Paint Finally Done

[tkent02]

Don't be a puss, go paint a bike.

After about the third try it will look pretty good.

[posplayr]

Don't be a puss, go paint a bike.

After about the third try it will look pretty good.

I remember when I did mine ; it was tense and stressful worrying about my under the gun timeline for completion. Getting the base, pearl, clear coat, wet sand, decals and final clear coat all in the last few weeks (err days) before a rally.

What I also remember distinctly was the big sigh of relief I had after getting a presentable final finish. I was still bunch to do to ret the restore done but the paint was really stressful the first time.

Great job 1980GS1000E, Black is a scary color as well and not because it is near Halloween. It needs to be perfect to look good and your does.

[jive13]

Looks great.What type of spray gun did you use? I will be painting my bike (hopefully next month) and would like to now if i need to get one of those expense guns or will a cheap one do.

[1980GS1000E]

Looks great! Well done.

Which clear did you use?

Thanks. I used Transtar 6874 and Transtar activator. It's inexpensive and what the paint supply guy recommended. There were some issues with the final coat, though. The sticker manufacturer recommends to apply them over clear, not color, and then recoat with clear to bury them. But then they caution to go easy and light with a "dry coat" initially so the stickers won't wrinkle. It was tough getting it to go on smoothly with minimal orange peel, but I managed. Then, there was some "solvent pop" issue that required me to recut the clear and spray again. I wish I had a better compressor. The gun was a 40 buck Harbor Freight HVLP job. The color went on real easy, but the clear,,, THAT was a lot thicker out of the gun and I should have reduced it a little more.

[1980GS1000E]

Looks great.What type of spray gun did you use? I will be painting my bike (hopefully next month) and would like to now if i need to get one of those expense guns or will a cheap one do.

My advice is to get a powerful compressor and just make sure you know how to adjust the gun. A cheap one should work. It needs to be clean before each use, obviously.

[midnightcafe]

Excellent job! I wish I could have gotten to painting over the summer, this winter's gonna be a little too cold

[posplayr]

My advice is to get a powerful compressor and just make sure you know how to adjust the gun. A cheap one should work. It needs to be clean before each use, obviously.

The cheap $15 HF touchup gun will work with a 120V compressor and requires much less flow. I started with a $150 DeVilbiss (but could not get enough flow for the HVLP gun) and used the $15 HF

The pattern is very controllable with even the cheap touchup gun.
Clean well afterwards.

[Nessism]

The cheap $15 HF touchup gun will work with a 120V compressor and requires much less flow. I started with a $150 DeVilbiss (but could not get enough flow for the HVLP gun) and used the $15 HF

The pattern is very controllable with even the cheap touchup gun.
Clean well afterwards.

What kind of DeVelbiss gun do you have? I have an EGA™ CONVENTIONAL SUCTION/PRESSURE FEED Air Cap and it sprays great. http://www.autorefinishdevilbiss.com/products.php?pg=12 I have a wimpy 2 hp 20 gallon compressor and it's plenty for painting a motorcycle. Problem with suction feed guns like this is they waste some paint in the bottom of the cup, gravity feed is nicer in this respect.

[rustybronco]

First of all, let me say what a beautiful job you did; it looks fantastic!

What type of spray gun did you use? I will be painting my bike (hopefully next month) and would like to now if i need to get one of those expense guns or will a cheap one do.

The gun was a 40 buck Harbor Freight HVLP job.

I also would like to know which gun did you use and what did you think of it?

jive13, a "good" cheep one will do just fine. I use an Astro tools EVO-4014 http://www.astrotools.com/products.htm 1.4mm tip, average air consumption 9.2-9.8 cfm, recommended compressor 3hp (I've used it with a 1hp-12gallon )

Thanks. I used Transtar 6874 and Transtar activator. It's inexpensive and what the paint supply guy recommended.

One of the body shops, that I trust, uses and recommends Transtar Euro-kwik. I think you were given a very good recommendation on which brand of clear to use.

[jive13]

thanx for the info and recommendations

[Maddog209]

Looks very nice! Of course, I am partial to black with factory stripes!

[kinnet]

It's absolutely beautiful! Wonderful job!

[posplayr]

What kind of DeVelbiss gun do you have? I have an EGA™ CONVENTIONAL SUCTION/PRESSURE FEED Air Cap and it sprays great. http://www.autorefinishdevilbiss.com/products.php?pg=12 I have a wimpy 2 hp 20 gallon compressor and it's plenty for painting a motorcycle. Problem with suction feed guns like this is they waste some paint in the bottom of the cup, gravity feed is nicer in this respect.

Ed,
I think it was something like this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Devil...d=310102966442

The one u used is only has a 3 CFM requirement and I think the one I picked is closer to 9-10 CFM.

For the price this gun works very well. It just so happens that it is also rated at 3 CFM . This is basically all I have been using.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92126


Jim

[1980GS1000E]

I bought the HF detail gun as well, tried that, but it leaked everywhere. Then the cup broke off. So, that left me with a bad feeling about using it. I coulda bought another one, but I borrowed a friend"s HVLP HF gun. Not sure exactly which model, but he said it cost 40 bucks. It covered really well with only a few passes.

[posplayr]

I bought the HF detail gun as well, tried that, but it leaked everywhere. Then the cup broke off. So, that left me with a bad feeling about using it. I could bought another one, but I borrowed a friend"s HVLP HF gun. Not sure exactly which model, but he said it cost 40 bucks. It covered really well with only a few passes.

One tip when using the cheapy hf gun is to buy a bag of strong rubber bands. After loading the paint, put two rubber bands diagonally over the top to keep it on and cover the little vent hole. Keeps the paint from flying when you hold the gun at extreme angles.

Surprisingly a more expensive HF gun worked much worse than the $10 unit.


All this talk of painting I ordered two sets of decals: 1: set in Red for the GS750EX to contrast black paint (wonder where I saw a similar paint job?) and 2: a set of decals for my GSXR1100G