Painting my 450

[Woodsy]

Theres a tasteful duck?........

[pete]

Crappy pic from the 'phone and it's nearly dark still because it's cloudy... but yes I think these ducks are tasteful

There's still a rumour circulating I can start sanding/polish today... pesky rumour that just won't go away and I should stop passing rumours on

[salty_monk]

I polish by hand with both cutting polish & the final polish & the protective one a few weeks later.

I use old T shirts or old shirts cut up, works fine.

I sometimes you an old towel with the cutting polish initially as it gives it a bit more "bite" I find....

Strictly an amateur though

[pete]

I polish by hand with both cutting polish & the final polish & the protective one a few weeks later.

I use old T shirts or old shirts cut up, works fine.

I sometimes you an old towel with the cutting polish initially as it gives it a bit more "bite" I find....

Strictly an amateur though

I'll bet not as amateur as I though!

Unless a miracle occurs this morning when I'm picking up the polish and applicator pads I'll be doing it by hand... not buying wax yet, just fine cut and glaze. If I buy the wax too soon I'll be tempted to apply it too soon...

Fingers crossed today actually happens like it's supposed to! Which means I must log off very very soon...

[pete]

Rightio... mostly sunny they say...



Interesting translation of sunny...

Anyway... let me save you the suspense first... the polishing's not finished

I have started the polishing, but that's it, and no pic's of what I've done so far because, well, it just doesn't look right half done... and yes I'm very frustrated!

Enough moaning... basically I got the wet sanding done early on and that seemed to go ok. I don't think I sanded too much clear coat off...

Here's everything laid out ready to start:



Then I took my wife into the city (contributing factor to not being done, lost about 2 hours in taxi duty today) and on the way back picked up my headlight and the polish and applicators etc.:



Also, no miracles occurred and no 6" foam polishing pads turned up for the drill backing plate, so polishing should be by hand...

Except that was a waste of an hour and a half or more, polishing by hand... just wasn't seeing a good shine no matter what I did.

So I took a gamble and dug out the house mate's 10 odd year old wool pad that I was going to throw away and picked all the crud out of it. I tested it on part of the rear guard that will be hidden under the seat and wow!!! Huuuuuge difference...



Unfortunately, I discovered this about half an hour before I had to go pick my wife up again, so I got the tail piece nearly polished where I think it should be and some of the tank, but that's it.

I think I'll get to finish it off next weekend...

[7981GS]

Not going with matching stripes on the front fender?

Daniel

[nvr2old]

Rightio... mostly sunny they say...



Interesting translation of sunny...

Anyway... let me save you the suspense first... the polishing's not finished

I have started the polishing, but that's it, and no pic's of what I've done so far because, well, it just doesn't look right half done... and yes I'm very frustrated!

Enough moaning... basically I got the wet sanding done early on and that seemed to go ok. I don't think I sanded too much clear coat off...

Here's everything laid out ready to start:



Then I took my wife into the city (contributing factor to not being done, lost about 2 hours in taxi duty today) and on the way back picked up my headlight and the polish and applicators etc.:



Also, no miracles occurred and no 6" foam polishing pads turned up for the drill backing plate, so polishing should be by hand...

Except that was a waste of an hour and a half or more, polishing by hand... just wasn't seeing a good shine no matter what I did.

So I took a gamble and dug out the house mate's 10 odd year old wool pad that I was going to throw away and picked all the crud out of it. I tested it on part of the rear guard that will be hidden under the seat and wow!!! Huuuuuge difference...



Unfortunately, I discovered this about half an hour before I had to go pick my wife up again, so I got the tail piece nearly polished where I think it should be and some of the tank, but that's it.

I think I'll get to finish it off next weekend...

You did the right thing, Pete. No substitute for rpm's, plus, ya gotta start with the wool pad and rubbing compound before moving on to the foam pads and finer polishes. If you don't, you won't get the progressive action of removing the sand scratches of the previous grit and it'll just be a ho-hum shine, otherwise. BTW, the Meguiars #7 show car glaze, although a great product, is not really something you want to use a buffer on. It's more designed to be applied by hand as a final, final polish. You use it in place of wax for a couple of months. It has no silicones so it's perfect for letting the parts breathe while maintaining a nice shine on the freshly rubbed surfaces. Glad to see microfiber towels, too. There's no such thing as a "soft enough" T-shirt or bath towel..they will scratch your finish. Microfiber towels are a Godsend and I make every owner of every paint job I do, take an oath of allegiance to use nothing else from that day forth..

