Painting my 450

Very nice outcome! Looks like a different bike. Well done, Pete!

[pete]

Looks great Pete, hurry up and finish the seat though! i wanna see it complete!

Cheers Josh! Don't worry, me too! Shouldn't be too far away, house mate picked up some better spray contact adhesive today so I should hopefully be able to get that seat finished off this week so I can get it to the upholsterer's real soon...

Pete, that way around, the front is perfect, but I agree, the back end does not work, too far away from the wheel, and too wide, I think that flare to the sides adds to the problem, see what I mean about the radius of the guard being too big, ti follows the tyre nicely, right up to the mounting point then at the back, slopes away from the tyre, with ever increasing gap between the tyre and the guard.
Sorry to say, but there is nothing else for it, you going to have to fill that some how, you are going to hav to go wire wheels and 21 inch up front, that should fill the guard nicely.............

Well, what you waiting for, you know the address, www.ebay.com.
Off with you, go shopping..........
Of course it would not surprise me in the least if a certain benevolent fellow from Michigan, conveniently just so happened to have something like that lying in the "scraps" pile, that really are just taking up space, now that you mention it.

Just kidding y'all

Hahahaha nice one Stan! Definitely don't want 21" though, that will be way too out there Unless of course I get a motocross front end... then I need longer shocks... then I'll have chain/swingarm clearance issues... nah think I'll stick with what I got

Having said that, wire wheels and a 19" front with a 16 or 17" rear would open up a whole new world of tyres...

Pete, looks pretty damn good to me!.As I've said before,be proud of what you have achived,there is a great deal of satisfaction when you finish a long project like this,bask in the glow and buy a good (but light) pair or 'crosser boots to firmly kick anybody in the b*&&^%$s who thinks otherwise-well done mate!.Johnny

Thanks Johnny! Definitely appreciate the compliments coming through, and yeah I'm a bit proud of the final efforts too

My wife scored me a pair of these a while back so I didn't buy "gay" boots (in her words... haha)... should take care of any haters

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Dr-Martens-STEVEN-CAFE-RACER-BOOTS-Sz-UK-8-US-9-/350472758196

And just to top things off, got some sun and 5 spare minutes today!



I'm hoping in about 4 weeks or so that I can take similar pic's while parked on the side of a road somewhere after a nice ride...

Pete, looks pretty damn good to me!.As I've said before,be proud of what you have achived,there is a great deal of satisfaction when you finish a long project like this,bask in the glow and buy a good (but light) pair or 'crosser boots to firmly kick anybody in the b*&&^%$s who thinks otherwise-well done mate!.Johnny

Pete, that way around, the front is perfect, but I agree, the back end does not work, too far away from the wheel, and too wide, I think that flare to the sides adds to the problem, see what I mean about the radius of the guard being too big, ti follows the tyre nicely, right up to the mounting point then at the back, slopes away from the tyre, with ever increasing gap between the tyre and the guard.
Sorry to say, but there is nothing else for it, you going to have to fill that some how, you are going to hav to go wire wheels and 21 inch up front, that should fill the guard nicely.............

Well, what you waiting for, you know the address, www.ebay.com.
Off with you, go shopping..........
Of course it would not surprise me in the least if a certain benevolent fellow from Michigan, conveniently just so happened to have something like that lying in the "scraps" pile, that really are just taking up space, now that you mention it.

Just kidding y'all

Looks great Pete, hurry up and finish the seat though! i wanna see it complete!

[pete]

Pete, that job is supurb for a first time out and more than respectable to grace any bike going out in public, I would be really proud if Jenifers clothes come out looking anything close to that, you really know how to put the pressure on me, don't you.....
Just one issue I think I saw, in your third pic, is it just the light/camera/ my dirty monitor or is there a little "blushing" on the side of the tank?
Stripes came out nice and dead square to, tail peice and tank line up really nicely, not easy.
Now that all the colour is down and it is all bolted up, my honest opinion is that I think the problem with the front mud guard, is that it is a little bit too big for the bike, not much, but just enough to be noticable, it does not follow the radius of the tyre quite enough.
But all round stunning job, now get it down to the roadworthy center, and get your butt on it and start terrorising the sleeply little town of Keperra

Thanks again Stan, and don't you worry, I've seen your frame etc. and I have no doubt you can equal or better the quality of this job But no pressure... haha

Most of what you see in that particular pic is the dodgy lighting, but there is something there that's not 100% right. I think I didn't quite get rid of all the mottling I had during the first base colour attempt.

