 GS550L two years ago and have wanted to paint it since I got it. Just before I bought it, the previous owner spray painted it and did a rather lousy job. I figured since I had a couple weeks at the end of the summer I should go ahead and do it.
I started off getting all excited about using a spray gun and some nice Dupont Imron paint. Well, the $300 price tag that was quoted to me for just the paint supplies quickly ended that idea. Instead, I went with the Dupli-color line of spray cans, even though I hear this means the paint won't be as resistant to gas. Oh well.
I didn't take any pictures of the side plates, unfortunately.
First I started with a few of my friends (lol...yeah right!)
These are the paints I used. The sandable primer, ocean blue metal specks, and acrylic enamel was used on the tank. The adhesion promoter, ocean blue metal specks, acrylic enamel, and chrome enamel (for lettering) was used on the side plates.
This is how the tank looked before. Some of the paint was cracking and it was sticky at the bottom where the seat was in contact with it (thus the white stuff).
The underside showed the original color of a lighter blue:
I made a little contraption in the back yard to hang the tank from while spraying it. I actually later found that the paint lays on better on a horizontal surface and thus put the last few layers of clear coat on with the tank laying flat.
Even though the paint stripper really attacked the paint on the tank, I had to lay on four layers and then do some sanding (wet sanding with 400 grit) to get it all off. What a pain to get those corners! I took a wire brush powered by an electric drill to the areas with rust (just under the "Suzuki" plates and the back right corner).
The side plates were hand sanded (wet) with 320 grit.
The bare metal of the tank after stripping and sanding.
The primer layer, which was wet sanded with 1500 grit. This picture was taken at night, so it's a little dark.
The side plates got a layer of adhesion promotor instead of primer.
Then I laid on the ocean blue metal specks. Makes for a nice color, and turned the grass beneath it a nice shade of blue.
I then laid on a whole mess of layers of clear coat. For the tank, I let some layers dry, did a light wet sanding with 1500 grit, and then put more layers on. I believe there were 16 light layers in total. That might seem like a lot, but since it was hanging vertical for all but the last four, the buildup was minimal.
There was some light orange peal at the end, so I wet sanded it with 2000 grit. I then used Turtlewax rubbing compound followed by No7 Clearcoat Polishing Compound to clean it up real nice and make it smooth as butter. The end result was a beautiful finish.
I didn't bother with all the sanding and such on the underside.
For the side plates, I also used some frisket paper to make some stencils of the letters "GS550L" and painted that on the plates with a chrome paint. Even though I was real careful in cutting out the letters for the stencils, the edging didn't come out real smooth (curves were choppy at times). However, that's only really noticable from close, and it looks pretty good from a slight distance.
When reinstalling the tank, I got a little gas on the underside (after the paint had cured for 7 days, as suggested). It did a pretty good job of softening the paint. Of course, with all the layers, it's quite possible that it'll take a lot longer for the paint to fully cure. Either way, I'm going to be really careful when filling her up.
Let me know your thoughts!
--Tyler
I bought my 1980 GS550L two years ago and have wanted to paint it since I got it. Just before I bought it, the previous owner spray painted it and did a rather lousy job. I figured since I had a couple weeks at the end of the summer I should go ahead and do it.
I started off getting all excited about using a spray gun and some nice Dupont Imron paint. Well, the $300 price tag that was quoted to me for just the paint supplies quickly ended that idea. Instead, I went with the Dupli-color line of spray cans, even though I hear this means the paint won't be as resistant to gas. Oh well.
I didn't take any pictures of the side plates, unfortunately.
First I started with a few of my friends (lol...yeah right!)
These are the paints I used. The sandable primer, ocean blue metal specks, and acrylic enamel was used on the tank. The adhesion promoter, ocean blue metal specks, acrylic enamel, and chrome enamel (for lettering) was used on the side plates.
This is how the tank looked before. Some of the paint was cracking and it was sticky at the bottom where the seat was in contact with it (thus the white stuff).
The underside showed the original color of a lighter blue:
I made a little contraption in the back yard to hang the tank from while spraying it. I actually later found that the paint lays on better on a horizontal surface and thus put the last few layers of clear coat on with the tank laying flat.
Even though the paint stripper really attacked the paint on the tank, I had to lay on four layers and then do some sanding (wet sanding with 400 grit) to get it all off. What a pain to get those corners! I took a wire brush powered by an electric drill to the areas with rust (just under the "Suzuki" plates and the back right corner).
The side plates were hand sanded (wet) with 320 grit.
The bare metal of the tank after stripping and sanding.
The primer layer, which was wet sanded with 1500 grit. This picture was taken at night, so it's a little dark.
The side plates got a layer of adhesion promotor instead of primer.
Then I laid on the ocean blue metal specks. Makes for a nice color, and turned the grass beneath it a nice shade of blue.
I then laid on a whole mess of layers of clear coat. For the tank, I let some layers dry, did a light wet sanding with 1500 grit, and then put more layers on. I believe there were 16 light layers in total. That might seem like a lot, but since it was hanging vertical for all but the last four, the buildup was minimal.
There was some light orange peal at the end, so I wet sanded it with 2000 grit. I then used Turtlewax rubbing compound followed by No7 Clearcoat Polishing Compound to clean it up real nice and make it smooth as butter. The end result was a beautiful finish.
I didn't bother with all the sanding and such on the underside.
For the side plates, I also used some frisket paper to make some stencils of the letters "GS550L" and painted that on the plates with a chrome paint. Even though I was real careful in cutting out the letters for the stencils, the edging didn't come out real smooth (curves were choppy at times). However, that's only really noticable from close, and it looks pretty good from a slight distance.
When reinstalling the tank, I got a little gas on the underside (after the paint had cured for 7 days, as suggested). It did a pretty good job of softening the paint. Of course, with all the layers, it's quite possible that it'll take a lot longer for the paint to fully cure. Either way, I'm going to be really careful when filling her up.
Let me know your thoughts!
--Tyler
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