Painting a bike...

[Nerobro]

My bike seems brown, more than black. I'd like to correct this. :-)

How would you paint a bike? How would you strip paint off the engine? Preferably without complete disassembly.

[Dark Jedi]

Cheap way:

steam clean the bike, and just paint the covers and tank.

Proper way, take it apart. Steam clean everything, and bead blast it all clean and shiny. Prime everything with the appropriate primer. (Aluminum, steel, or plastic)

Shoot each part you want painted with the appropriate color. (A blood red frame looks great with gloss black parts....)

Reassemble ever so carefully. Preferrably after the airbrush guy finishes and you've had another clearcoat applied....

Someone suggested: Take the prepped parts to an auto paint shop and ask them to shoot it when they paint a car, with whatever shade of the color you want they happen to have ready for the car. Much cheaper, and you get some nice professional paint work.

[Nerobro]

I was considdering that. IN fact, favoring that option. I'm just worried the "brown" everywhere else will look worse if I make the tank and sidecovers "truely" black.

[DMPLATT]

I posted this a while back. I was asking which is the best way. Rattle cans can work, but may not be the best choice. I saw rodcwer's bike and it looked sweet. He painted himself, but NOT with rattle cans.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24189

Also, if you go here: http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_repaint.htm

Frank actual paints a bike with rattle cans. It's pretty informative. Even if you don't use the rattle cans, the prep work is very informational.

Good Luck