A lot of that particular area should be covered by the rubber knee guards once I get them sorted though.

As to the guard, I think I really need to get that Skorpion Trail on there but I do agree it's not perfect, although I'm happy enough with it myself considering it's a hacked up $5 dirt bike guard...

And sleepy little town of Keperra?! Hahaha you're obviously not from here actually it's not too bad... if you discount the police officer who got shot just before we moved into the area and the house that got burnt down during a domestic a year or two ago and the cyclonic type storm that went through in 2008... hahaha

Me thinks it's on backwards as well.

Ok, here it is on backwards and while the front part looks ok, what becomes the rear is just so wrong...



I'm hoping it looks more appropriate once I get the dual sport tyres on (Skorpion Trail front, Skorpion MT90A/T rear)...

[rustybronco]

I think the problem with the front mud guard, is that it is a little bit too big for the bike, not much, but just enough to be noticable, it does not follow the radius of the tyre quite enough.

Wonder what it would look like if you turned the front fender around..? Hmmmm...

Me thinks it's on backwards as well.

Pete, that job is supurb for a first time out and more than respectable to grace any bike going out in public, I would be really proud if Jenifers clothes come out looking anything close to that, you really know how to put the pressure on me, don't you.....
Just one issue I think I saw, in your third pic, is it just the light/camera/ my dirty monitor or is there a little "blushing" on the side of the tank?
Stripes came out nice and dead square to, tail peice and tank line up really nicely, not easy.
Now that all the colour is down and it is all bolted up, my honest opinion is that I think the problem with the front mud guard, is that it is a little bit too big for the bike, not much, but just enough to be noticable, it does not follow the radius of the tyre quite enough.
But all round stunning job, now get it down to the roadworthy center, and get your butt on it and start terrorising the sleeply little town of Keperra

[pete]

Then we need to find you a good paint gun to remedy that with.

Excellent work so far Pete. I just want to know who picked out the paint color used on the front rotors? are you planning on painting the calipers the same colour?

Thanks Dale, I have a feeling the urge to fix it will come along... right now the urge to ride it is far greater

Don't worry about the disc, that's the old one that's below the service limit. I've got new wheel bearings for the front/rear wheels to go in yet and this for the front as well:

Good work Pete, you can be proud of yourself, Gale beat me to it, those discs have to change colour, that orange just does not fit with your nice new colour.

Cheers Stan! But Gale? Is there something someone's not telling me here? j/k

See above, disc is all under control

And yeah, I gotta admit I am a little bit proud too...

Looks real good, Pete. Wonder what it would look like if you turned the front fender around..? Hmmmm...

Thanks Larry! Definitely some issues up close and one spot on the front guard that I nicked with the side of the drill and went through to the green plastic.

From a metre or so away it looks real good though which is plenty enough to make me happy for my first effort, and the spot I nicked on the front guard is at the rear of the mounting area in the middle so you need to go looking for it. If I get a chance a little touch (literally) of paint will fix it.

Now as to the guard question I can answer that quickly... stoopid! Tried that early on before I started trimming it etc. and it just doesn't work...

[nvr2old]

Looks real good, Pete. Wonder what it would look like if you turned the front fender around..? Hmmmm...

Good work Pete, you can be proud of yourself, Gale beat me to it, those discs have to change colour, that orange just does not fit with your nice new colour.

[rustybronco]

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out although that front guard has some issues that we all know about...

Then we need to find you a good paint gun to remedy that with.

Excellent work so far Pete. I just want to know who picked out the paint color used on the front rotors? are you planning on painting the calipers the same colour?

[pete]

For the first time during this painting work, the weather bureau predicted the weather correctly... mostly cloudy... I swear this paint job is cursed! I haven't been able to see it in the actual natural real sun... ever... not even once... so sorry but all these pic's were taken tonight with the fluro in the garage and the flash on the camera...





It is far from perfect, but it will do me nicely to get it on the road and registered. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out although that front guard has some issues that we all know about...

[pete]

Gun? they should mount on the compressor...

They *should* but I only got it for the water filter so to avoid having three regulators inline I just used it at the gun, worked just fine...

Gun? they should mount on the compressor...