Painting my 450

[pete]

Looking back through the Brian Martin basics article, I see two things I definitely didn't do right straight away.

Firstly, I think I had the pressure too low and it was down towards the minimum specs. I'll wind that up closer to the maximum and see what that does.

The second thing is I definitely changed the fan control during fiddling...

I think if I sort those two things out and wind the fluid control knob out a bit more I should be on the right track. Serves me right for rushing a bit...

I won't be rushing any more and will take all morning just getting a good pattern if I have to!

[rustybronco]

Pete, set your air pressure to the manufactures recommended pressure and turn the fluid adjustment knob 2-1/2 to 3 turns out. hold the gun about 175 mm's away from a sheet of paper, pull the trigger and adjust the fans width control until the width is around 150mm. while the gun is held 150~175mm or so away from the paper open and close the guns trigger in one smooth movement (approx 1 second) and check the spray pattern for even coverage, atomization and proper amount of material being applied. if it runs back off on the material. if it looks too dry open it up a bit.

el-cheep-o guns are a balancing act. too much pressure and the pattern may curve (hook) or be dry in the center. too little and it won't atomize properly. they sure can tick you off trying to set it up properly for YOUR gun handling abilities (speed).

if that gun sprays out evenly at what is a 'comfortable' gun speed to you, is wet but doesn't run and looks fairly smooth when applying the material you are probably close.

think of it as a giant spray can, too close it runs, to far its dry, too fast and not enough is applied, too slow and it runs. a spray can has a fixed width, you adjust it as needed on the gun.

at this stage of the process gun adjustments aren't overly critical. as long as you get that primer-surfacer to apply fairly smoothly you should be fine. keep in mind you'll get to sand a bit of it off. still, you need to know what you are looking for when it comes time for base-clear. seeing what adjustment affects what at the primer stage will help you greatly when those adjustments become a bit more critical.

speaking of which, you'll soon figure out why body filler needs to be applied and sanded correctly.
have fun and learn... what's the worst thing that could happen, you get more experience? been there and done that!

[pete]

Pete, set your air pressure to the manufactures recommended pressure and turn the fluid adjustment knob 2-1/2 to 3 turns out. hold the gun about 175 mm's away from a sheet of paper, pull the trigger and adjust the fans width control until the width is around 150mm. while the gun is held 150mm or so away from the paper open and close the guns trigger in one smooth movement (approx 1 second) and check the spray pattern for even coverage, atomization and proper amount of material being applied. if it runs back off on the material. if it looks too dry open it up a bit.

el-cheep-o guns are a balancing act. too much pressure and the pattern may curve (hook) or be dry in the center. too little and it won't atomize properly. they sure can tick you off trying to set it up properly for YOUR gun handling abilities (speed).

if gun sprays out evenly at what is a 'comfortable' gun speed to you, is wet but doesn't run and looks fairly smooth when applying the material you are probably close.

think of it as a giant spray can, too close it runs, to far its dry, too fast and not enough is applied, too slow and it runs. a spray can has a fixed width, you adjust it as needed on the gun.

(possibly more later)

Cheers Dale! Printed the email alert with this in it for reference and will give that a shot this morning.

I'm pretty confident I can get it going ok and get primer on today.

I'll have to repeat the process for the 1.4mm gun for the colour tomorrow so once I've got it nailed once with this gun I should have a fair idea of how to get the other one setup.

[Woodsy]

come on pete hurry up!

[pete]

come on pete hurry up!

I'm being patient Josh!

[pete]

Okely dokely... first of all, no primer today and no spray patterns either.

I went to do the pattern testing and mixed up a small amount of primer while I gave the tank yet another go with the paint stripper.

I couldn't seem to get material on the paper no matter what knob I turned and what did come out was incredibly faint...



Grrrr the one thing I've rushed and it came back to bite me big time today, I didn't spend enough time cleaning the gun!

So that was one fun thing I got to do today was dismantle it and clean all that chocked up paint out. At least it wasn't set as such, but I suspect the acrylic thinners also aren't doing quite the job I expected (see I should've looked for better cleaner Johnny!).

Anyway, I managed to get it clean eventually but I didn't go back to test the spray pattern as I figured I might as well finish the tank prep. then do the testing just before I actually spray the primer.

I neglected to get a pic of the tank after the last lot of paint stripper but before I started sanding, but suffice it to say I spent hours sanding it... ridiculous!

And Larry, I hope you're not offended but I'm not doing the underside of the tank. It's not in too bad a shape and it's a similar colour to what will be on there so I'm going to save myself a bunch of time and leave it. Hopefully the only short cut I'll take...

Anyway, after the sanding:



There were a few little bits of undercoat still there in a couple of places, but I figured if they're tough enough to still be there after paint stripper and sanding then they're not going to cause me grief.

I also had another weapon up my sleeve to make sure the primer sticks real well:



I love that stuff! Makes it so much easier to get paint to stick...

So I squirted that on:



Gave it 15 minutes or so then hosed it off:

[pete]

And it dried off:



That surface is now in good shape for primer!

Got my "stands" sorted for the tank and tail piece:



Then figured I would be rushing if I tried to prime this avo' so I wisely decided to let it go until tomorrow, so I popped the tank and tail piece into the "clean" area to keep them as clean as possible for the morning:



Oh, and that was after doing the wax and grease remover on the tank too.