[phatphony]

hey pete when we used to polish we used the foam pads first with a cutting compound.we also used to add a little water to it as well.sorta helps stop burning the paint.then we would switch to the woolen pads then use some sort of fill and glaze this used to fill cutting marks or scratches.we would then change pad again then use a swirl remover poilsh. with the woolen pads you can wash them in washing mashine on delicates it like half the cycle or something my mrs knows more about that lol. you can also use a screwdriver gently on the pad from centre to edge will spinning this will remove crud from surface.hope this crap is useful to ya

[pete]

Not going with matching stripes on the front fender?

Daniel

Nup, believe it or not it actually looks better with the plain maroon guard.

The white stripes all the way to the front would be too much I feel even though it felt weird at the time not to be doing them.

Hopefully you'll see once it's all on the bike

You did the right thing, Pete. No substitute for rpm's, plus, ya gotta start with the wool pad and rubbing compound before moving on to the foam pads and finer polishes. If you don't, you won't get the progressive action of removing the sand scratches of the previous grit and it'll just be a ho-hum shine, otherwise. BTW, the Meguiars #7 show car glaze, although a great product, is not really something you want to use a buffer on. It's more designed to be applied by hand as a final, final polish. You use it in place of wax for a couple of months. It has no silicones so it's perfect for letting the parts breathe while maintaining a nice shine on the freshly rubbed surfaces. Glad to see microfiber towels, too. There's no such thing as a "soft enough" T-shirt or bath towel..they will scratch your finish. Microfiber towels are a Godsend and I make every owner of every paint job I do, take an oath of allegiance to use nothing else from that day forth..

Thanks Larry, I'm glad to hear the wool pad's turned out to be the right thing

My main concern with it was that being so old it would deteriorate and fall apart and I'd end up scratching the paintwork, but that didn't happen. There are a few bits of wool flying around but I can cope with that. Also, now I know that wool is the better option there's a chance I may be able to get a new one before finishing it next weekend.

I wasn't sure how to apply the glaze as I haven't actually gotten as far as reading the bottle on that one yet, but I was going to give the microfibre pad a go first. That's one I definitely wasn't going to try the wool on! Glad to see that was also a wise choice

Meguiar's only seem to have microfibre stuff except for the foam applicator pads, and when I felt them all in the store the microfibre seemed to me to be the best option, so glad I'm finally making some good choices!

As it turns out, the drill I'm using is quiet enough I can run it at night, but when I tried again last night I found the lighting is far too poor to get a good result because I can't properly see what I'm doing, so this will definitely have to wait for some more daylight hours.

[pete]

hey pete when we used to polish we used the foam pads first with a cutting compound.we also used to add a little water to it as well.sorta helps stop burning the paint.then we would switch to the woolen pads then use some sort of fill and glaze this used to fill cutting marks or scratches.we would then change pad again then use a swirl remover poilsh. with the woolen pads you can wash them in washing mashine on delicates it like half the cycle or something my mrs knows more about that lol. you can also use a screwdriver gently on the pad from centre to edge will spinning this will remove crud from surface.hope this crap is useful to ya

Thanks mate, I'm processing all this info... some of it goes in and goes out the other ear, some of it is sticking

At this stage I'll do the microfibre pad with the glaze after the cutting compound and see how it looks.

If it's still got some swirl/scratch marks in it after that then they have the swirl remover up the road.

Oh, and thanks for the cleaning/washing tip! I'll give that a burl...

[Woodsy]

i always use woolen pads first and move up from there, and always keep the surface wet with water in a spray bottle dont push into the paint, let the pad do the work make sure you buff off the edges not onto them, if you want to make sure tape over them with some masking tape. All stuff that has already been mentioned, just reminding you lol. Will be doing something similar in a week or 2 with my bike.

[pete]

i always use woolen pads first and move up from there, and always keep the surface wet with water in a spray bottle dont push into the paint, let the pad do the work make sure you buff off the edges not onto them, if you want to make sure tape over them with some masking tape. All stuff that has already been mentioned, just reminding you lol. Will be doing something similar in a week or 2 with my bike.

Thanks Josh, and every reminder helps

I haven't been keeping the surface wet but I should have a spray bottle around somewhere I can use to do that.

Also, the house mate was at Bunnings yesterday and found this amongst some other stuff for me:



Brand new 5" wool pad, so I'll use this the next time I'm into it which will hopefully be this Saturday.

I really want to get it done so you can all see what good advice can do for a paint job

[Woodsy]

My paints come in at the local parts store, all i need is thinners and a water trap for the compressor.

Reallllly wish i went for a metallic paint now but gloss black will have to do!

[pete]

My paints come in at the local parts store, all i need is thinners and a water trap for the compressor.

Reallllly wish i went for a metallic paint now but gloss black will have to do!

Cool, I ended up with one from Supercheap that's a combo water filter and pressure regulator, you should get a nice staff discount from them now right?

I'm hanging out to polish this paint... once that's done and on the bike I'm gonna be sooooooooo close to done!

[Woodsy]

a discount like you cant believe! lol