I did do one more constructive thing which was get the flexi prime back on the front guard after I sanded it yesterday, and sorry for the blurry pic:



And, finally, I got the house mate to drop in to the refinish supplies place and pick me up 4 litres of real gun cleaner:



I'm glad I didn't ask the price over the phone... $63! Apparently it's the ducks guts of cleaners though...

So, I'm hoping to get an early night tonight which means hopefully I can get stuck straight into the primer in the morning after dropping my wife off to work, and then while that starts drying ready to sand I'll give the other gun a better clean in the gun cleaner before I try to use it.

I figure if the weather is like today and I get the primer on by about 9, then I should be able to sand about 12 and get the base colour on after that. Once the tank and tail have dried for about an hour in the "booth" I should be able to stick them out in the sun for a couple of hours to speed the process a bit.

Guess I'll just wait and see...

[rustybronco]

http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/tt26/starpoint73/GS450/The%20Paint%20Job/?action=view&current=IMG_3637.jpg

Pete, one small suggestion. remove that white inlet screen and throw it in the rubbish. as long as you use a paper filter you don't need it. one less thing to have plug up at the least opportune moment.

oh, and there's not a darn thing wrong with lacquer thinner and brushes to clean your gun with.

[Tim Tom]

Hey pete,

So I just looked through all of the pictures in your photobucket album about the paint. Gotta say I think it's gonna come out awesome. Your prep work was well done and thats more than half of it. Take your time when spraying, and you'll be fine. I have no doubts that the paint will match the stunning pipes.

Also I gotta congratulate you on shaping your rear tail piece. When I first saw it, all lumpy and misshapen I was not convinced. Now I gotta say it looks really good. Well done mate.

SOOO where are the primed pics?

[nvr2old]

And Larry, I hope you're not offended but I'm not doing the underside of the tank. It's not in too bad a shape and it's a similar colour to what will be on there so I'm going to save myself a bunch of time and leave it. Hopefully the only short cut I'll take...

Not at all, Pete. If it's in decent shape, leave it. One thing to remember is to hold back the primer and paint on the filler neck. Mask it down to where it joins the tank and leave it bare metal so you can seal the final paint line off with something like Liquid Steel or JB weld. Crucial for keeping it safe from gas fume penetration.

[pete]

http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/t...t=IMG_3637.jpg

Pete, one small suggestion. remove that white inlet screen and throw it in the rubbish. as long as you use a paper filter you don't need it. one less thing to have plug up at the least opportune moment.

oh, and there's not a darn thing wrong with lacquer thinner and brushes to clean your gun with.

Is that what it's for? I thought it was part of the fluid control... I tried to remove it for cleaning and it didn't want to budge so I got a thin piece of wire to shove down the sides of it and dislodge the chunky bits to allow the thinners to run through properly. I'll see if I can remove it this morning, I couldn't tell how it was seated in there.

When I got the acrylic thinners for the acrylic clear (that I'm not using) they did say it would clean up after the 2K paint, but after Monday/yesterday's effort in stupidity I just wanted to make sure I've got something good, and plus I'm about 2/3 the way through the thinners already so I'd need something anyway...

[pete]

Hey pete,

So I just looked through all of the pictures in your photobucket album about the paint. Gotta say I think it's gonna come out awesome. Your prep work was well done and thats more than half of it. Take your time when spraying, and you'll be fine. I have no doubts that the paint will match the stunning pipes.

Also I gotta congratulate you on shaping your rear tail piece. When I first saw it, all lumpy and misshapen I was not convinced. Now I gotta say it looks really good. Well done mate.

SOOO where are the primed pics?

Thanks mate, I'm really hoping it comes out well and I'm trying my best to be patient and make sure everything's ready to go 100% before painting.

And thanks for the compliment on the tail piece, but if it wasn't for Larry's advice I wouldn't have looked close enough to see a couple of dodgy spots and it wouldn't be quite where it is now.

As it is it's a little assymetrical but to fix it means starting from scratch and you won't see left and right sides at the same time once it's on the bike, so it should be ok.

Hopefully you will see primed pic's tonight, and if the day goes well base colour as well.

[rustybronco]

Pete, most of the time it's just pushed in place. although I've seen where you need to remove the cup adapter in order to remove it. if that's the case, leave it alone.

[pete]

Not at all, Pete. If it's in decent shape, leave it. One thing to remember is to hold back the primer and paint on the filler neck. Mask it down to where it joins the tank and leave it bare metal so you can seal the final paint line off with something like Liquid Steel or JB weld. Crucial for keeping it safe from gas fume penetration.

Cool, it's not too bad, a few scratches where it fits over the frame but nothing concerning and no surface rust or anything like that at all.

I have prepared the seams though otherwise they'd stand out a mile away...

I didn't know about the filler, so thanks for mentioning that! I've got it prep'd around there but it's not masked off so I will do that first thing.

Thanks Larry!

[pete]

Pete, most of the time it's just pushed in place. although I've seen where you need to remove the cup adapter in order to remove it. if that's the case, leave it alone.

Ok cool, I'll have another look and if it's looking too awkward I'll just leave it be.

I'd rather leave it there and need to clean it than break the gun